President Donald Trump told a rally in Dalton, Georgia, that Senator Jon Ossoff, his Democratic rival in the upcoming election, 'was never elected' and does not represent Georgia's values. Ossoff faces Republican Congressman Mike Collins in November and holds a nine-point lead in recent polling.
Trump claimed he was completing the 'most successful' two-year stretch of any president, citing stock market gains, low unemployment, and the establishment of 'Trump accounts' for newborns. He repeated a promise that American voters would receive a $5,000 government check if Republicans retain the House, saying that $21 trillion in pledged foreign manufacturing investments would cover the cost. The Guardian notes that most of those pledges remain unfulfilled.
On foreign policy, Trump described the early days of the war on Iran, including strikes against Iranian leadership, from the perspective of Oval Office briefings. He claimed the Venezuelan government was overthrown within 48 hours. The Iran war has caused a spike in gasoline and diesel prices. Trump dismissed the term 'affordability' as Democratic propaganda and boasted that 'zero illegal aliens have been admitted into the United States' over the past 17 months.
The rally, originally scheduled to begin at 2pm, started about 80 minutes late. About 300 supporters stood unshaded in the afternoon sun. Two protesters briefly displayed an anti-ICE banner before being removed. Tracy Spencer, a supporter from Chattanooga, Tennessee, called Trump 'the greatest president of all time' and dismissed criticism from disillusioned conservatives as 'rumors.'