'28 Days in a Row of This Crap Is a Lot': Trump Weighs In on His Own Midterm Blitz
President Trump told a Florida crowd he thought Friday's rally would be his last, that his voice is at '49.2%,' and that calls from Kansas and Iowa Republicans put two more rallies back on his Sunday schedule anyway.
President Donald Trump has now narrated his own midterm blitz, and the narration is not a victory lap. At his Friday rally in Florida, Trump said he had expected the event to be the final rally of the campaign: 'I thought this was going to be my last one, Byron, I thought this was it,' he told the crowd, addressing Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Byron Donalds. 'I thought I could relax. 28 days of this crap is a lot,' USA TODAY reported. He added that his voice is operating at '49.2%.'
It will not be his last. The Republican National Committee announced on October 29 that Trump's Saturday rally in Kansas and Sunday rally in Iowa would be cancelled; after pushback, the president announced he would make both midwestern stops on Sunday after all. Addressing the changes to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, he said Republicans in both states called and asked him to come: 'Then they called me in Iowa, and they called me in Kansas, and they said, "Sir, would it be possible to do a little rally of about 50,000 people each?" and I said, "Does it matter."' He also lashed out at a Reuters reporter on October 29 who asked about the cancellations.
The reason the two stops matter is the map. Polling shows tight Senate races in Kansas and Iowa, two states that traditionally vote Republican, and Republicans are playing defense across the final weekend to hold a 53-47 Senate majority and a 218-214 House majority. Political experts project Democrats will win control of at least the House, USA TODAY reported, and control of the Senate hinges on a short list of races that includes Kansas and Iowa - which is why a president trying to relax is instead flying to two states his party usually banks without asking.
Before Florida, the blitz had already run through South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Michigan and Georgia, and Trump cast his own early ballot in Florida last Saturday. Texas voters get the same show at one remove: the Senate race here is one of the contests that will decide whether Sunday's extra miles were enough.
