According to the former president, America is in ruins. “We no longer have a border. Our country is being invaded. It’s an invasion by millions of illegal aliens,” Donald Trump said at his Saturday night rally, employing the racist “invasion” language popularised by violent white nationalists under the Great Replacement Theory.

“The economy is crashing. Your 401(k) is collapsing,” Trump warned the audience. “Shooting, stabbings, rapes, carjackings are skyrocketing.”

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Trump delivered the speech, which began 45 minutes late, to an appreciative audience in Youngstown, Ohio, making threats. Trump is in the state to promote Senate candidate J.D. Vance, whom he endorsed and whose campaign recently needed a cash infusion. “J.D. is kissing my ass,” Trump exclaimed. “He wants my support so bad!”

But, as is usual, Trump spent more time speaking about himself and situating himself as a victim of “unhinged persecution” than he did on the candidates he was there to support. He claimed that on January 6, witnesses were forced to turn on him.

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“They take good people and they say, ‘You’re going to jail for 10 years … unless you say something bad about Trump. In which case you won’t have to go to jail.'” Trump also complained about leaving a “very luxurious and enjoyable life” to enter politics.

Trump later used another of his favourite talking points to portray himself as a victim of government espionage.

“They spied on my campaign. And nobody wants to do anything about it. Can you imagine if I spied on the campaign of — forget Biden — how about Obama’s campaign? Can you imagine what [the penalty] would be? Maybe it would be death. They’d bring back the death penalty,” Trump claimed.

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Later, Trump backed the death penalty for drug dealers and human traffickers.

The former president also voiced concerns that Biden used crude from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve to lower gas prices, asserting it is only used “for war” and supposedly forgetting that he once used the strategic reserve for exactly the same reason.

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“I don’t know if we’ve had a more radicalised or dangerous time in our country,” Trump said. Going back to his claim that America is disintegrating, the former president vigorously recited details of heinous crimes allegedly committed by immigrants. When Trump derided trans women in sports, the hatred escalated.