A day after he pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in hostile, Democrat-heavy Washington, former President Donald Trump broke Republicans’ fundraising records in friendly territory, expressing determination to fight prosecutions that are “not fair” and “probably not legal.”
Speaking to a sold-out crowd of 2,700 at the Alabama Republican Party’s Summer Dinner on Aug. 4, Mr. Trump got a boost from the GOP faithful—and he reciprocated.
The former president’s keynote speech at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel’s Convention Center, the largest event ever held there, raised $1.2 million, “making this the all-time largest fundraiser in the history of the Alabama Republican Party,” the state’s GOP chair, John Wahl, told the audience.
“Donald Trump has been good to the Republican Party of Alabama. But he’s been even better to America,” Mr. Wahl said.
Many Alabamans have been in Mr. Trump’s corner since he launched his political career in 2015. Alabama was the state where, eight years ago this month, Mr. Trump held his first stadium rally. The event proved that the former reality TV star could have broad appeal as a political candidate.
After Mr. Trump was elected president in 2016, his policies strengthened the American economy and improved the nation overall, Mr. Wahl said. But under his successor, Democrat Joe Biden, the nation has suffered, he added.
‘Doing It for Us’
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who introduced Mr. Trump, told the audience: “He’s had a tough week.”A federal grand jury handed up an indictment against Mr. Trump on Aug. 1, accusing him of going too far in his opposition to the 2020 election results. On Aug. 3, Mr. Trump appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to those four charges.
Two earlier indictments accuse him of falsifying New York business records and mishandling classified documents.
“We need to stand behind him. It’s great he’s here, in a place like Alabama that loves Donald Trump. Because, sometimes, even as strong as he is, as much as he’s pushed back, he needs encouragement,” Mr. Tuberville said.
He added: “Folks, they’re not after him; they’re after you. They’re after our country”—radical leftists who hate our country want to rewrite the Constitution, “ruined our borders,” and “infiltrated” the nation’s justice system, he said.
Mr. Trump has fought all of that, Mr. Tuberville said. “It’s tough on him and his family, but he’s doing it for all of us, not for him.”
Backlash
The former president told the audience that he detected a pattern in the timing of his three indictments. Each one followed unfavorable news about the opposing party’s leader, Mr. Biden, or his son, Hunter Biden, Mr. Trump said.A special counsel is investigating Mr. Biden’s possession of classified documents from his tenure as a senator and vice president. Also, House Republicans are gathering information about tens of millions of dollars that foreigners deposited in the bank accounts of Biden family members.
While Mr. Trump said he believes his political adversaries are prosecuting him to hurt his campaign, the indictments have caused an apparent backlash.
The former president is now the runaway favorite among a field of more than a dozen candidates seeking to become the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
“Every time they file an indictment, we go way up in the polls,” Mr. Trump said, adding, half-jokingly, “We need one more indictment to close out this election.“ The resulting spike in his polls would boost his candidacy to the point where “nobody has even a chance,” Mr. Trump said.
The former president has acknowledged that a fourth indictment could drop against him this month. In Georgia, a Democrat prosecutor has been investigating Mr. Trump and his allies for their opposition to the election results there.
Justice Department Criticized
Mr. Biden has denied influencing the charging decisions of special counsel Jack Smith, whose investigations produced the federal indictments involving the classified documents and the 2020 election dispute.The Alabama GOP chair, Mr. Wahl, said, “We have a Justice Department that wants to limit free speech and free process of thought. Because they have a difference of opinion on election results, they will prosecute a man just because he does not share their rhetoric.”
He told the audience: “And if they will do that to a former president, they will do that to you. It’s not good government, and it’s not the vision of our founding fathers.”
The nation’s top legal scholars are calling the 2020 election-dispute case “a free-speech-killing indictment,” Mr. Trump said. “Referring to the deranged Jack Smith, he’s not only going to have to just bulldoze through the First Amendment. He’s [also] going to have to bulldoze through a line of cases by the Supreme Court of the United States. In other words, this is an absolute case of prosecutorial misconduct.”
The Department of Justice has declined to respond to criticisms of the prosecutions of Mr. Trump.
“It’s a terrible thing that they’re doing to our country,” Mr. Trump said, as the Alabama audience applauded in agreement.
Before his speech, Mr. Trump made several posts on his Truth Social platform about his predicament.
However, he later posted that, despite the difficulties, “Somehow, we will win it all.”
Mr. Trump created a stir online when he posted, in all capital letters: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.”
Federal prosecutors in the classified-documents case jumped on the statement. They filed a request for an additional protective order from a judge, saying such a post could have “a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.”
Accomplishments and Agenda
A good chunk of his 52-minute speech was devoted to his future proposals and his past accomplishments, including one specific to Alabama.Mr. Trump also outlined actions he would take if he wins the presidency in 2024.
“From the first day in office, I will appoint a special prosecutor to study each and every one of the many claims being brought forth by Congress” regarding the Biden family, he said.
Mr. Trump pledged to “completely overhaul” the Justice Department and direct the agency to probe every radical prosecutor in America “for their illegal, racist-in-reverse enforcement of the law.”
He drew some of the loudest applause and whistles of the night as he listed other policies he would enact during a second term.
“Here’s just some of the agenda that I will immediately implement when ‘we’ become the 47th President of the United States–and it’s ‘we,’ not ‘I,’” he said, referring to his partnership with people who agree with his “Make America Great Again” approach.
Mr. Trump said he would “totally obliterate ‘The Deep State,’” referring to entrenched, unelected bureaucrats who exert control behind-the-scenes in Washington. “It’s a sick, bad group of people.”
“I will say ‘no’ to 87,000 IRS agents who want to take your money and destroy your lives. I will end the disaster known as ‘Bidenomics,’ which shall henceforth be defined as inflation, submission and failure,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “I will cancel every Biden regulation that’s harming Alabama workers and workers all over the United States.”
The audience cheered loudly when Mr. Trump promised, “One of the first things that I will do to help the great people of Alabama is to approve a six-lane I-65 from Huntsville to Mobile.”
Trump Doesn’t Know the Meaning of ‘Quit’
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) remembers what it was like when Mr. Trump began his first run for the presidency. He attended the rally with 20,000- 30,000 people at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium.“That day, I made a decision to endorse Donald Trump to be president of the United States,” Mr. Moore said. At that time, many people “thought we had lost our minds,” he said.
The odds were stacked against Mr. Trump; media reports projected that he had less than a 1 percent chance of winning the nomination “in a 17-way Republican primary and actually no chance of beating down Hillary Clinton in the general election,” Mr. Moore said.
Yet Mr. Trump prevailed. “Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States, the greatest president of my lifetime,” Mr. Moore said. “He still loves this country. Y'all, he is still in this fight. And I’m still standing with him.”
“Thank God, that that man does not know the meaning of ‘quit.’ Thank God for Donald Trump’s family. They are standing in that fire for us…for this nation that we all love,” Mr. Moore said.
“No one man has been more persecuted for standing for this country than Donald Trump.”
Especially now, facing charges that could send the 77-year-old former president to prison for the rest of his life if he’s convicted. Mr. Moore urged the crowd to express gratitude for Mr. Trump’s resiliency and to pray for him.
“Y'all, we need to elevate him in prayer,” Mr. Moore said. “Because, make no mistake, this is a spiritual battle for the future of this country.”
Mr. Trump was scheduled to speak to the South Carolina Republican Party on Aug. 5, followed by a trip to New Hampshire.
