Nonetheless, Pennsylvania still occupies a hallowed place in the Trump psyche, and the president was eager to return, aides said. The state, with its 20 electoral votes, was critical to Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, and his rallies here, especially in the Wilkes-Barre area, were among the most raucous of the campaign.<doc-sep>Supporters cheer upon the arrival of President Donald Trump for a political rally at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Thursday evening. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images elections Trump rallies in Pennsylvania as his fortunes there sag The president, who put in a pugnacious performance, is aiming to energize his supporters in a critical swing state while helping a close ally in an uphill Senate battle. Officially, President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania was intended to boost Republican Lou Barletta’s long-shot Senate campaign. But Trump’s own sagging fortunes — and the importance of the state to his 2020 reelection hopes — were top of mind. Barletta faces an uphill battle to oust two-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who holds a massive financial advantage and a double-digit lead in nearly all early public polls. Yet even as some Republicans shrug off the race and look elsewhere to protect their Senate majority, the president remains closely engaged in the state. Trump wants to help Barletta, an early and enthusiastic supporter of his presidential bid. But Trump’s own approval numbers are underwater in the state, which he won by just 1.2 percentage points, and keeping his base motivated through the midterms is critical to laying the groundwork to compete there again in 2020. “It's a 2020 effort that you're also getting some mileage on for 2018,” said one former administration official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “Barletta's campaign just can't find the right gear. Is this the kind of thing that can springboard him? Sure, it might be able to.” Trump has returned to Pennsylvania a half-dozen times since he took office, and Republicans there say he can’t come back often enough. “I’m an advocate for having the president go to Pennsylvania between now and 2020 as frequently as he can,” said David Urban, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign in the state in 2016. “Good old-fashioned rallies work.” Trump assailed Casey during the rally Thursday night, deeming him beholden to party leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Echoing his repeated attacks on Democrats, the president said Casey is weak on immigration; did not support Justice Neil Gorsuch and isn't supporting his current Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh; and was opposed to the GOP tax plan. “Don't fall asleep as we talk about sleeping Bob. Sleeping Bob,” Trump said bestowing a new nickname on Casey. Trump said voters should choose Barletta, who is “smart” and “strong." Trump joked he wanted to watch the Republican hopeful debate Casey this fall, because Barletta’s performance would be “great entertainment.” Few other Republicans have prioritized Barletta’s race. The party sees much better opportunities to flip seats elsewhere, in states that Trump won by wider margins. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t name Pennsylvania among the states he believes will determine control of the Senate, and a super PAC aligned with the leader hasn’t spent on or booked any TV advertising there. Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Rather than assisting Barletta, Americans for Prosperity, the flagship group of the Koch brothers’ political network, ran digital ads earlier this year criticizing him. “In a different environment, maybe the race would be a little bit more competitive,” one Republican strategist said. “It's hard to see how we get there this time, unfortunately.” Yet the White House has remained intensely engaged in the state, which also features a gubernatorial race and a half-dozen competitive House races. Trump’s first trip on Air Force One was to Philadelphia, and he rallied in Harrisburg to mark his first 100 days in office. He visited twice earlier this year to boost the Republican ahead of a special House election, though Democrats ultimately won the seat. Thursday marks his first rally specifically for Barletta, and Vice President Pence was in Philadelphia last month to campaign and raise money for the congressman. Trump endorsed Barletta and cut a robocall for him ahead of the May primary, even though he was heavily favored to win against a little-known state lawmaker. "Looking forward to being in the Great State of Pennsylvania where we had a tremendous victory in the Election," Trump tweeted Thursday afternoon. "Will be campaigning hard for an original supporter, Lou Barletta, to replace a weak an ineffective Senator, Bob Casey. Lou is tough and smart, loves PA and our Country!" Barletta said in an interview that he and Trump spoke after the May primary, and the president said he wanted to hold a rally for him. Some in Barletta’s campaign wanted the rally in western Pennsylvania, a part of the state where he needs big vote margins but his low name ID is an issue. But Trump wanted to do it in Wilkes-Barre, in the same arena he visited a month before Election Day 2016. “Everyone thought it would be a good idea for a presidential visit out in Western PA to help with building that name ID in a part of the state where I'm not as well known as the eastern part of the state,” Barletta said. “But I think this is going to turn out very good. There's a lot of excitement back home.” Some Republicans are skeptical that Trump will be all-in for Barletta as Election Day approaches, viewing this rally as more of a favor to a loyal supporter. "This seems to be more about paying back Barletta for his early support of Trump in 2016 than anything else," said one Republican consultant, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. "If the White House really believes this race is competitive you will see the president there in October." But Republicans in the state say Barletta will need Trump there often in the next three months.