Kamala Harris accuses Trump of catering to fringe hate group amid plans to visit to bucolic Michigan town

Donald Trump has planned a rally in a quiet Michigan city next week to discuss crime during the Democratic National Convention - but the campaign for Kamala Harris has accused the former president of catering to a fringe hate group.

Trump is set to deliver a 'crime and safety' speech to about 10,000 people on Tuesday in the city of Howell - where a tiny white supremacist gathering took place last month.

Harris' campaign called it inappropriate after a group of about a dozen masked white supremacists gathered on July 20 and chanted: 'We love Hitler. We love Trump.'

'Trump’s actions have encouraged them, and Michiganders can expect more of the same when he comes to town next week,' Alyssa Bradley, Harris' Michigan Communications Director, told the Washington Post.

A Trump spokesperson called the accusation 'absurd.' 

Kamala Harris' team is being called out for hypocrisy after attacking Donald Trump's campaign for announcing a rally in a Michigancity that was the site of a white supremacist march last month

Trump is set to deliver a 'crime and safety' speech in Howell, a city of about 10,000 people on Tuesday

'President Trump will travel to Howell to deliver a strong message on law and order, making it clear that crime, violence, and hate of any form will have zero place in our country when he is back in the White House,' Trump National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

However, the Harris campaign believes that Trump's visit is meant to encourage those who made pro-Hitler and held up 'White Lives Matter' signs last month.

'The racists and white supremacists who marched in Trump's name last month in Howell have all watched him praise Hitler, defend neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and tell far-right extremists to 'stand back and stand by,' Bradley, Harris' spokesperson, said.

Leavitt flatly denied the links, with the campaign wanting access to the key Detroit media market, as Howell is about 55 miles west of the Motor City.

Harris' campaign is calling it inappropriate after a July 20 march of about a dozen masked white supremacists, with reports of chants saying: 'We love Hitler. We love Trump'

The Trump campaign also notes that the city - which has a long history of demonstrations by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups as recently as 2021 - received a visit from Joe Biden in 2021.  

She added that the Biden/Harris campaign has given speeches in cities where 'racist protests and marches have occurred in the past' as well. 

The city is between both Detroit and the college town of Lansing and was once home to the Michigan Grand Dragon Robert Miles, which saw rallies and cross burnings until he died in 1992.

Incidents of hate popped up as recently as three years ago, when pro-KKK graffiti was posted on someone's garage door just two months before Biden's visit, according to the Livingston Daily.

Trump National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: 'President Trump will travel to Howell to deliver a strong message on law and order, making it clear that crime, violence, and hate of any form will have zero place in our country when he is back in the White House'

One Howell resident, Kasey Helton, posted to social media that Trump would not be welcome and added a photo of the city's Republican Mayor Bob Ellis behind a sign that says 'Smash Fascism.' 

'Decades of work from good people trying to heal our community’s ugly past and reputation has been wiped away in a single afternoon thanks to Donald Trump,' she wrote.

Michigan is considered one of seven key swing states that Trump must either hold or flip back to red to defeat Harris.

Trump shocked the world winning Michigan and destroying the so-called midwestern 'blue wall' en route to victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

However, Joe Biden flipped the state back to blue by just about 155,000 votes and two percentage points.

Joe Biden giving a speech in Michigan in 2021.

Just last week, the Times published polling showing how Harris had moved ahead of Trump by four points in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Among likely voters in each state, 50 percent said they would likely vote for Harris while 46 for Trump. 

Based on the new figures, Harris has erased the lead Trump was building in the states before President Biden dropped out of the race.

The first presidential debate between the two is set to be held in Philadelphia on September 10 and will be moderated by ABC News. 

The first vice presidential debate between Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio will take place on October 1 in New York City, and will be hosted by CBS.