text: CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, under siege in Washington, defended his record at a raucous political rally in Iowa on Wednesday, rejecting a Russia investigation as a witch hunt and saying he was succeeding against all odds, despite no major legislative achievements. 
   
   “All we do is win, win, win,” he told a cheering crowd. His first tweet on Thursday morning praised the “special people” there. 
   
   A feisty Trump spoke for more than an hour at a rally in Cedar Rapids that was similar to those he held during last year’s presidential campaign. It included protesters escorted out by police, Trump attacking the news media and supporters waving signs saying “Drain the Swamp” in Washington. 
   
   Trump’s first trip to Iowa since taking office on Jan. 20 came against a backdrop of problems in Washington. His legislative agenda is struggling to gain traction, a federal investigation of alleged Russian meddling into the election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign continues, and his approval rating is below 40 percent in most polls. 
   
   But Trump touted job gains and an improving stock market as evidence that his economic policies are working, and he lauded his wealthy appointees such as his top economic adviser Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a billionaire known for his investments in distressed industries. 
   
   “In those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person — does that make sense?” Trump said. 
   
   He also vowed he would eventually get funding for a border wall with Mexico, possibly with solar panels attached, despite congressional refusal thus far. 
   
   “We’re thinking about building the wall as a solar wall,” he said. “Pretty good imagination, right? It’s my ideas.” 
   
   Solar panels along the wall are among proposals that have been submitted by companies to the Department of Homeland Security, according to media reports. 
   
   Buoyed by Republican victories in special congressional elections in Georgia and South Carolina on Tuesday, Trump blasted his opponents as “unbelievably nasty” and said cable news anchors appeared stunned by the Democratic losses. 
   
   Unable to get Democrats to join Republicans in major legislative efforts, Trump said the wounding by a gunman last week of Republican Representative Steve Scalise in Alexandria, Virginia, had fostered a spirit of unity. But he did not sound optimistic about breaking through the partisan divide any time soon. 
   
   Trump said he doubted he would have help from Democrats in getting major healthcare legislation through the U.S. Congress. He wants the Senate to join the House of Representatives in approving legislation soon to overhaul the signature domestic achievement of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. 
   
   “If we went and got the single greatest healthcare plan in the history of the world we would not get one Democrat vote because they’re obstructionists,” Trump said. 
   
   Slideshow (11 Images) 
   
   Looking to foreign policy, Trump complained about the “bad hand” he had been dealt, such as North Korea’s nuclear program. His comments came days after American student Otto Warmbier died after returning in a coma from captivity in North Korea. 
   
   On Tuesday, Trump had tweeted that he has basically given up on getting help from Chinese President Xi Jinping on North Korea after investing a lot of effort to coaxing Beijing to use its influence on Pyongyang. 
   
   “I do like President Xi,” said Trump, who was with the new U.S. ambassador to China, former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. “I do wish we would have a little more help on North Korea.” ||||| President Donald Trump talks with former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Ambassador to China as they walk off of Air Force One at Eastern Iowa Airport, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday, June 21, 2017.... (Associated Press) 
   
   CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Struggling to advance his agenda in Washington, President Donald Trump traveled to the Midwest on Wednesday for a raucous rally with his loyal supporters — the kind of event he relished before winning the White House. 
   
   Trump touched down Wednesday evening in rainy Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and headed to a local community college, where he got a look at agriculture technology innovations before leading a campaign rally. 
   
   He reveled in Georgia Republican Karen Handel's congressional victory in an election viewed as an early referendum on his presidency. 
   
   "We're 5-0 in special elections," Trump said in front of a boisterous crowd that packed a downtown arena. "The truth is, people love us ... they haven't figured it out yet." 
   
   He also applauded Republican Ralph Norman, who notched a slimmer-than-expected win in a special election to fill the South Carolina congressional seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, and mocked Handel's challenger, Jon Ossoff, saying the Democrats "spent $30 million on this kid who forgot to live in the district." 
   
   Trump, no stranger to victory laps, turned his visit to a battleground state he captured in November into a celebration of his resilience despite the cloud of investigations that has enveloped his administration and sent his poll numbers tumbling. 
   
   With the appearance in Cedar Rapids, he has held five rallies in the first five months in office. 
   
   The event underscores Trump's comfort in a campaign setting. He laughed off the occasional heckler, repeated riffs from last year's rallies and appeared far more at ease when going after Democrats in front of adoring crowds than trying to push through his own legislative agenda from the confines of the White House. 
   
