KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a crowd in Saginaw County Thursday that, he believes, Michigan will be the "biggest beneficiary" of his much-debated plan to place tariffs on goods imported into the United States.

Trump made the statement during an 80-minute speech on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University, 33 days before the Nov. 5 election and a day ahead of a scheduled Flint campaign stop by Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Michigan is one of a seven battleground states that are expected to decide the race and because Michigan is home to major carmakers, it could serve as a test this fall of the two candidates' manufacturing messages.

In front of a crowd of a few thousand people inside the Ryder Center for Health and Physical Education on Thursday, Trump railed against illegal immigration and touted his plans to lower the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% for companies that operate in the U.S. and place tariffs on products made elsewhere.

"We’re going to make so much money," Trump told the crowd. "We’re going to bring back so much business. And I think this state will be the biggest beneficiary.”

Trump also criticized United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, arguing that the union leader doesn't know what he's doing, and claimed the push to promote electric vehicles would lead to jobs leaving Michigan.

“If I’m not elected, you will not be making any more cars in Michigan,” Trump said.

Democrats have countered that U.S. residents will be forced to foot the bill for the tariffs Trump plans to impose and Trump would risk large projects to build electric vehicles and car batteries that are planned in Michigan and elsewhere. The Harris campaign has described the tariff-centered economic proposal as "a national sales tax."

On Wednesday, Trump's running mate, JD Vance, wouldn't commit to honoring the current President Joe Biden administration's $500 million federal grant to General Motors Co. to convert a Cadillac sedan assembly plant in Michigan into a future electric vehicle plant.

"Donald Trump broke promise after promise to workers across the country during his four years in office, and JD Vance is making clear a Trump-Vance ticket would repeat those same failures once again by letting manufacturing plants close across Michigan," said Addison Dick, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

The gym where Trump spoke on Thursday didn't appear to be at capacity with a smattering of seats appearing to be empty as he took the stage at about 3:20 p.m.

Trump described the attendees as "very energetic." The event marked his 11th visit to Michigan this year.

“Whoever fills big places like this at 3 o’clock in the afternoon?" Trump asked, touting the size of crowd.

His appearance in Michigan came a day after a court filing from a federal special counsel laid out new details of an alleged criminal scheme by the former president to overturn the result of the 2020 election. The brief was made public over the Trump legal team’s objections in the final month of a closely contested presidential race. The filing was initially submitted under seal after the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity for official acts they take in office, a 6-3 decision that narrowed the scope of the prosecution and eliminated the possibility of a trial before the Nov. 5 election.

The former president did not address the criminal prosecution he faces for allegedly orchestrating an illegal scheme to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

"We want a landslide (victory) that's too big to rig," Trump said at one point.

On Wednesday, a 165-page motion from special counsel Jack Smith, who's pursuing criminal charges against Trump, was unsealed in federal court and argued Trump's past position as president didn't make him immune from prosecution.

Among those in the crowd in Saginaw County was Jeff Kordel, a 62-year-old retired union worker from Marlette in Michigan's Thumb region. Asked about the new information from prosecutors about the 2020 election, Kordel questioned how many times similar accusations could be released against Trump.

“I’m to the point that I don’t care about it," said Kordel, who labeled Trump's first term in office "the golden days."

Kordel wore a T-shirt that said, "I was going to be a Democrat for Halloween but my head wouldn't fit up my ass."

Michigan was one of six states about which Smith detailed, in their own individual sections of the court filing, Trump's alleged attempt "to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted."

In 2023, Smith indicted Trump on four criminal charges that focused on his alleged efforts to subvert the results of the November 2020 election.

Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, 51%-48% over Trump. But the Republican nominee claimed, without providing evidence to back up his accusations, that widespread fraud influenced the outcome.

Members of Trump's campaign attempted to get the Republican leaders of the Michigan Legislature to overturn the result — although they refused — according to Smith's new motion. And the Trump campaign also organized a false slate of Republican electoral votes to submit to Congress.

"The throughline of these efforts was deceit: the defendant’s and co-conspirators’ knowingly false claims of election fraud," Smith's motion said.

Smith's new motion also said a campaign employee of Trump encouraged a colleague at the crowded convention center where Detroit's absentee ballots were being counted in November 2020 to "make them riot."

Trump lashed out at Smith Wednesday on social media.

"Democrats are weaponizing the Justice Department against me because they know I am winning, and they are desperate to prop up their failing Candidate, Kamala Harris," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump on Thursday went after Harris, a former senator from California who is set to hold a Friday campaign rally in Flint, by labeling the Democratic vice president as "more incompetent than Biden" and criticized her response to Hurricane Helene with a reference to Republican former President George W. Bush.

"This is the worst response in the history of hurricanes," Trump said. "A certain president, I will not name, destroyed his reputation with Katrina. ... She's doing worse than he did."

Harris visited Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday, where she announced that President Joe Biden approved 100% federal reimbursement for local and state emergency costs related to Hurricane Helene. The Category 4 storm hit landfall in Florida late last Thursday and moved through the Southeast, killing 215 people with about half of them dying in North Carolina, according to the Associated Press. Search and rescue operations are still going on in North Carolina's Buncombe County, which includes the hard-hit tourist city of Asheville, and the county doesn’t have an official tally of people who are unaccounted for or missing.

Shelby Shorkey, a 32-year-old from Bay City, was in the crowd for Trump's event. Shorkey said she plans to vote for Trump this fall, citing the low interest rate, she said, was available when she bought her home in 2019.

"He doesn’t sugarcoat nothing,” Shorkey said. “He tells you how it is. He wants what’s best for us.”

Trump's running mate, Vance, was in Michigan for two stops on Wednesday — one in Marne and one in Auburn Hills. Trump will be back in the state on Oct. 10 to speak to members of the Detroit Economic Club. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra touted the GOP candidates' focus on Michigan during a Thursday speech at Trump's rally.

"They're asking for Michigan votes every day because they know when they win Michigan, when we win Michigan together, Donald Trump is the next president of the United States," Hoekstra told the crowd.

However, ahead of Trump’s visit Thursday, a trio of Republicans launched a group called Michigan Republicans For Harris, including former U.S. Rep. Dave Trott of Birmingham, an attorney who represented Michigan in the U.S. House from 2015-19 before retiring.

They contended that Trump only acts to further his own interests and represents a threat to U.S. democracy who doesn’t respect the peaceful transfer of power. Trott said Michigan residents haven’t forgotten that the former president “cozied up” to dictators, caused a manufacturing recession in the state and maintains the “Big Lie” that he won the 2020 election.

“My fellow Republicans, I have plenty of disagreements with Democrats, but Trump's abuse of power and his disrespect of our Constitution and his radical economic plans go way beyond any policy difference. A second term would be a disaster for our country, and that's why so many Republicans have turned against him. It's the reason why a quarter of the Republican primary voters in Michigan chose Nikki Haley,” Trott said.

The other Michigan Republicans in the pro-Harris group were longtime GOP communications strategist Bill Nowling and lobbyist Jim Murray, a former president of AT&T Michigan and longtime Republican aide in the state Legislature.

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