Trump has new slogan

UNITED STATES: Donald Trump has offered a preview of his 2020 election campaign with a rambling speech to supporters during which he announced his slogan will be ‘‘Keep America Great!’’

At a rally in the industrial heartland of Pennsylvania at the weekend, he touched on familiar themes: Railing against European Union tariffs and the news media, promising the ‘‘greatest deal’’ with North Korea and praising foreign leaders who impose the death penalty for drug dealing.

Yesterday, White House officials confirmed details of the president’s plans to toughen school security and ban teenagers from buying guns in the wake of last month’s shooting in Florida.

Trump said he had settled on a slogan that borrowed from his 2016 effort. ‘‘We can’t say ‘Make America Great Again’ because I already did that,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m almost positive, you can never be

100 per cent sure, but our new slogan when we start running is going to be ‘Keep America Great ... exclamation mark.’’

Trump was campaigning for Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate for a congressional byelection in an area known as ‘‘steel country’’. Saccone is losing in a district that voted forr Trump by

20 percentage points in 2016. A Republican loss could signal a bloodbath in the November midterm elections.

He gave an impassioned defence of his recent announcement of tariffs on steel and aluminium. Addressing the EU directly, he said: ‘‘Open up the barriers and get rid of your tariffs, and if you don’t do that we’re going to tax Mercedes-Benz, we’re going to tax BMWs. Cars are the big money item.’’

He expressed his disgust at much of the news media.

Describing his decision to meet Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, Trump lambasted previous presidents, saying no-one else could have done it. ‘‘I may leave fast, or we make the greatest deal for the world.’’ - Telegraph Group