   Trump's aides are making a renewed push to get the president out of Washington. The capital is consumed with the investigation into Russian meddling in last year's election and Trump's firing of his FBI director. 
   
   Campaign rallies energize Trump by placing him in front of supporters who have stuck by him and are likely to dismiss the investigations as Beltway chatter. 
   
   Iowa, with its large share of independent voters, could be a proving ground for whether Trump can count on the support of voters beyond his base. Unaffiliated voters — or "no party" voters, as they are known in Iowa — make up 36 percent of the electorate, compared with 33 percent who register Republican and 31 percent registered as Democrat. 
   
   Self-identified independents in Iowa voted for Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton by a 13-percentage-point margin last year, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks. That margin helped Trump take the state by nearly 9 points after Barack Obama won it for Democrats the previous two elections. 
   
   Trump held a Des Moines rally in December as part of his transition-era "thank you" tour of states he had won, but has not been back to Iowa since. 
   
   Wednesday night, he touted his administration's efforts to roll back regulations, mused about putting solar panels on a Mexican border wall, derided wind power for killing birds in a state that uses a lot of it and revealed that he urged the Senate to create a health care plan "with heart. Add some money to it!" 
   
   He avoided any discussion of the scandals surrounding his presidency, other than one brief reference to the "witch hunt," which is what he has dubbed the probes into his campaign's ties to Russia. 
   
   Trump's evening in Iowa began with a tribute to former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, whom he had just appointed the United States' ambassador to China. He hailed Branstad, the longest-serving governor in the nation's history and an early Trump backer, as "a legend" and "one great man." 
   
   Trump's stop at Kirkwood Community College was intended to draw attention to the school's advancements in high-tech agriculture, but he resisted sitting behind the wheel of a virtual reality device that simulated a giant combine harvester. He was joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as part of the administration's latest theme week, this time to highlight the importance of technology. He later touted the wealth of Ross and chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, saying: "Those particular positions, I just don't want a poor person. Does that make sense?" 
   
   But much of Trump's attention was on the suburbs of Atlanta, in the 6th Congressional District race. 
   
   Democrats had lavished attention and money on Tuesday's special election, hoping for a victory that would underscore Republican worries about Trump and serve as a harbinger of a Democratic wave in 2018. 
   
   Instead, Handel's victory, in a traditional Republican stronghold that rarely produces a competitive contest, was met with a sigh of relief among the GOP. 
   
   Trump tweeted several times during the night and capped the night off with a text message to supporters referring to his "Make America Great Again" slogan: 
   
   "The MAGA Mandate is stronger than ever. BIG LEAGUE." 
   
   ___ 
   
   Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report. 
   
   ___ 
   
   Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire
target: – President Trump spoke to 6,000 supporters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday night at a gathering that strongly resembled one of his raucous campaign rallies—right down to whistle-blowing protesters and chants of "Lock her up" when Hillary Clinton's name was mentioned. In what is being widely described as a "victory lap," Trump, making his first trip west of the Mississippi since becoming president, spoke for more than an hour and unveiled policy proposals including a plan to ban immigrants from receiving welfare for their first five years in the US. A roundup of coverage: Trump said he will ask Congress to pass a law ensuring new immigrants "support themselves financially and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years." The rule already exists as part of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, though large parts of the act were rolled back under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Fox reports. Trump plans to expand the list of benefits that new immigrants will not be eligible for. In one of his most controversial remarks, Trump defended his choice of billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary, explaining that he doesn't want poor people to hold economic roles in his administration, the Guardian reports. "I love all people, rich or poor, but in those particular positions I just don’t want a poor person," he said. The AP reports that Trump made no mention of the assorted scandals he is dealing with in Washington, apart from a brief reference to the "witch hunt" Russia probe. "All we do is win, win, win," Trump said, boasting of the GOP's 5-0 winning streak in special elections and slamming "unbelievably nasty" Democrats and the media. "The truth is, people love us ... they haven't figured it out yet," he said, per the Hill. Trump said he has come up with a plan to put solar panels on his proposed border wall, but dismissed wind energy, the New York Times reports. "I don't want to just hope the wind blows to light up your house and your factory as the birds fall to the ground," he said. The president said he has been calling for a healthcare plan "with heart," but complained that he would get no help from Democrats in getting it through Congress, reports Reuters. "If we went and got the single greatest healthcare plan in the history of the world we would not get one Democrat vote because they’re obstructionists," he said.