Former President Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential nominee, addressed students and other community members at ASU Mullett Arena about the border and the vital Arizona vote in the upcoming election on Thursday.
Trump returned to the swing state 12 days before the Nov. 5 election with 14 other speakers — local politicians like Eli Crane and Andy Biggs, and bigger names like Kari Lake, Marco Rubio and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Lake, the Arizona Republican nominee for Senate, concluded the first round of 11 speakers by talking about the importance of the youth vote during the upcoming election.
"I love that this generation has come around," Lake said. "They're realizing that their future is on the line, and they're voting for President Donald J. Trump."
Timothy Hewitt, a junior studying aeronautical management technology, said he wanted all the speakers, specifically Trump, to rally more support through the message of unity.
"You know, if you're undecided, I hope that you do your research right," Hewitt said.
Ramaswamy kicked off the second set of speakers, making an appearance before his Devil's Advocate visit on Friday with Lake. Rubio, a senator from Florida, and Stephen Miller, a Trump advisor, spoke after Ramaswamy to build up the crowd's energy for the final speech.
Trump took the stage to the song, "God Bless the USA." As he walked up to the stage, the crowd gave a standing ovation while dancing and singing along with the former president.
Trump opened his remarks with a call for voters to cast their ballot or plan when they will vote.
"If you want to vote by mail, tomorrow is your last day to request a ballot," Trump said. "With your help, 12 days from now, we're going to win Arizona. We're going to defeat Kamala Harris."
Eleazar Ripsam, a freshman studying electrical engineering, said having the event at the University gave more Generation Z voters the chance to directly hear from Trump about his plans.
"I think it's really important for the younger people to hear him speak, and not what the media says about him," Ripsam said. "Do you want to be able to afford anything or not? I mean, that's really, if nothing else, self-survival."
Trump also took a chance to speak on the media during his remarks.
"They're just bad people," Trump said. "And until we get a fair and free press in this country, they're just bad people ... They're the enemy of the people, and someday they're not going to be the enemy of the people."
The speech repeatedly paused for videos that spoke against Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, advocating instead for the former president's stronger border policies.
"(Immigrants are) coming from 181 countries as of yesterday, right? And we're dumping ground," Trump said. "We're like a garbage can for the world."
Trump highlighted numerous Arizonans during his speech, including Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff, and Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda.
He also thanked Carson Carpenter, the president of College Republicans at Arizona State University and a senior studying political science. Carpenter was one of the opening speakers and led the room for the Pledge of Allegiance.
After thanking the speakers and Arizonans who attended the rally, which went on until around 3 p.m., Trump closed with rallying cries to his supporters.
"We will redeem America's promise, we will put America first, and we will take back the nation that we love," Trump said. "We will fight, fight, fight and we will win, win, win."
Edited by George Headley, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
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Alysa is a senior studying journalism and mass communication with a minor in political science. This is her fifth semester with The State Press. She has also worked at The Arizona Republic.
