Former President Donald Trump, at an event Saturday ostensibly meant to boost his preferred candidate in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary race, gave a freewheeling speech in which he used dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, maintained a steady stream of insults and vulgarities and predicted that the United States would never have another election if he did not win in November.

With his general-election matchup against President Joe Biden in clear view, Trump once more doubled down on the doomsday vision of the country that has animated his third presidential campaign and energized his base during the Republican primary.

The dark view resurfaced throughout his speech. While discussing the U.S. economy and its auto industry, Trump promised to place tariffs on cars manufactured abroad if he won in November. He added: “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a blood bath for the country.”

For nearly 90 minutes outside the Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, Trump delivered a discursive speech, replete with attacks and caustic rhetoric. He noted several times that he was having difficulty reading the teleprompter.

The former president opened his speech by praising the people serving sentences in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Trump, who faces criminal charges tied to his efforts to overturn his election loss, called them “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots,” commended their spirit and vowed to help them if elected in November. He also repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which have been discredited by a mountain of evidence.

Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times

If he did not win this year’s presidential election, Trump said, “I don’t think you’re going to have another election, or certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”

Trump also stoked fears about the influx of migrants coming into the United States at the southern border. As he did during his successful campaign in 2016, Trump used incendiary and dehumanizing language to cast many migrants as threats to U.S. citizens.

He asserted, without evidence, that other countries were emptying their prisons of “young people” and sending them across the border. “I don’t know if you call them ‘people,’ in some cases,” he said. “They’re not people, in my opinion.” He later referred to them as “animals.”

Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer as Trump arrives for a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Dayton, Ohio on March 16, 2024. Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times

Border officials, including some who worked in the Trump administration, have said that most migrants who cross the border are members of vulnerable families fleeing violence and poverty, and available data does not support the idea that migrants are spurring increases in crime.

Trump mentioned Bernie Moreno, his preferred Senate candidate in Ohio and a former car dealer from Cleveland, only sparingly. Though he has Trump’s endorsement, Moreno, whose super political action committee hosted Saturday’s event, has struggled to separate himself in a heated Republican primary contest to face Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, this fall. Trump was redirected from a planned trip to Arizona to appear with Moreno as a last-minute push.

Bernie Moreno, a Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks as former President Donald Trump listens behind him, during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Dayton, Ohio on March 16, 2024. Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times

Trump issued vulgar and derogatory remarks about a number of Democrats, including ones he often targets, like Biden and Fani Willis, the Atlanta prosecutor overseeing his criminal case in Georgia, as well as those widely viewed as prospective future presidential candidates, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.

Trump called Biden a “stupid president” several times and at one point referred to him as a “dumb son of a — ” before trailing off. He also compared Willis’ first name to a vulgarity, called Newsom “Gavin New-scum” and took jabs at Pritzker’s physical appearance.

Trump’s sharp words were not reserved for national politicians: He briefly took aim at one of Moreno’s primary opponents, Matt Dolan, a wealthy Ohio state senator who has been surging in recent polls. Returning to his prepared remarks, Trump said he did not know Dolan but depicted him as “trying to become the next Mitt Romney.”

“My attitude is anybody who changes the name from the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians should not be a senator,” Trump said, referring to the professional baseball team that Dolan’s family holds a majority stake in.

When Moreno was briefly called back onstage toward the end of Trump’s remarks, he praised the former president as a “good man.” But Moreno did not explicitly remind the crowd to support him in his Senate bid Tuesday. Trump, for his part, said Moreno was a “fantastic guy.”

Campaign merchandise for former President Donald Trump is displayed in vendors’ booths outside the venue for a Buckeye Values PAC Rally where Trump is scheduled to appear, in Dayton, Ohio on March 16, 2024. Maddie McGarvey/The New York Times

Trump’s campaign speeches generally swing between scripted remarks and seemingly off-the-cuff digressions. On Saturday, he acknowledged struggling to read the teleprompter as he tried to quote statistics on inflation.

“Everything is up: Chicken’s up, bread is up and I can’t read this damn teleprompter,” Trump said. “This sucker is moving around. It’s like reading a moving flag in a 35 mile-an-hour wind.”

Then, Trump, who before his presidency was known in New York for refusing to pay his bills to a wide range of service providers, joked about not paying the teleprompter company.

“Then they say Trump’s a bad guy, because I’ll say this: Don’t pay the teleprompter company,” he said as the crowd laughed. “Don’t pay.”

The New York Times News Service