STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump is campaigning as if he were on the ballot. He held two rallies yesterday and has another one scheduled for tomorrow. NPR's Tamara Keith reports on what his travel schedule reveals about how he views the campaign.
TAMARA KEITH, HOST:
Early in September, President Trump gathered Republicans running in competitive races for a dinner in the White House Rose Garden. Prime-aged beef burgers were on the menu as the president made a pledge to spend the final 30 days before the midterms campaigning for them.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm going to go to every one of those 35 places, and we're going to see if we can get everyone elected.
KEITH: The White House hasn't clarified which 35 places the president was talking about that night, but they did release a list of about 30 Republicans who were at that dinner. Since then, Trump has only campaigned with a handful of them. Rather than focus on swing states and swing districts, as Trump had said he would do, this fall his travel schedule has taken him to a lot of Republican territory.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
TRUMP: And hello to the great state of Texas. Thank you.
Thank you. Ohio, we love you. God bless you.
So ladies and gentlemen of Nebraska, a special place. I love it.
Well, thank you very much. Hello, Montana. We love you, Montana.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: We love you.
KEITH: And last weekend, Trump wondered aloud why he was holding a rally in deep red Tennessee.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: These guys are all going to win. These congressmen are phenomenal. So I'm saying, what the hell am I doing in Tennessee? And in a way, I'm here because you want to reward the places that have automatically treated you well.
(CHEERING)
KEITH: President Trump is spending a lot of time in red states, even making the very long trip to Alaska.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: This is worth the eight hours on a plane. And don't forget, I got eight hours going back, too. Give me credit for that.
KEITH: And next week, he's campaigning in Kansas. There are a couple of things at play here. Republicans are on defense in a lot of states where they've traditionally won without much trouble. And regardless of what he said a month ago about going everywhere, Trump's team is picking locations where he can activate the Republican base in places where he's done well in the past.
JOE GRUTERS: Just a lot of excitement, a lot of momentum building up on the ground here. Good energy.
KEITH: I caught Republican Party chairman Joe Gruters on the phone from Trump's rally yesterday in Arizona.
GRUTERS: It's turnout, turnout, turnout. How do you get the base to show up? You put the president on the ballot. You put him out there.
KEITH: As for Trump's message, it doesn't change much from stop to stop. There are the greatest hits - his past election wins, his One Big Beautiful Bill and a walk down memory lane from right before he launched the war with Iran when gas prices were cheaper.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: And I'm in Iowa, driving down the road, $1.95 a gallon, $1.85 at the second station a gallon.
KEITH: Next Tuesday, he's set to campaign in Greenville, North Carolina. There's a congressional district there that was redrawn to favor Republicans as part of Trump's mid-decade redistricting push. Anderson Clayton is chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.
ANDERSON CLAYTON: And I think it's going to backfire on them this year, in every way, shape and form. And I think that's why you see Donald Trump coming down to North Carolina because he knows that his policies have been unpopular. He's trying to drive up any amount of support that he possibly can at the last minute. But I don't think that North Carolinians are going to fall for it again.
KEITH: She says Democratic voters are motivated. Polls show that too. The question is whether Trump still has enough juice to pull Republican candidates over the finish line.
Tamara Keith, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
