Trump tells conservative students they’re under attack by ‘totalitarians and tyrants’

Donald Trump told young conservatives they are embroiled in a “tremendous intellectual struggle for the future of our country”, painting an apocalyptic vision of the US in which a “left-wing mob” seeks to impose a “repressive regime” against Americans while celebrating his administration's own attempts to stifle political dissent.

“They’re tearing down statues, desecrating monuments and purging dissenters,” he told a crowd inside an Arizona megachurch on Tuesday. “It’s the behaviour of totalitarians and tyrants.”

The president’s pitch to young Americans at a White House event hosted by controversial conservative organisation Turning Point USA, follows his threats of violence against Black Lives Matter protesters and his threats to jail demonstrators who burn the American flag and attack statues.

He has previously railed against “antifa” – a loose affiliation of antifascists attacking right-wing violence – and blamed them for protests in the wake of police killings of black Americans. His campaign also was condemned for running dozens of Facebook ads prominently featuring a Nazi symbol for the regime’s political prisoners.

Turning Point USA and Students for Trump have rallied against what they believe is conservative censorship and “cancel culture” on their college campuses, echoed by the president’s allegations that social media platforms are also silencing right-wing voices.

“Our people are stronger and our people are smarter, and we are the elite,” he said on Tuesday. “You’re smarter, you’re better looking, you have a better future...There’s only one thing they have: they are vicious...You will not be silenced...They hate our history, they hate our values and everything we prize as Americans.”

One student attacked Black Lives Matter for “making a scene” during an election year and another said “leftist mobs” are trying to erase the legacy of Nancy Green, whose image inspired Aunt Jemina. (The syrup and pancake mix brand had recently announced plans to "rebrand" following antiracist demonstrations.)

The president’s speech inside a megachurch follows his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 20 June, his first on the trail since 2 March.

He was roundly criticised following that speech for invoking intense division while the nation endured weeks of protests calling for racial justice.

He arrived in Arizona as the state saw a record spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalisations, which have surpassed 2,000 since the pandemic. The president appeared to mock health officials and other Americans alarmed by the surge in cases, which have also been rising across the US.

The president repeated the racist term “kung flu” to refer to Covid-19, as he touted the nation’s expanded testing, which he said would be “recognised by history.”

But he continued to blame the “left” and Democrats for the state of the US, in danger of entering “the most corrupt election in history” with rampant voter fraud, he claimed.

The president repeated false claims that California admitted in a legal settlement that 1 million or more people “voted illegally” in the state, and that a “plague” of absentee ballots will mask rampant fraud and influence from foreign powers. Roughly 80 per cent of voters in Arizona have mail-in ballots as an option.