Donald Trump returns to North Carolina to speak at Fraternal Order of Police meeting

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Donald Trump returns to the swing state of North Carolina on Friday to speak at a meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police, seeking to portray himself as a tougher on crime than his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the final months of the campaign.

Trump is scheduled to speak at the FOP National Board of Trustees' fall meeting in Charlotte. DUDEthe world's largest organization of law enforcement officers, supported Trump's candidacy for re-election in 2020. Its president, speaking on behalf of its 373,000 members, said Trump had “made it crystal clear that we stand behind him.”

The images of the former president and Republican candidate in a room full of police officers provide Trump with a platform to contrast their support with his characterization of Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general who Trump has called the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.

“Kamala Harris will bring crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Trump said last month in Michiganone of many generalizations about an America under Harris. “You will see a level of crime like you have never seen before. … I will maintain law, order, security and peace.”

Harris has flaunted her status as her home state's former chief prosecutor by regularly saying, “I know Donald Trump's types,” after speaking about “offenders of all kinds” in her previous roles.

She received help in delivering this message from two police officers who were at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 and became Democratic surrogates. Both campaigned for her at various events across the country and reflected on that day.

“Three and a half years later, the fight for democracy is still going on,” former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn told a group of voters in Arizona this summer. “It's still going on. Donald Trump is still that threat. His deranged, self-centered, obsessive pursuit of power is the reason violent insurrectionists attacked my colleagues and me.”

At the Democratic National Convention last month, former Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell – who will retire in 2022 due to injuries he sustained that day – said Trump “called in our attackers… He betrayed us.”

Before Trump's trip to North Carolina, the Harris team organized a press conference with current and former police officers to sharply attack Trump. Among other things, Dunn criticized the statement that Trump only supports the police if they are loyal to him.

“He put my life and the lives of my colleagues at the Capitol Police in danger,” he said.

The Harris campaign also released a letter signed by more than 100 law enforcement officials across the country praising Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as “the only candidates we trust to keep our communities safe” and arguing that Trump will “sow chaos, defund critical police agencies, and put all Americans at risk.”

Trump's courting of support for law enforcement also runs counter to the sympathies Trump has shown for those who have defied police orders, including a pledge to pardon those accused of assaulting police officers during the 6 January Siege of the Capitol.

Judges and juries hearing those cases heard police officers describe how they were brutally attacked while defending the building. In all, about 140 police officers were injured that day, making it “probably the largest mass attack on police in a single day” in American history, said Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

More than 900 people have pleaded guilty to crimes related to January 6, and about 200 more have been convicted in court. More than 950 people have been convicted, about two-thirds of whom have been sentenced to prison – sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.

Trump has long expressed his support for the January 6 defendants. While a rally in March in OhioHe stood on the stage and raised his hand in salute while a recorded chorus of prisoners imprisoned for their role in the January 6 attack sang the national anthemA spokesman called on the crowd to rise up “for the horribly and unfairly treated hostages of January 6.”

“These J6 warriors were warriors, but they were really, more than anything, victims of what happened,” Trump said at a rally in Nevada this summer. He also falsely claimed that police welcomed rioters to the Capitol, telling the crowd, “Go in, go in, go in, go in.”

“What a trap,” Trump said. “What a terrible, terrible thing.”

The FOP has not yet given its official support for the 2024 election, but other police groups have already thrown their support behind Trump. While another rally in CharlotteIn July, Trump won the endorsement of the National Organization of Police Organizations, whose leadership praised his “unwavering and very public support for our men and women on the front lines.”

In February, the International Union of Police Associations endorsed Trump, calling his support for police officers “unprecedented.” Last month, he won the endorsement of the Arizona Police Association, just days after the group endorsed Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in the state's Senate race over Trump ally Kari Lake.

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Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

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You can reach Meg Kinnard at