President also joins 19 tele-rallies across competitive states
The Republican National Committee announced on Thursday, five days before election day, that the president would no longer host the Kansas and Iowa rallies and would instead participate in “a large number of tele-rallies.” The committee said it felt it was in a “strong position” in both states.
By Friday morning, the rallies were “back on,” according to a source familiar with the matter, who said the events had been rearranged to accommodate the 19 tele-rallies Trump is also participating in.
It is unclear whether Trump anticipated rearranging the Kansas and Iowa rallies, or whether they were unexpectedly readded to his schedule.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he believed Republicans would have “a strong Tuesday night,” and said he did not feel like he had to go to Kansas. “I’m not going to Kansas because [Republican senator Roger Marshall] is doing very well,” Trump said, according to the Guardian.
Polls show a slim margin between the Republican and Democratic Senate candidates in Kansas, a state that has not sent a Democrat to the US Senate in 96 years. Democrats hold a small edge over Republicans in the Iowa gubernatorial and Senate races.
Trump also lashed out at a Reuters reporter who asked whether the initial change of plans was because the president was sick of traveling across the country. “Oh, you’re sick to ask that question. You are sick,” Trump told the reporter, accusing him of being “way out of shape” and calling him “disgusting.”
With control of the US Congress on the line, the Guardian described next week’s midterm elections as amounting to a referendum on Trump, who has repeatedly urged voters to pretend he is himself on the ballot, as his approval ratings continued to decline. Democrats are hoping to capitalize on growing discontent with Trump to retake the US House of Representatives, and also the Senate.
Democrats have grown increasingly confident in recent months that they might flip seats in traditionally red states, in part because many voters are disgruntled with Trump’s handling of the cost of living, which the Guardian reported has been exacerbated by the war on Iran.
In a Guardian/Harris poll of roughly 2,000 adults, most respondents said the cost of living and government corruption were top issues heading into next week’s election, mirroring findings from other polls.
Despite the confidence expressed by Trump and the RNC about Kansas and Iowa, the president’s own Saturday schedule reaches well beyond those two states. The tele-rallies will target 19 states, including those with competitive Senate races such as Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas and South Carolina.
The schedule also targets states with competitive House or gubernatorial races such as Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.