Trump attends rally, reminds supporters of agenda successes
President skips the Correspondents dinner for the second year
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — President Donald Trump bragged about his economic and diplomatic accomplishments and savaged the media during a raucous rally Saturday before thousands of supporters in a state that is critical to his re-election hopes.
The campaign-style event held at the Total Sports Park was billed as counterprogramming to the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in the nation’s capital, which the president skipped for the second consecutive year.
“You may have heard I was invited to another event tonight,” the president told a crowd that began gathering under cloudy skies hours before the scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff. “I’d much rather be in Washington, Michigan, than Washington, D.C.”
The president treated the crowd, dotted with the familiar “Make America Great Again” hats, to his customary litany of immigration complaints, gibes at prominent Democrats including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and boasts about purchases of “brand-new” military equipment.
The president also complained that the media had not given him sufficient credit for making possible Friday’s meeting between leaders of the two Koreas, saying he had “everything” to do with it.
He also predicted that he would achieve the “alltime record” for appointing conservative judges and boasted that his tax and economic policies were working.
“Let me tell you: Our country is doing great,” he said.
Trump conceded that the stock market, which peaked in January and has gone sideways since then, has been hurt by his tough “America First” trade policies. But he said it was necessary to push China for concessions beyond what Beijing has offered to date.