What We’re Covering Today
- Trump in Iowa: President Trump talked up the strength of the U.S. economy in Iowa and stayed mostly on script during a speech meant to try once again to convince Americans that he was focused on “affordability” ahead of this year’s midterm elections. But he said affordability was a fake issue made up by Democrats, after complaining about the criticism he has faced about the rising cost of living and falsely claiming that he has brought down grocery prices. Read more ›
- Helicopter-Plane Crash: Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board faulted the Federal Aviation Administration for discounting safety warnings and mismanaging the control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport for years, creating systemic risks that led to last year’s midair collision between a military helicopter and commercial jet, killing 67. Read more ›
- Minneapolis: Mr. Trump promised a “very honorable and honest investigation” into the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday amid a growing furor over the shooting, which prompted him to shake up leadership of the immigration crackdown there and say that he may “de-escalate” the aggressive operation in Minnesota. Follow live coverage ›
Trump in Iowa
Aishvarya KaviReporting from Iowa
After about an hour, Trump has finished speaking. He’s now waving to the crowd and walking out to “YMCA.”
Aishvarya KaviReporting from Iowa
Trump claims that most Americans support his policy to remove from the country immigrants who have committed crimes — but his administration’s raids have mostly swept up people with no criminal record. That fact has spurred many of the protests against ICE operations, including the one on Saturday in Minneapolis where Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents.
President Trump had up to this point largely stuck to the script throughout this speech, focusing on the economy and business investment. But now Trump has turned to immigration, and the speech has taken a very dark turn.
He raised the specter of immigrants who may “blow up our shopping centers, blow up our farms, kill people.” He falsely portrayed the vast majority of those detained by ICE in Minnesota and elsewhere as hardened criminals, asserting that once those people were removed, crime would be nearly eliminated.
“It’s a very simple business,” Trump said. “Two percent of the population causes 90 percent of the crime. So when you start decimating that 2 percent, boom.”
President Trump just said immigrants had to “show that they’re not going to blow up our shopping centers, blow up our farms, kill people” before entering the country. It is unclear what incidents Trump is referring to, or if he’s imagining a hypothetical spree of terrorist attacks.
Aishvarya KaviReporting from Iowa
President Trump seems to be staying on script and looking ahead to the midterms in this speech, telling the crowd that all his efforts to improve affordability will be overturned if Democrats were to gain control in the House or Senate.
“We’ve got to win the midterms, you’ve got to get out and you have got to vote,” he said, immediately following that with a negative remark about how Democrats are supporting transgender candidates and policies. The crowd responded with cheers.
President Trump is once again complaining about the criticism he has faced about the rising cost of living, simultaneously claiming, falsely, that he has brought down grocery prices, while saying that affordability is a fake issue made up by Democrats to attack him with.
“They come up with this word ‘affordability,’” Trump said of Democrats.Load 14 more posts
More Administration News
Karoun Demirjian and Kate Kelly
Karoun Demirjian reported from Washington, and Kate Kelly reported from New York.
The transportation safety board heaps blame on the F.A.A. over the midair plane-helicopter crash.
In announcing the primary causes of a fatal midair collision over the Potomac River a year ago, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the Federal Aviation Administration had designed and approved dangerous, crisscrossing flight routes that allowed an Army helicopter to fly into the landing path of a passenger jet to calamitous results.
The investigating board also castigated the agency for not doing enough to respond to warnings about longtime risks to safety and found a complacent culture within the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport that relied too heavily on pilots in the airspace being able to see and steer clear of each others’ aircraft, a practice called visual separation.
