WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will make his closing argument for Republican candidates on Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, capping a final weekend in which he told rallygoers in Iowa and Kansas that electing “‘America first’ Republicans up and down the line” would protect the agenda of his second term.
The president’s public schedule for Monday lists remarks at 2 p.m. Eastern, bracketed by a string of telephone rallies for candidates beginning at 11 a.m. and running into the evening, with the last listed for 8:15 p.m. The Associated Press reported that the president plans to deliver his closing pitch on the National Mall, the day before polls open on Tuesday.
“We’re going to elect ‘America first’ Republicans up and down the line,” Trump told supporters in Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday, according to the AP. At a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago club the night before, he summed up his case on the economy in one line: “The country has never done better.”
A final weekend in the Midwest
The president added the Iowa and Kansas stops back to his schedule late last week, and he used both to argue that Republican control of Congress is needed to keep his policies moving. His Dubuque speech ran about two hours, the AP reported.
He then flew to Salina, Kan., where Air Force One made a flyover before landing. Trump arrived later than scheduled and spoke for nearly 90 minutes, finishing close to 10 p.m. local time, according to the AP, which reported that hundreds of people left before he finished.
“This is our last stop,” Trump told the Salina crowd. “We’re closing it down tonight.”
Since Oct. 1 the president has held more than two dozen rallies in 19 states, the AP tallied. NBC News described the Kansas event as the last stop of a 28-stop midterm blitz. More than 54 million votes had already been cast nationwide before the weekend ended, according to the AP.
What Republicans are saying
Republicans framed the election as a referendum on the president’s record, and several said they welcome that. “There’s no doubt that President Trump has said himself that the midterm election is about him,” Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” according to the AP. “His agenda, without any question, is on the ballot.”
Not every Republican agreed with every part of that agenda. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring, told CNN that the administration’s tariffs are a drag in farm country. “Tariffs are not popular here in the Midwest,” Bacon said, according to the AP. “I tried telling the president that.”
The White House has argued that the tariffs protect American manufacturing and give the United States leverage in trade talks, and the president has made the economy the centerpiece of his closing message. The campaign also unfolds against the backdrop of the war with Iran, which the AP noted has shaped the final weeks of the race.
Control of both chambers is at stake on Tuesday. Republicans hold narrow majorities in the House and Senate, and Democrats need a net gain of seats in either chamber to take control for the final two years of Trump’s term.
Monday’s schedule
The telephone rallies listed on the president’s schedule run at 11 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 4 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6:15 p.m., 7 p.m., 7:45 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Eastern, according to the schedule published by the White House press pool. The schedule does not say which candidates the calls are for.
The Reflecting Pool underwent a restoration earlier this year. The president last spoke on the National Mall in June, at the kickoff of the Great American State Fair.
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