Trump praises death penalty for drug dealers

US president unveils 2020 campaign slogan ‘Keep America Great!’ in speech before key by-election

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.

It marked a busy weekend ahead of a key election in the state. 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.

Mr 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.”

Speaking to thousands of supporters in an airport hangar near Pittsburgh, the president said he would love to run against Oprah Winfrey in 2020 because he “knows her weakness”.

Mr Trump was campaigning for Rick Saccone, the Republican candidate for a congressional by-election in an area known as “steel country”. Mr Saccone is losing in a district that voted for Mr Trump by 20 percentage points in 2016. A Republican loss could signal a bloodbath in the November midterm elections.

Mr Trump gave an impassioned defence of his recent announcement of 25 per cent tariffs on steel, and 10 per cent on aluminium, and was drowned out by cheers as he vilified the EU. 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.”

Mr Trump promised to build his wall with Mexico and expressed his disgust at much of the news media as supporters burst into chants of “USA, USA, USA,” loudly and repeatedly.

Describing his decision to meet Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, Mr 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,” he said.

Meanwhile, a White House spokesman said the president’s proposals for tackling school shootings will include arming school staff and raising the minimum age to 21 to purchase certain firearms. Raj Shah told ABC’S The Week that Mr Trump is also likely to back a bipartisan bill to improve compliance with criminal background checks.