Trump holds Iowa rally, touts GOP’s election wins
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Struggling to advance his agenda in Washington, President Donald Trump traveled to the Midwest on Wednesday to see his supporters and to celebrate a Republican congressional victory in an election viewed as an early referendum on his presidency.
Trump touched down Wednesday evening in rainy Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and headed to an area community college, where he toured agricultural technology innovations, and then to a campaign rally where he reveled in Karen Handel’s special election victory in a House district in suburban Atlanta.
“The truth is, people love us. … They haven’t figured it out yet,” Trump said in front of a boisterous crowd that packed a downtown arena.
He also applauded Republican Ralph Norman, who notched a win in a special election to fill the South Carolina congressional seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, and mocked Handel’s challenger, Jon Ossoff, saying the Democrats “spent $30 million on this kid who forgot to live in the district.”
Trump turned his visit to a battleground state he captured in November into a celebration of his resilience despite the cloud of investigations that has enveloped his administration and sent his poll numbers tumbling.
With the appearance in Cedar Rapids, he has held five rallies in his first five months in office.
The event underscores Trump’s comfort in a campaign setting. He laughed off the occasional heckler, repeated riffs from last year’s campaign rallies and appeared far more at ease when going after Democrats in front of adoring crowds than he is when trying to push his legislative agenda from the confines of the White House.
Trump’s aides are making a renewed push to get the president out of Washington. The capital is consumed with the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election and Trump’s firing of his FBI director.
Iowa, with its large share of independent voters, could be a proving ground for whether Trump can count on the support of voters beyond his base. Unaffiliated voters, or “no party” voters as they are known in Iowa, make up 36 percent of the electorate, compared with 33 percent who register as Republican and 31 percent registered as Democrats.
Trump held a Des Moines rally in December as part of his transition-era “thank you” tour of states he had won, but he had not been back to Iowa until Wednesday.
At the rally, he touted his administration’s efforts to roll back regulations, mused about putting solar panels on a Mexican border wall, derided wind power for killing birds in a state that uses a lot of it and revealed that he urged the Senate to create a health care plan “with heart. Add some money to it!”
He avoided any discussion of the scandals surrounding his presidency, other than one brief reference to the “witch hunt,” which is what he has dubbed the probes into whether his campaign had ties to Russia.
Trump’s evening in Iowa began with a tribute to former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, whom he appointed as the United States’ ambassador to China. He hailed Branstad, the longest-serving governor in the nation’s history and an early Trump backer, as “a legend” and “one great man.”
Trump’s stop at Kirkwood Community College was intended to draw attention to the school’s advancements in high-tech agriculture, but he resisted sitting behind the wheel of a virtual reality device that simulated a giant combine harvester. He was joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as part of the administration’s latest theme week, this time to highlight the importance of technology.
But much of Trump’s attention was on the suburbs of Atlanta, in the 6th Congressional District race.
Handel’s victory, in a traditional Republican stronghold that rarely produces a competitive contest, was met with a sigh of relief from the GOP. It was the fourth-straight special election that went to the Republicans.
Trump tweeted several times Tuesday night and capped the night off with a text message to supporters crowing:
“Congrats to Karen Handel on a HUGE win in GA! Democrats lose again (0-4). Total disarray. The MAGA Mandate is stronger than ever. BIG LEAGUE,” he said, referencing his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.