“I work so hard for this state. I work so hard.”
That’s how President Donald Trump opened his Des Moines rally on Thursday night in front of thousands of supporters. The Knapp Center filled up two hours after doors opened, leaving many out in the cold.
But, for those who made it inside, they were able to hear Trump play all the hits during a speech that lasted nearly 90 minutes.
He opened the rally by talking about his successful trade deals.
“You’re going to have to get bigger tractors and a hell of a lot more land,” Trump told those in attendance. “You’ve got to produce a lot of product.”
He said he was glad to be back in America’s Heartland with thousands of loyal, hard-working, American patriots.
“This November we’re going to defeat the radical, socialist Democrats that are right down the street,” he said.
Nobody, Trump said, is watching the Democrat debates.
“We’re going to win the great state of Iowa, and it’s going to be a historic landslide,” he said. “If we don’t win, your farms are going to hell, I can tell you right now. Sell, sell. They’ll be saying sell.”
Iowa’s unemployment rate is at an all-time low.
After poking fun at his Democrat rivals, Trump went back to trade and pumped the newly signed USMCA agreement.
“It’s a massive win,” Trump said.
Trump said the biggest reason he ran for President was because of poor trade deals.
Farmers, Trump said, were targeted to dislike Trump due to his tariffs. But it didn’t work. Farmers knew what needed to be done and they only ever wanted a fair playing field.
America, Trump said, is respected again.
He said he has fully rebuilt the United States military.
“And thanks to the courage of American heroes, the ISIS caliphate has been totally destroyed and its founder and leader, the animal known as Al-Baghdadi, is dead,” Trump said. “And Crazy Nancy Pelosi said ‘don’t call him an animal, he’s a human being.’ No, he’s an animal; he’s an animal.”
Trump also talked about removing Qasem Soleimani, who Trump said loved roadside bombs.
“He was responsible, more than anybody else, 90 percent they say of these roadside bombs, he was responsible and he took a hard hit,” Trump said. “Soleimani was actively planning new attacks, but we ended his bloody rampage forever.”
Trump then
“While we’re proudly creating jobs and killing terrorists, congressional Democrats are obsessed with a deranged, witchhunt, hoax,” he said. “We’re having probably the best years that we’ve ever had in our country. And I just got impeached.”
But, Trump said, impeachment won’t work.
“They want to nullify your ballots, poison our democracy and overthrow the entire system of government,” he said. “That’s not happening, I can tell you that.”
Despite the impeachment, Trump said he hit his highest poll numbers since becoming President.
Trump went off script briefly when talking about Hillary Clinton. Someone from the crowd shouted “Hillary for prison.”
“I like that idea,” he said. “Wouldn’t we like to run against her? Whose tougher — her, Crazy Bernie, Biden, Boot-edge-edge? I don’t know, maybe we take another crack at Crazy Hillary.”
Iowans have endured plenty during the caucus cycle.
“During this campaign season, the good people of Iowa have had a front-row seat to the lunacy and the madness of the totally sick Left,” Trump said. “Today’s Democrat Party is run by left-wing extremists who want to massively raise your taxes, increase regulations, cancel your health plans, raid Medicare, shut down American energy, destroy your social security, eliminate religious liberty, punish free speech, confiscate your guns, abolish your borders and indoctrinate America’s children with hateful left-wing ideology. Other than that, they’re OK.”
Trump said the 2020 election is a choice between American freedom and Democrat’s socialism.
“The Democrats will lose because America will never be a socialist country,” Trump said. “We can’t.”
Trump then talked about the enthusiasm he sees in his supporters.
“(The media) doesn’t talk about that,” he said. “Joe had a crowd that was so small the other day that they set up a roundtable.”
He settled on criticizing the media for a time before returning to the Democrats. He said Nancy Pelosi’s district was beautiful but now is a disgraced being watched all over the world.
“We have to take back the House of Representatives,” Trump said. “Registered Democrats and Independents are leaving the Democrat Party in droves and we are welcoming these people and these great voters to the Republican Party with wide open arms.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders made a brief cameo. She told everyone she met her husband in Des Moines.
