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Trump to Visit Swing Districts in Michigan and Wisconsin as Battleground Campaigning Increases

Former US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (R) waves after endorsing former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) at the National Guard Association conference in Detroit, Michigan, on August 26, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)
Former US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (R) waves after endorsing former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) at the National Guard Association conference in Detroit, Michigan, on August 26, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)
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Trump to Visit Swing Districts in Michigan and Wisconsin as Battleground Campaigning Increases

Former US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (R) waves after endorsing former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) at the National Guard Association conference in Detroit, Michigan, on August 26, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)
Former US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (R) waves after endorsing former US President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) at the National Guard Association conference in Detroit, Michigan, on August 26, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)

Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.
Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin, The Associated Press said.
Trump’s day starts with an afternoon rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing. Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time. It will be his third visit to the state in the past nine days and second this week after a speech to the National Guard Association in Detroit on Monday.
Later, he will visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump's first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which ended three days before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and made way for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Along with Pennsylvania, which Trump will visit on Friday, these three Midwestern states make up a northern industrial bloc Democrats carried for two decades before Trump won them in 2016. Biden recaptured them on his way to the White House in 2020.
Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have blitzed the battleground states in recent weeks, with Vance in both states this week as well.
The battleground offensive comes as a reinvigorated Democratic Party rallies around Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Harris and Walz are aiming to leverage the surge in enthusiasm among the party’s base since her campaign launch just over a month ago. They hope this excitement — which was on full display at last week's convention in Chicago — will extend to more moderate areas as they embark on a two-day bus tour in Georgia, including events in the state’s rural southern regions.
Trump's events in Michigan and Wisconsin are both in swing congressional districts.
Potterville is in Michigan’s 7th District, which features a mix of Republican-dominated counties like Clinton and Shiawassee, and Democratic strongholds such as Ingham, home to the state Capitol and Michigan State University. This district is expected to be one of the nation's most competitive this fall following incumbent Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s decision to run for the state's open US Senate seat.
La Crosse, meanwhile, is a hub within Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, where Republican Derrick Van Orden won narrowly in 2022. Democrat Rebecca Cooke won the Aug. 13 primary to face him in November.

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France's Macron to Visit Serbia With a Possible Deal to Sell French Warplanes

French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)
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France's Macron to Visit Serbia With a Possible Deal to Sell French Warplanes

French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron starts a two-day state visit to Serbia on Thursday with the focus on the possible sale of 12 Rafale multi-purpose fighter jets to the country, which has maintained close ties to Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine.
Macron is to meet populist President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Thursday evening, when the deal reportedly worth 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) is expected to be announced, The Associated Press said.
An official in Macron’s office, who was not authorized to be identified according to French presidential policy, said the warplane talks are part of a larger strategy of ″bringing Serbia closer to the EU.″
Serbia needs to upgrade its fleet and the Rafale is a ″strategic choice″ for Belgrade, which could choose to rely only on Russian equipment instead, the official said.
Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but under Vucic’s increasingly autocratic rule it has made little progress in the fields of rule of law and democratic reforms, which are the main preconditions for membership in the 27-nation bloc.
In a letter to the Serbian public published in the local media on Thursday, Macron sought to encourage the Balkan nation to pursue its EU future but noted that “the perspective of joining the European Union does not seem to be as attractive as it should.” He cited “concerns and fatigue over the rhythm of accession talks but also sometimes a sort of resentment, even mistrust” of the EU.
“I come here to Serbia again today with a simple message: The European Union and its nations need to have a strong and democratic Serbia in their ranks, and Serbia needs a strong and sovereign European Union to defend and promote its interests with respect of its identity,” Macron said in the letter, published in the liberal Danas newspaper.
Macron also warned that after Russia attacked Ukraine, Serbia’s “balancing game” between the world powers is an “illusion.” He said Serbia will only be able to protect its interests and preserve its identity as part of the EU.
Serbia has been considering the purchase of the new Rafale jets for more than two years, since neighboring Balkan rival Croatia purchased 12 used fighter jets of the same type for about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
The potential acquisition of Rafale jets would allow Serbia to modernize its air force, which consists mainly of Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters and aging Yugoslav combat aircraft.
Russia has been a traditional supplier of military aircraft, including combat helicopters, to Serbia, which has refused to join international sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
The rapid arming by the Serbian military has worried some of its neighbors following the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Serbia is almost completely surrounded by NATO member countries.
Selling Rafales to Russian ally Serbia, which has occasionally expressed an aggressive stance toward its Balkan neighbors, has raised some concerns, one of which is how France plans to prevent sophisticated Rafale technology from being shared with Russia.
Asked if there would be a clause restricting the use of the Rafales, the French official said ″in any contract there are clauses that set a framework for the use of such material."
Macron's talks with Vucic will include simmering tensions in the Balkans, especially in the former Serbian province of Kosovo which declared independence in 2008.
Macron’s itinerary also includes a visit to a museum and an economic forum on artificial intelligence in the northern town of Novi Sad on Friday. Also on the agenda is a possible agreement with French energy provider EDF on cooperation in the field of nuclear power plant technology.