{"id":32829,"date":"2017-06-22T05:58:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T05:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=32829"},"modified":"2017-06-22T05:58:05","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T05:58:05","slug":"iowa-trump-rallies-base-celebrates-gop-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/iowa-trump-rallies-base-celebrates-gop-resilience.html","title":{"rendered":"In Iowa, Trump rallies base, celebrates GOP resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Iowa, Trump rallies base, celebrates GOP resilience<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

In Iowa, Trump rallies base, celebrates GOP resilience:- Struggling to advance his agenda in Washington, President Donald Trump traveled to the Midwest on Wednesday for a raucous rally with his loyal supporters \u2014 the kind of event he relished before winning the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump touched down Wednesday evening in rainy Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and headed to a local community college, where he got a look at agriculture technology innovations before leading a campaign rally.<\/span><\/p>\n

He reveled in Georgia Republican Karen Handel\u2019s congressional victory in an election viewed as an early referendum on his presidency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 5-0 in special elections,\u201d Trump said in front of a boisterous crowd that packed a downtown arena. \u201cThe truth is, people love us … they haven\u2019t figured it out yet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also applauded Republican Ralph Norman, who notched a slimmer-than-expected win in a special election to fill the South Carolina congressional seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, and mocked Handel\u2019s challenger, Jon Ossoff, saying the Democrats \u201cspent $30 million on this kid who forgot to live in the district.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump, no stranger to victory laps, 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the appearance in Cedar Rapids, he has held five rallies in the first five months in office.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event underscores Trump\u2019s comfort in a campaign setting. He laughed off the occasional heckler, repeated riffs from last year\u2019s rallies and appeared far more at ease when going after Democrats in front of adoring crowds than trying to push through his own legislative agenda from the confines of the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s 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\u2019s election and Trump\u2019s firing of his FBI director.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campaign rallies energize Trump by placing him in front of supporters who have stuck by him and are likely to dismiss the investigations as Beltway chatter.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u2014 or \u201cno party\u201d voters, as they are known in Iowa \u2014 make up 36 percent of the electorate, compared with 33 percent who register Republican and 31 percent registered as Democrat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Self-identified independents in Iowa voted for Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton by a 13-percentage-point margin last year, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks. That margin helped Trump take the state by nearly 9 points after Barack Obama won it for Democrats the previous two elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump held a Des Moines rally in December as part of his transition-era \u201cthank you\u201d tour of states he had won, but has not been back to Iowa since.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday night, he touted his administration\u2019s 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 \u201cwith heart. Add some money to it!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He avoided any discussion of the scandals surrounding his presidency, other than one brief reference to the \u201cwitch hunt,\u201d which is what he has dubbed the probes into his campaign\u2019s ties to Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s evening in Iowa began with a tribute to former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, whom he had just appointed the United States\u2019 ambassador to China. He hailed Branstad, the longest-serving governor in the nation\u2019s history and an early Trump backer, as \u201ca legend\u201d and \u201cone great man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s stop at Kirkwood Community College was intended to draw attention to the school\u2019s 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\u2019s latest theme week, this time to highlight the importance of technology. He later touted the wealth of Ross and chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, saying: \u201cThose particular positions, I just don\u2019t want a poor person. Does that make sense?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But much of Trump\u2019s attention was on the suburbs of Atlanta, in the 6th Congressional District race.<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats had lavished attention and money on Tuesday\u2019s special election, hoping for a victory that would underscore Republican worries about Trump and serve as a harbinger of a Democratic wave in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, Handel\u2019s victory, in a traditional Republican stronghold that rarely produces a competitive contest, was met with a sigh of relief among the GOP.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump tweeted several times during the night and capped the night off with a text message to supporters referring to his \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d slogan:<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/in-iowa-trump-ready-to-rally-base-celebrate-gop-resilience\/2017\/06\/21\/5eb1344c-56df-11e7-840b-512026319da7_story.html?utm_term=.1edd46612d8e<\/span><\/p>\n

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