Former President Donald Trump electrified a crowd of over 15,000 supporters at a rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Saturday, vowing to restore free speech in America if re-elected in 2024. Arriving in his Boeing 757, famously dubbed “Trump Force One,” Trump addressed the enthusiastic crowd at Central Wisconsin Airport, emphasizing that freedom of speech is under threat and that he plans to take decisive action to protect it.
“They’ve taken away your free speech, and the fake news threat is a threat to this country,” Trump declared during his speech, which centered on his commitment to combating censorship and media bias. The rally marked Trump’s fourth appearance in Wisconsin during his campaign, but his first in the deeply conservative, rural region of this critical battleground state.
Trump’s remarks came just two days after New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger penned a fiery op-ed in the Washington Post, criticizing Trump for what Sulzberger described as “aggressive and sustained efforts to undermine the free press.” Although Trump did not specifically name any journalists or media outlets during the rally, his comments reflected his ongoing criticism of what he calls the “fake news” media.
“When you’re a politician…, and you happen to be a Republican or somewhat conservative, they write just the opposite of what the facts are,” Trump said, continuing his long-standing critique of media coverage. “When we know the facts, and the story gets written the exact opposite of what it is, you start to lose faith in the press.”
To address what he sees as the suppression of free speech, Trump pledged that if he is re-elected, he will sign an executive order banning any federal employee from colluding to limit speech. He also promised to fire any federal bureaucrat who engaged in domestic censorship under the Biden-Harris administration. “We are going to put an end to this censorship madness,” Trump assured the crowd.
Beyond his focus on free speech, Trump also took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris, who will be his opponent in Tuesday’s highly anticipated presidential debate. He criticized Harris for what he described as lax border policies that have contributed to a national migrant crisis, spiked crime rates, and placed a heavy burden on taxpayers across the country.
Polls show that the race between Trump and Harris is neck and neck in Wisconsin, a state that has become a key battleground in recent presidential elections. In 2020, President Biden narrowly won Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes, flipping the state that Trump had carried in 2016 by a margin of nearly 23,000 votes. With the stakes so high, both Trump and Harris have made multiple visits to the state this year, recognizing its crucial role in determining the outcome of the 2024 election.
Democrats see Wisconsin as part of their must-win “blue wall” strategy, which also includes Michigan and Pennsylvania. Trump’s Wisconsin rally underscored the importance of the state in his campaign’s strategy, and his speech resonated deeply with his base of supporters, many of whom share his concerns about censorship and the state of the media.
As the 2024 election approaches, Trump’s message of protecting free speech and standing up to media bias is likely to remain a central theme in his campaign, especially in key battleground states like Wisconsin.
