Trump, facing trial and waiting for Supreme Court ruling, heads back to Michigan next week

Former President Donald Trump will be back in Michigan next week, even as a trial continues in New York on whether he committed election fraud in 2016 by authorizing payments to an adult film star to hush up claims of an affair.

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The president's campaign announced Wednesday evening that he will campaign at a Saginaw County airport hangar in Freeland at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 1st. The event — which will be open to the public, though tickets will be required — will follow an event earlier in the day in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Both Michigan and Wisconsin are considered key swing states that will ultimately help determine whether Trump or President Joe Biden, who beat Trump in both states four years ago, wins reelection.

Trump was last in Michigan on April 2, campaigning in Grand Rapids on issues involving immigration and making a series of specious claims about the topic, including that other countries are emptying prisons and mental institutions to send migrants to the U.S. and suggesting violent crime is on the increase as a result, when it has been in decline nationwide. The Biden administration, however, has seen a marked increase in undocumented immigrants trying to cross the southern border in recent years.

The last time Trump visited the airport in Freeland, in September 2020 ahead of the election he lost to Biden, he made wildly inaccurate claims about his success in revitalizing Michigan's dominant auto industry, including that his administration had paved the way for multiple auto plants to open, when only one had been announced. The industry had, in fact, lost jobs in the state during his term even before the shutdowns caused by COVID-19.

The Free Press, as it did during Trump's recent visit to Grand Rapids, called out those false claims in 2020.

Trump also is heading back to Michigan after Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing in which the former president, accused of criminally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Biden, can be prosecuted for actions he took while in office absent a conviction on impeachment by Congress.

He is also facing charges in a criminal trial underway in New York City, accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to pornographic movie actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. On Wednesday, he was also mentioned in court as an unindicted co-conspirator in the prosecution of more than a dozen supporters in Michigan accused of holding themselves out as valid electors in the 2020 election, in a failed attempt to thwart the outcome of that balloting.

Biden won Michigan in 2020 by more than 154,000 votes, or just under 3 percentage points.

Most recent polls have shown Trump leading Biden in a head-to-head rematch in Michigan this year, though the margin has been narrowing. Biden has made a couple of visits this year to Michigan as well, including a low-key visit to Saginaw — which is expected to be a key swing area of the state — in March, where he met supporters at a private residence and at a public golf course.

Biden earlier met with UAW supporters at events in Warren. Trump also held a rally in Waterford in February.

Trump's event next Wednesday is set to be held at Avflight Saginaw, 8430 Garfield Road, Hangar 4 at MBS International Airport in Freeland, with doors opening at 2 p.m. General admission tickets are available at https://event.donaldjtrump.com/events/president-donald-j-trump-to-hold-a-rally-in-freeland-michigan.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump heads back to Saginaw area next week amid legal challenges