A portrait of Trump’s America

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is in the final stretch of a 44-city blitz for the midterm elections, but the America he has glimpsed from the airport arrivals and his armoured limousine is hardly a reflection of the nation as a whole.

The president has mostly travelled to counties that are whiter, less educated and have lower incomes than the rest of the United States, according to Census Bureau data.

It’s a sign that he’s seeking to galvanize the same group of voters that helped carry him to victory in 2016.

Trump has largely eschewed the big metropolises for smaller cities.

He has primarily been jet-setting to smaller places like Elko, Nev. (population 20,078); Mosinee, Wis. (population 4,023); or Belgrade, Mont. (population 7,874).

Here’s a portrait of the America that the president is seeing: ■ Lower incomes: Trump has journeyed to counties where it’s slightly more of a struggle to reach and stay in the middle class.

Out of his scheduled rallies, 74 per cent are in counties with median incomes that fall below the national level. ■ Fewer post-secondary degrees: Just 18.1 per cent of the adults in Elko County, Nev., hold a college degree. That’s compared to 30.3 per cent nationwide.

Of the 43 places Trump is visiting, 28 have a below-average share of college graduates. ■ Race: Other than his rallies in big cities, Trump has generally been in communities that are overwhelmingly white.

The U.S. population is 73.3-per-cent white, but almost three-fourths of the places where the president has stumped for midterms are above that average.

In the county surrounding Council Bluffs, Iowa, 88.7 per cent of the population is non-Hispanic whites. Trump told the crowd at his rally that Democrats would allow Central American gangs, such as MS-13, to immigrate freely into the U.S., a claim disputed by Democratic lawmakers.