Former President Donald Trump has plans to begin holding his signature political "Make America Great Again" rallies across the country, yet again, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections - and according to a top aid, they will be starting any day now.
"Trump senior adviser Jason Miller tells Axios Trump rallies are likely to 'start as soon as late spring or early summer.' Miller said Trump 'has already begun to vet and endorse candidates for 2022, with an eye toward electing not just Republican candidates, but America First Republican candidates,'" Axios co-founders Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei reported on Friday.
Miller and a group of Trump allies didn't return Salon's request for comment on Trump's rally plans.
The news comes as two Republicans, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz have also taken to the campaign trail to hold "America First" rallies. The duo's first rally kicked off this past Friday at The Villages in Florida. "The elderly crowd in The Villages, a sprawling senior community nestled among billboards for orange juice and baby alligators, came dressed in five years worth of MAGA gear, from well-worn red 'Trump 2016' hats to 'The 2020 Election Was Rigged' t-shirts. The kickoff of Gaetz and Greene's 'America First' revival tour meticulously followed Trump's rally playbook, as the largely unmasked retirees—many of whom told TIME it was their first big event since getting the coronavirus vaccine—energetically danced to 'We are the Champions,' shouted 'Lock her up!' and heckled the media in the back," TIME political correspondent Vera Bergengruen noted from the Sunshine State on Friday.
Trump's allies have long encouraged the former president to start holding rallies again, following his 2020 election loss, but it appears the former president has been more concerned with floating baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
While interviewing Trump on his podcast at the end of April, Fox News contributor and right-wing radio host Dan Bongino said: "We need a Trump rally, sir...Can you just do one for fun!? We need to feel alive again!"
Trump's rallies ahead of his 2016 election win were a safe haven where frustrated Trump supporters, along with their cult-like leader, frequently incited violence against anyone who dared to disrupt their gatherings.
"I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks. It's true. I'd like to punch him in the face; I'll tell you," Trump stated back in Nevada in February of 2016.
In light of the Jan. 6th Capitol insurrection, it remains to see what tone and tenor the former president will have live at his rallies, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest he will continue to claim the 2020 election was stolen. On Tuesday morning, Trump released a statement where he compared the 2020 election to that of a diamond heist.
"If a thief robs a jewelry store of all of its diamonds (the 2020 Presidential Election), the diamonds must be returned. The Fake News media refuses to cover the greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country. They have lost all credibility, but ultimately, they will have no choice!" Trump declared in a statement via his Save America PAC.
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