{"id":175025,"date":"2018-08-05T02:22:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T06:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=175025"},"modified":"2018-08-05T02:22:56","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T06:22:56","slug":"trump-casts-midterm-elections-personal-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/05\/trump-casts-midterm-elections-personal-referendum\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump casts midterm elections as a personal referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. (Photo<\/a> by Gage Skidmore\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LEWIS CENTER, Ohio \u2014 Embracing his breakneck return to campaign politics, President Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0on Saturday argued that Republicans needed to control Congress by casting the midterms as a referendum on himself.<\/p>\n

In a raucous rally in a sweltering gymnasium north of Columbus, Ohio,\u00a0Trump\u00a0pitched for the GOP candidate up in a special election next week and defiantly questioned the idea that, historically, the party that controls the White House suffers in the midterms, declaring \u201cbut I say why?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would there be a blue wave? I think it could be a red wave,\u201d\u00a0Trump\u00a0said of his party’s prospects in November. \u201cThey want to take away what we’ve given. And we’re doing a lot of things people don’t even know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though boisterous and bellicose,\u00a0Trump\u00a0steered clear of the trouble he stirred up the night before when he blasted one of Ohio’s favourite sons, LeBron James.<\/p>\n

In a late-night tweet,\u00a0Trump\u00a0derided the intelligence of one of the nation’s most prominent African-American men. The attack on James, who has been critical of\u00a0Trump, came just as the NBA superstar opened up a school for underprivileged children. First lady Melania\u00a0Trump, in a statement, distanced herself from the broadside, which resembled a racial dog whistle, and praised James’ efforts.<\/p>\n

But while he didn’t mention the Akron native, he did invoke similar rhetoric while training fire on one of his new favourite targets, Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters of California. He tore into Waters, who is also black, and derided her as \u201can extremely low IQ person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanked by signs that read \u201cPromises Made\u201d and \u201cPromises Kept,\u201d\u00a0Trump\u00a0dished up plenty of red meat to the sweaty crowd.<\/p>\n

He blasted the media as \u201cfake news\u201d and said journalists \u201cwere terrible people.\u201d He went on a screed against illegal immigration and exaggerated the threat of violent gangs like MS-13. And he basked in cheers as the crowd chanted the campaign staple rallying cry, \u201cBuild the wall, build the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

And\u00a0Trump\u00a0touted his supporters as \u201cforgotten no more,\u201d saying that they, and he, were the nation’s true \u201celite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elite. They’re more elite than me? I am better everything than they have, including this,\u201d\u00a0Trump\u00a0said, pointing at his own head. \u201cAnd I became president and they didn’t. Meaning you became president. And it’s driving them crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0relished playing the role of Republican kingmaker, bragging how the GOP candidates he’s opposed, like Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, have lost. With Sanford, he mocked the time Sanford vanished to hike \u201cthe Tallahassee Trail,\u201d which was likely meant to be \u201cthe Appalachian Trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also gave an onstage hug to Rep. Jim Jordan, who is under siege after allegations that, as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, he knew of alleged sexual abuse by a team doctor but did not report it. Jordan, who has denied the charge, has announced his plan to run for speaker of the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim Jordan, how great is he?\u201d\u00a0Trump\u00a0said. \u201cWhat a great defender he’s been, what courage. He’s a brave, tough cookie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0gave a full-throated endorsement to state Sen. Troy Balderson, who is facing Democrat Danny O’Connor, the Franklin County recorder, in Tuesday’s special election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat. He touted Balderson’s record on crime and immigration and claimed that O’Connor, if he won, would be a \u201cpuppet\u201d of Nancy Pelosi, who stands to reclaim the title of speaker of the House if Democrats seize control of the body this fall.<\/p>\n

He again attacked the news media and blamed them for incorrectly reporting that he was backing Rep. Steve Stivers in the special election \u2014 even though\u00a0Trump\u00a0himself in recent days had inadvertently tweeted his support for Stivers, who is in a different race, before correcting himself.<\/p>\n

He also defended his trade policies and, at one point, seemed to suggest that the markets would be up another 40 per cent without his tariffs \u2014 but said the measures were needed or the nation would eventually have to \u201cpay the piper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ohio rally was\u00a0Trump’s third of the week and he has pledged to accelerate his pace further as the midterms approach. He travelled to the Columbus area from his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is in the early stages of an 11-day vacation.<\/p>\n

He was joined by a familiar face on Air Force One: Hope Hicks, his longtime campaign staffer and White House communications director, who departed the administration earlier this year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEWIS CENTER, Ohio \u2014 Embracing his breakneck return to campaign politics, President Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0on Saturday argued that Republicans needed to control …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":174337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24157,16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-american-news","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-jonathan-lemire","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}