Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday made his first public appearance since Sunday’s second apparent assassination attempt against him with an overflow crowd in Flint, Mich., chanting “God bless Trump!” and “Fight, Fight, Fight” as U.S. Secret Service agents surrounded the stage to protect the Republican presidential nominee.

“It’s been a great experience,” Trump said in an evening town hall, about holding events with thousands of supporters. But he also went on to call running for president “a dangerous business” akin to car racing or bull riding.

“Only consequential presidents get shot at,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, struck a measured tone, even steering clear of mentioning Trump by name in an interview with Black journalists that starkly contrasted with the former president’s own highly contentious appearance before the same group.

The two candidates briefly put their differences aside in a phone call Trump described as “very, very nice” even as crowds booed when he mentioned Harris by her first name.

“It was very, very nice, and we appreciate that,” Trump told his supporters. Harris said earlier in the day that she told Trump “there’s no place for political violence in our country.”

Both sides are ramping up campaigning with no changes to Trump’s calendar despite the apparent assassination attempt Sunday while Trump was golfing at one of his Florida courses.

Harris’ interview

The session with the National Association of Black Journalists earlier Tuesday was one of the few extensive sit-down interviews Harris has done since replacing President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket in July. She repeatedly criticized Trump on issues including his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and opposition to abortion access, but was careful to refer to him as the former president and in other ways that avoided naming him directly.

Harris answered questions from three association journalists at a small, relatively quiet venue at the Philadelphia studios of public radio station WHYY.

The sedate interview stood in contrast to Trump ’s appearance before the same organization just over a month ago, during which the Republican candidate repeatedly questioned Harris’ racial identity.

Pressed about reports of eroding support among Black male voters, Harris said she wasn’t “assuming I’m gonna have it because I’m Black.” She ducked a question about whether she’d support efforts by some congressional Democrats for reparations from the government to compensate descendants of slaves.

Trump in Michigan

The Michigan town hall was billed as focusing on the auto industry, a pillar of the battleground state.

Trump on Tuesday repeated false claims that Chinese automakers are putting up large factories in Mexico, vowing to slap 200% tariffs on any vehicles the unbuilt plants make and ship to the United States.

Trump also claimed during the event that if Harris is elected in November, there will be no more auto industry in the U.S., because work building electric vehicles will go to China.

That statement came even though automaking employment has grown since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, after dropping during Trump’s first term.

“If I don’t win, you will have no auto industry within two to three years,” Trump said, calling any increases under Biden and Harris temporary. “You will not have any manufacturing plants. China is going to take over all of them because of the electric car.”

By the numbers

Auto jobs dipped 0.8% during Trump’s term to just over 949,000 in January 2021, when he left office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since Biden took office that month, auto and parts jobs rose 13.6% to 1.07 million in August, so there’s no evidence of the industry disappearing. Auto sales were up 2.4% in the first half of this year.

The Harris campaign issued a statement from Michigan Sen. Gary Peters saying that a second Trump term would crush auto jobs, “ceding Michigan’s global auto manufacturing leadership to the Chinese government.”