Special election tests Trump
President defends trade war with Beijing, Mexican border wall
TRYING to prove his political clout by pushing a Republican to victory in a special election, US President Donald Trump used a North Carolina rally to paint a bleak picture of a nation he claimed would be overrun with crime, poverty and immigrants if Democrats seize power in Washington.
Trump, appearing on Monday at his first campaign rally in nearly a month, went on the offensive in an effort to change a series of late-summer negative headlines over his slipping poll numbers, warning signs of an economic slowdown and a running battle over hurricane forecasts.
He urged the Fayetteville crowd to vote for Republican Dan Bishop yesterday, brandishing his usual incendiary rhetoric to declare from the stage that “it’s a chance to send a clear message to the America-hating left”. Should Bishop defeat Democrat Dan McCready, it could give Trump room to assert that he pulled Bishop over the top. If McCready prevails or Bishop wins by a whisker, it will suggest GOP erosion and raise questions about Trump’s and his party’s viability for 2020.
After Trump’s rally, McCready launched a fund-raising appeal, saying Trump “scheduled this rally to rile up support for my opponent and increase Republican turnout”.
With an eye to his own re-election next year, Trump touted his administration’s accomplishments but also urged voters to give him more time.
“That’s why we need four more years,” Trump said at the rally. “It has to grow those roots.”
The president enjoys wide popularity within his own party, but a GOP defeat in a red-leaning state could portend trouble for his re-election campaign. Trump advisers worry that moderate Republican and independent voters who have been willing to give him a pass on some of his incendiary policies and rhetoric would blame him – and his trade war with China – for slowing down the economy.
Trump offered up a robust defence of the trade war with Beijing. He pushed for Congress to approve his new US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
And he exaggerated the number of kilometres constructed on his wall.
Trump repeatedly painted the Democrats as a party that had moved to the extreme left on issues like immigration, abortion and health care.
“You don’t have any choice. You have to vote for me,” Trump told the crowd. “What are you going to do: Put one of these crazy people in the running? They’re so far left. Your way of life is under assault by these people.”
Trump also expressed his support for the Second Amendment against the backdrop of a recent spate of deadly mass shootings across the country.
It comes as congressional Democrats push for expanded background checks for gun purchases. Before the rally, Trump flew to coastal North Carolina to inspect the damage left by Hurricane Dorian, but bad weather forced officials to scrap those plans.
Meanwhile, the EU said yesterday it would seek to convince Trump to see “the error of his ways”. “Mr Trump has indicated his clear preference for trade wars rather than trade agreements,” the EU executive’s incoming trade commissioner, Irishman Phil Hogan, said yesterday. “Hopefully he will be able to abandon some of the reckless behaviour we’ve seen from him in relation to his relationship with China and describing the EU as a security risk.”