“I love being back in Iowa, it’s an amazing place,” she said. “We’re sorry you’ve had so many crazy liberal Democrats running around here the last year, but the good news is, it’s not going to matter. Because at the end of the day, this guy will still be our President.”
Since the 2016 election, Trump said the administration has created 7 million new jobs. The average unemployment rate is the lowest it’s ever been. Unemployment rates for African American, Hispanic American and Asian American unemployment rates have also hit the lowest levels ever recorded.
“Under the so-called Trump Economy, the lowest-paid earners are reaping the fastest gains of any group,” Trump said. “And that’s a great thing. This is a blue-collar boom.”
Earnings for the bottom 10 percent are rising faster than earnings for the top 10 percent. Median household income has gone up by $10,000 under Trump.
He brought up the Green New Deal, which he said would crush farmers and kill Iowa’s cows.
“They want to kill our cows,” he said. “That means you’re next. And they want to wipe out, totally, Iowa ethanol.”
He said he doesn’t want to attack the Green New Deal.
“I don’t want to talk about it until two months before the election,” he said. “And then I’ll tell you how insane it is.”
Trump talked about how Americans had been lied to for years by politicians who forgot to fix the problems they told people back home they’d address.
“The era of economic surrender is over,” Trump said. “Because now we are finally putting America first.”
Trump said immigration is the issue where Democrats have betrayed Americans most.
“Illegal immigration costs our nation hundreds of billions of dollars, drains public services, overcrowds our schools and hospitals and threatens innocent American lives at a number that you wouldn’t even believe,” Trump said.
A twice-deported illegal alien was charged with shooting and killing a woman, her 11-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old son in Des Moines.
Last year, Trump said, ICE arrested nearly 4,000 illegal aliens charged or convicted of heinous crimes including robbery, rape and murder.
“Yet today’s Democrat Party glorifies illegal immigration,” Trump said. “Many are fine people, but some are stone-cold rapists and murderers and people that their countries don’t want.”
One of Trump’s strongest applause lines came when he discussed solutions for sanctuary cities.
“Sanctuary city policies aren’t just wrong, they’re immoral and they’re lethal and they really are something that has to be stopped and they have to be stopped now,” he said. “Thankfully here in Iowa, you’re great Republican Governor signed a statewide ban on sanctuary cities. Thank you, Kim. And that is why we need to elect more Republicans nationwide to end sanctuary cities in all 50 states.”
Democrats, Trump said, stand for crime, corruption and chaos while Republicans stand for law, order and justice.
Healthcare is another area of improvement. Trump reminded supporters his administration got rid of the ObamaCare individual mandate. Policies are also leading to cheaper plans and more transparency in health care. Right to Try also came up.
Trump finished with a grand finale of sorts.
“Every top Democrat also now supports late-term abortion ripping babies straight from the mother’s womb, right up until the moment of birth,” Trump said. “Republicans believe that every child is a sacred gift from God.”
That line was also one of the most popular of the night.
“Democrats are now the Party of high taxes, high crime, open borders, late-term abortion, socialism and blatant corruption,” Trump said. “The Republican Party is the Party of the American worker, the American family, the American dream, and the late great, Abraham Lincoln.”
Trump talked about the Democrats as maniacs.
“These people are maniacs,” he said.
Late in the speech, he said he could just come in and say, “hello Iowa, you have no choice, you have to vote for me. Otherwise, everything you’ve built in your entire life will be gone. Goodbye, Iowa.”
“Instead I work my ass off up here,” Trump said. “True. You think this is easy, it’s a little hot in this room. This room wasn’t designed for this many people.”
He said it’s important to devote everything Americans have toward victory in 2020.
One of the final highlights was his promise to fight for the Second Amendment.
“In the state of Virginia they want to take your guns away,” Trump said. “The Democrats. Not gonna happen.
“Above all we will never stop fighting for the sacred values that bind us together as one America. We are one, great America. We support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. We stand with the incredible heroes of law enforcement. We believe in the dignity of work and the sanctity of life. We believe that family and faith, not government bureaucracy are the true American way. We believe that children should be taught to love our country, honor our history and to always respect our great American flag. And we live by the words of our national motto, In God We Trust.”