<doc-sep>President Trump at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Aug. 2, 2018. (Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg} In yet another turbulent week for the White House, the president twice took comfort in his safest of safe spaces: the Trump rally. On Tuesday in Tampa, Fla., and Thursday in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Trump basked in the applause, the encouraging chants of “CNN Sucks!,” and the sight of ubiquitous red hats and no longer cryptic “Q” signs and t-shirts that dotted his crowds. The ostensible reason for the rallies was to campaign for two Republican candidates Trump hopes will save him the humiliation of heavy GOP losses in the forthcoming midterm elections. In Florida, the president threw his support behind Ron DeSantis, a frontrunner in the Aug. 28 Republican primary for governor whose fawning, pro-Trump campaign ad set a new high-water mark for partisan flattery. While DeSantis’s Democratic opponent has yet to be decided, Trump began testing out the lines he’ll be using over and over until November to keep his party in power. “In the November general election, don’t forget, you have somebody, one of the group is going to be running on open borders, anti-ICE, anti-law enforcement,” Trump said as his audience obliged him with loud booing. In Pennsylvania, after another detailed recounting of his 2016 election night victory, Trump sought to boost the U.S. Senate candidacy of Lou Barletta, bashing his opponent with attacks that echoed those used in Florida. The crowd revs up before a Trump rally in Tampa, Fla., in July. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) “Bob Casey wants open borders, which means crime. It means crime. You see this. He wants people to pour in, and if they pour in by the millions, that’s, I guess, OK.” As they have since he started his campaign, Trump’s most fervent supporters reveled at every freewheeling, rhetorical turn, engaging in a kind of call-and-response shorthand between audience and speaker. At the mention of Hillary Clinton, the crowd in Pennsylvania seized on the name and started up a “Lock Her Up!” chant, which gave the president another opportunity to ad lib on a subject never far from his tweeting fingers. Story continues “No, no, no, no. They only want to hurt Republicans,” Trump said, apparently referring to the Department of Justice, which is run by his appointee Jeff Sessions. “They don’t want to do anything. But you know what, it’s all changing, folks, it’s all changing.” With strong second-quarter GDP numbers in his back pocket, Trump might simply content himself on the stump to arguing that his economic policies are working, but that would mean passing up an opportunity to have some fun at his enemies’ expense. In Tampa, Trump found a way brag about stock market and 401K gains during his tenure while simultaneously attacking the organizations that report on them daily. “Of course, if the fake news did a poll, they’re called ‘suppression polls,’ you know polls are fake just like everything else,” Trump said as his fans started booing in support. “If the fake news did a poll, it would show that I’m only getting 25 percent with the 401K, even though they’re up 44 percent. No, we’re doing well.” Trump fan David Reinert at a recent rally in Wilkes Barre, Pa. “Q” is a conspiracy theory group that has made its presence known at recent rallies. (Photo: Rick Loomis/Getty Images) In the very next sentence, however, polling rebounded sharply in the president’s estimation. “They just came out with a poll, did you hear? The most popular person in the history of the Republican Party is Trump, can you believe it? So I said, Does that include, does that include Honest Abe Lincoln? You know he was pretty good, right? Remember I said, I’d be a little bit wild, and we’d have a lot of fun. They said, ‘He’s not acting presidential,’ and I said, ‘Well, it’s a lot easier to act presidential than to do what I do.’ Anybody can act presidential,” Trump said, making his posture robot-rigid and motoring back and forth on the stage to the delight of his crowd before mimicking a humdrum politician. “Ladies and gentlemen of the state of Florida, thank you very much for being here. You are tremendous people and I will leave now because I am boring you to death, thank you.” Though Trump failed to mention that the Republican party is shrinking, the robot routine was an undeniably entertaining performance, the likes of which have never been given behind a presidential seal. That’s what Trump’s supporters so admire about him. “Part of how Trump ended up being elected was that voters didn’t care if he had experience. They wanted him to blow up the system. In a sense they said, If the government is punished by us electing Trump, so be it,” Republican strategist Rick Tyler, who served as Sen. Ted Cruz’s communications director in the 2016 presidential campaign, told Yahoo News. “There’s an element of ‘I don’t really care what he does as long as he’s mad about it.’” Photo: Chris Urso/Tampa Bay Times via Zuma Wire Inside Trump’s rallies this week, it was easy for the president and his admirers to, at least for a little while, forget about the headlines that did not adhere to the White House script. Trump’s former campaign manager’s trail had began Monday in Alexandria, Va. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, continued to move the goalposts Monday on whether Trump may have colluded with the Russians in the 2016 election. Trump found himself at war with Republican megadonors Charles and David Koch over whether the president’s trade war with China would result in financial calamity for the U.S. On Wednesday, Trump himself, in an act that legal scholars said could amount to obstruction of justice, called on his attorney general to shut down special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia in 2016. A day later, his own intelligence chiefs gave a White House briefing that made clear that Russian interference was not fake news, and posed a significant threat to the midterms.