Trump’s campaign themes: Kavanaugh, tax cuts, immigrants
President stumping to prevent Democratic wins
WASHINGTON – Donald Trump is back in the place he loves best: the campaign trail.
The president is logging thousands of miles on Air Force One with the midterm elections approaching Nov. 6. He is fighting to prevent a Democratic takeover of Congress, which would derail much of his legislative agenda and open the door to multiple investigations of his presidency.
Reviving the raucous rallies that marked his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump is all but begging backers to vote in the congressional elections. He is hammering a message that if “radical Democrats” control Congress, they will wipe out everything Trump is doing, from tax cuts to immigration laws.
The president also regularly brings up the messy confirmation battle of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, telling his supporters that if Democrats take control of Congress, they might try to impeach the high court’s newest justice, or even Trump himself.
Democrats “are even talking about doing really bad things now to Justice Kavanaugh,” Trump said during a recent rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “They were saying, ‘We’ll impeach!’ ”
The president then added with a wink: “I have to go first, right? Don’t I?”
While Democrats have made clear they will investigate Trump and his administration aggressively, few candidates mention potential impeachment on the campaign trail.
During a western swing this past weekend, Trump told backers in Montana, Arizona and Nevada that Democrats are “socialists” who want “open borders” and would allow in migrants like the ones in a caravan headed up from Central America and Mexico.
Wrapping up his indictment in a new campaign riff, Trump said in Elko, Nevada, that “this will be the election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, tax cuts and common sense.”
Trump is expected to average three to four rallies a week in the final stretch before Election Day, with somewhere around half as many private fundraisers, officials said.
Democrats say Trump can do all the rallies he wants but he is going up against momentum on their side that is being fueled by voter anger at the businessman-turned-politician and his Republican allies.
Describing Trump as an “anchor” on “swing district suburban Republicans,” Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said the rallies “have more to do with his staff finding screaming fans to please his ego then they do with helping anyone get elected.”
But Trump allies and political analysts say the president’s central aim is to rouse his core supporters, especially people who could well stay home because presidential elections are not on the ballot.