President Donald Trump on Thursday plunged back into the midterm campaign, defending his economic record in the face of sagging poll numbers that could hamstring Republican candidates this fall.
Despite polls showing widespread concern about his tariffs and their impact on already high prices, Trump signaled at a stop in Northwest Georgia that he would campaign on his contentious import duties heading toward November’s elections with control of the House and possibly the Senate up for grabs.
“Thanks to what I call the Trump tariffs, business at Coosa Steel is booming again,” Trump said of the Rome, Ga., facility where he addressed supporters. “You’re producing at full speed, two shifts a day, and … going to three shifts a day, six days a week, and you’ve got a backlog … at seven months long. What a difference, from a couple of hours a week to seven months long, and it’s all because you finally have a president who put America first.”
“Stories like this company are right now playing out in cities all around the country, towns, villages all over the country,” he added.
Earlier in the afternoon, Trump touted the no-tax-on-tips provision in last year’s Republican-led tax and spending law during a stop at a fast-food restaurant, whose workers typically do not receive customer tips.
His visit to Georgia comes at a time when voters continue to harbor worries about the state of the economy.
A Feb. 13-16 Reuters/Ipsos survey found 57 percent of Americans disapproving either “strongly or somewhat” of his economic stewardship, while 34 percent approved. Among the key independent voter bloc, 62 percent disapproved and 24 percent approved. According to a recent Economist/YouGov poll, 68 percent of Americans judged the economy as fair or poor, while 28 percent called it excellent or good.
Here are four other takeaways from Trump’s Georgia campaign stop.
‘I’ve won affordability’
Trump’s remarks Thursday in the key battleground state represented something of a dress rehearsal for next week’s State of the Union address, the first official one of his second term. It also came two days after members of his Cabinet met Tuesday afternoon at the Capitol Hill Club to discuss midterm messaging, according to a source familiar with the session.
While Trump was not present at that session, he signaled Thursday at Coosa Steel that he would double down on his tariffs ahead of the midterms, even though some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns.
“To think, I have to be in the United States Supreme Court for many, many months waiting for a decision on tariffs,” he said of a pending high-court ruling on whether he had the legal standing to implement the sweeping duties. “Without tariffs, this country would be in such trouble right now.”
“And then I have to listen to the ‘fake news’ talking about affordability. Affordability. Do you notice? What word have you not heard over the last two weeks? Affordability,” he said to chuckles from the invited guests “Because I’ve won. I’ve won affordability. I had to go out and talk about it.”
One GOP strategist expects Trump to, just as he did Thursday in Georgia, tell next week’s prime-time joint session of Congress that “all of our gains will come to a grinding halt” if Republicans lose the House.
“His message starting now is going to be: Then the only way we can do big things is with executive actions, if we lose the House. And that’s limited, by definition, what we can actually do,” the strategist said Thursday. “His basic message since 2016 has been prosperity and safety-security. So you’ll be hearing him, frequently, making the case that the administration is putting money back in people’s pockets, that we’re moving this in the right direction. But explaining why there’s so much more work to do.”
‘Prove that you’re an American’
Trump sent signals Thursday that immigration and related issues would, again, be part of his campaign trail sales pitch.
Before hitting the stage, he asked the crowd inside The Varsity restaurant if they supported stricter voter identification requirements as he continues to try mounting pressure on Senate leaders to bring up GOP-crafted legislation known as the SAVE America Act for a floor vote.
“We are going to have the Save America Act, one way or the other, after approval by Congress through the very proper use of the Filibuster or, at minimum, by a Talking Filibuster, à la ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,'” he posted on social media Thursday shortly before stepping off Air Force One.
Once onstage, Trump mocked Democrats who say toughening voter ID laws is discriminatory and immoral.
“The Democrats don’t want to give us voter ID because they want to cheat,” he claimed, even though no Democratic officials have been charged with wrongdoing in recent elections.
“No, I’ll tell you what, when they look at the polls, 95 percent of the people want voter ID. Then you have proof of citizenship. So we want voter ID,” he said. “For you to vote, let’s prove that you’re an American.”
‘Guys like Hakeem’
During his remarks at the steel facility, the president again tried recasting the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Republicans passed without a single Democratic vote as “basically a tax-cut bill.”
“We put four years worth of goodies into that bill,” he said. “And everybody said it couldn’t be done, you’d have to go into 17 different bills. It’s all in that one. And that is cut after cut. It’s basically tax cuts and business expansion.”
While Trump often criticizes fellow New York native Charles E. Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, he hasn’t had much to say publicly about another prominent New Yorker, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
But he went after Jeffries on Thursday, saying of the GOP tax and spending measure, “It’s one of the greatest bills ever passed. Remember that when you hear these phony guys like Hakeem … he’s a pretty low IQ individual. But I hear him talking about ‘no tax on tips’ doesn’t matter.”
“No tax on overtime matters. No tax on Social Security for 1.8 million Georgia seniors matters,” Trump said.
The president also took a swipe at Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff,the chamber’s most vulnerable Democrat on this year’s ballot.
“He’s a real stiff. We don’t want people like that representing Georgia,” he said.
Among those joining Trump onstage was GOP Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, one of several Republicans challenging Ossoff this year. The congressman had some election year instructions for the crowd: “We need to grow our majority in the House so that we can continue with an ‘America First’ agenda. But folks, we got to make sure that we put the right Republicans in to help us to get this job done.”
Trump has not yet issued an endorsement in the Republican Senate primary in Georgia.
‘We’re gonna win’
Thursday’s rally took place in Georgia’s 14th District, represented until last month by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump’s once-staunch ally-turned-fierce critic. The president has already endorsed former local prosecutor Clay Fuller in the crowded March 10 all-party primary to succeed her.
“You’re all for Clay?” Trump asked supporters assembled inside The Varsity restaurant, drawing applause.
“We’re gonna win,” Fuller, a lieutenant colonel and deputy staff judge advocate in the Air National Guard, said on the same day that crews in Washington installed banners featuring Trump’s image on the Justice Department headquarters. Later, onstage, Fuller praised Trump as “the greatest president in our country’s history” and vowed to be “a warrior for Northwest Georgia”and “a warrior for this man” if elected.
Trump chose the Rome area for a campaign stop because “Georgia is, obviously, a very important state to the president and to the Republican Party,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday briefing.
“And the president loves the people of Georgia,” she added. “He’ll be meeting and greeting … everyday Americans and that’s what the president loves to do, to get out across the country.”
Echoing her boss on his envisioned midterm campaign schedule, Leavitt said Trump plans to over the next nine months “go across the country a lot more.”
Before leaving for Georgia on Thursday, Trump spent three hours with world leaders at a Board of Peace event in Washington.
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