By Steve Holland, Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose and Jacob Bogage
Oct 24 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is in the midst of a nationwide campaign blitz ahead of the November midterm elections, holding near-daily rallies to boost turnout for Republicans who are fighting to keep control of Congress.
In his 90-minute stump speeches, Trump defends his economic policies, boasts about crowd size, mocks protesters and has even admired a fellow Republican’s buttocks.
Here are five takeaways from Reuters coverage of the president’s appearances, staged mostly in Republican-friendly areas across the country:
TRUMP’S ECONOMIC PITCH COLLIDES WITH VOTER REALITY
At the start of the month, Trump said he had done a “bad job” explaining his economic record. He has tried to remedy that at his rallies, pointing to a record-low poverty rate, low unemployment, record highs in the stock market and cheaper prices for some food items.
But his sales pitch is colliding with voters’ concerns about how much they are spending on gas, groceries and other everyday expenses.
Consumer prices accelerated in September as the cost of gasoline surged. The nationwide average price of gas is $4.27 per gallon ($1.13 per litre), nearly 40% higher than a year ago, according to AAA. Trump has repeatedly promised that gas prices will fall once the Iran war ends.
The disconnect was evident outside Trump’s rally in rural Kansas, where Chester Daniel, a 90-year-old military veteran and Trump supporter, said the economy has “a long way to go” to help working people.
“Prices? Too high! We will never go back to what they were when this all started, but they need to come way down,” Daniel said. “I don’t know how these young people make a living for their family.”
RALLY MAP SHOWS REPUBLICANS PLAYING DEFENSE
Trump’s travel map signals just how difficult it will be for Republicans to retain control of Congress, with the president forced to play defense deep in conservative territory.
Trump has traveled twice to Texas for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, campaigned for Republican Senate incumbent Roger Marshall in Kansas and made two stops in Ohio for Senator Jon Husted. Trump also rallied for Republicans in competitive races in Alaska, Iowa, Montana and South Carolina. He is set to visit Mississippi on Monday.
Those are places Republicans are accustomed to winning easily, not battlegrounds where Trump would spend time during the crucial final weeks before an election.
Paxton narrowly trails Democrat James Talarico in polls, while Marshall faces a serious challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century. Husted trails former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in polls in Ohio, and Republican Senate hopeful Ashley Hinson is in a close race against Democrat Josh Turek in Iowa.
Notably absent from Trump’s travels so far with less than two weeks until Election Day: Michigan, Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire – also home to tight Senate races. He is soon poised to hit some of those locations. He is scheduled travel to Michigan on Sunday and has said he also plans to go to Maine.
TRUMP’S BOASTS ABOUT BIG CROWDS MEET UNEVEN REALITY
Trump has made crowd sizes a recurring theme of his midterm rallies, portraying packed arenas and thousands of people he says are stranded outside as evidence of his persisting popularity.
But actual turnout on the campaign trail in recent weeks has been uneven. Some rallies have drawn capacity crowds but have shown little sign of the overflow Trump described. At others, large sections of seats remained empty even in modest-sized venues.
“I’m doing these every night, and no matter where I go, it’s the same thing. It’s massive crowds,” Trump said at a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday. “We have big screens outside. Thousands and thousands of people. There’s something going on that’s very special.”
The venue was filled to capacity, but there were no signs of crowds outside waiting to get in or watching on screens.
At an October 7 rally in San Antonio, Texas, Trump said lines stretched two miles outside the arena even as sizable sections inside remained empty.
Crowd sizes are not always an accurate measure of political support, but Trump has pointed to them as a sign of strength even as his approval rating has fallen to 31%, the lowest of either of his presidential terms, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday.
Trump is not on the ballot on November 3. For Republican candidates, the question is whether the enthusiasm he generates among his supporters can translate into votes for them.
FRANCE BECOMES A ‘BETE NOIRE’ FOR MIDTERMS
Trump has often used French President Emmanuel Macron as a foil in his campaign stump speeches, claiming he strong-armed Macron into raising prescription drug prices in France by threatening tariffs on a popular French export, champagne, and other goods.
But in the last week or so Trump has seized on another narrative about France, casting its violent unrest of recent weeks as a warning of what he says could happen in the US if Democrats win in the midterms. Trump has blamed the unrest on migrants and Muslims, following a familiar playbook that has featured in his politics for more than a decade.
“What the hell happened to France?” Trump told a crowd in a livestock competition arena in Clemson, South Carolina, on Wednesday.
Notably, the French protests have taken a larger role in Trump’s recent speeches than two other major foreign policy headaches he has been unable to resolve: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his war against Iran.
“They’ll end one way or another,” Trump said of the two conflicts at his Clemson rally. He did not elaborate on how they might end, but complained that he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to resolve conflicts around the world.
TRUMP PUTS THE BODY IN BODY POLITIC
Trump has long had a fixation on the human physique that stretches beyond the body politic.
This campaign season, Trump has given particular attention to Husted, a 59-year-old former college football player for the University of Dayton.
At rallies in Ohio, Kentucky and North Carolina, Trump marveled at Husted’s physique, at one point saying his backside is “like a pile of muscle.”
“Then I looked at his legs, and I said, ‘Man, his feet are big.’ Then I looked at his shoulders, and I tapped him on the shoulder, and it actually hurt my hand. It was like a piece of steel. I said, ‘This guy’s a monster,’” Trump said.
Trump had similar praise on Friday for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his secretary of health and human services, telling a campaign rally in Florida that the 72-year-old “has the body of a 30-year-old.”
Such riffs are familiar terrain for Trump. At the close of his 2024 campaign, he used a Pennsylvania rally speech to tell a crude story about PGA legend Arnold Palmer’s prowess beyond his golf game. Trump’s focus over the years on people’s physical attributes has also included mocking the weight and looks of his opponents.
Trump finds even some of his friends lacking in fashion sense, including the rumpled Paxton.
“Some may not like the way he dresses,” Trump said about him at the Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas in mid-September, adding: “I don’t.”
That has not stopped Trump from campaigning for Paxton, however. He returns to Texas on Tuesday for two more campaign rallies.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose and Jacob Bogage; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Edmund Klamann)
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