<doc-sep>what was said “Highways would take 21 years to get approved. We have it down to two years, and it’s going to be one year very shortly.” — President Trump, at a campaign rally on Thursday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. the facts This is exaggerated. Mr. Trump has doubled a previously exaggerated claim about the permitting process for roads and infrastructure taking a decade. Average wait times for a permit ranged from three to six years from the fiscal years 1999 to 2016, according to the Federal Highway Administration. In the 2017 fiscal year, the average wait time was three years and 10 months, almost double Mr. Trump’s claim of a two-year period. (Data for the 2018 fiscal year, which ends in September, is not yet available.) what was said “Our first lottery winner — let’s see, he has seven convictions for theft. He’s killed nine people. And we’re getting him the hell out of our country and giving them to the stupid politicians that have been running the United States for many years.’” the facts False. Mr. Trump has previously said that other countries were not “giving us their best” through the diversity visa lottery program. He has now escalated that unsubstantiated — and vague — claim into a false one by suggesting that foreign governments are sending murderers through the program.<doc-sep>
"We’re either getting it or we’re shutting down government," Trump said. WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- Despite assurances from a number of prominent Republicans on Capitol Hill that the country will avoid another government shutdown at the end of September, President Donald Trump Thursday repeated his much-publicized stance that a closure is in the cards — and that he would prefer for it to come before the midterm elections. "We're about to get really nasty over the wall," the president said to the crowd gathered here for a "Make America Great Again" rally, alongside Rep. Lou Barletta, a senate hopeful in Pennsylvania. "We’re either getting it or we’re shutting down government. We need border security. We need border security," Trump said. The president believes a standoff would be worth the chance to force Congress' hand over border funding — much as he did at the beginning of the year when the government shut down for three days over a resolution for DACA recipients that also ensnared wall funding. Just before that shut down in January, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found Americans would be substantially more likely to blame Trump and the Republicans in Congress for a shut down, rather than the Democrats -- numbers that are particularly noteworthy three months ahead of midterm elections where a wave of Democratic enthusiasm is predicted to crest. And despite the focus of the event -- to boost Barletta in his challenge of incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey -- the president said that he'd prefer such a shutdown take place prior to the November elections. The stop in Pennsylvania gave hope to Republicans looking to see Casey’s seat flip to Barletta, who is trailing in fundraising efforts compared to the moderate incumbent, but also served a dual purpose for the president. As Trump continues to talk about his 2020 election bid, a stop in Pennsylvania, which he won narrowly in 2016, also drew enthusiasm for his own presidential campaign. In a preview of the increasingly regular campaign stops he plans to make ahead of the midterms this fall — he may do as many as five a week — Trump largely stuck to his greatest hits Thursday. On Putin, who the intelligence community concluded likely was aware of Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, the president said the two recently had a "great meeting" and "discussed everything." Trump made no mention Thursday of the announcement by leaders of his national security team at the White House briefing that same day that efforts by Russia and other countries to engage in the 2018 midterm elections are ongoing. "We got along really well. That's a good thing," Trump said. He also touted the savings he brought home after meeting with NATO leaders and lambasted the press for what he sees as unfair media coverage — pointing at the press, calling the group "fake, disgusting news" and "horrible, horrendous people." It was the second of three rallies around the country on the president’s schedule this week after traveling to Tampa, Florida, to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Ron Desantis. On Saturday he heads to Ohio, where he’s endorsed Republican state Sen. Troy Balderson in the 12th Congressional District special election. Noticeably absent from the Pennsylvania rally was a brewing conspiracy movement that cropped up in the form of widespread t-shirts and signage at the president’s Tuesday rally in Tampa, Florida: the declaration by supporters "I am Q." Though still interspersed in the crowd, mention or support of Q or QAnon was meek. QAnon claims Trump is defending the country from purported crimes that the Obama and Clinton administration did not, according to available evidence, commit. In a press briefing the day of the Tampa rally, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders denounced in vague terms the "violence" associated with the theory, which metastasized out of a conspiracy that led to gunfire in a pizza shop in Washington, D.C., in 2016. "The president condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against another individual, and certainly doesn’t support groups that would promote that type of behavior. We’ve been clear about that a number of times since the beginning of the administration," Sanders said. But a victory lap had already been announced by the conspiracy's originator, Q, who anonymously and without proof claims to be a government official. "You are now mainstream.