Trump heads West in latest swing to bolster GOP in rocky lead-up to midterms

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump this week will journey out West in an effort to galvanize support for Republican candidates three weeks before the midterm elections and convince voters to support his party amid low presidential approval ratings.

As the deeply unpopular war in Iran enters month eight, resulting in spiking prices at the gas pump and skyrocketing fertilizer prices for the agriculture industry, Trump is scheduled to rally in Alaska on Tuesday and Arizona and Montana on Wednesday, following stops earlier this month in GOP-friendly states that kicked off the last weeks before the election. On Friday, Trump is expected to campaign in Georgia.

Presidents typically sustain electoral losses in midterm election years and in addition, Trump’s approval rating is currently hovering around 37% percent, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

Those low approval rates, and polls, have shifted several Senate races to toss-ups. 

The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas as toss-up Senate races. Republicans are not only trying to maintain the House, but their 53-seat majority in the Senate as well. 

The president’s travel also follows a federal judge’s ruling over the weekend that ordered the Trump administration to stop airing ads funded by taxpayer dollars that portrayed Trump in a favorable manner. Trump used about $20 million in Department of Homeland Security funds to pay for the ads. 

Trump’s comes after a campaign rally in Tennessee over the weekend. During his remarks in Clarksville, he focused on accusing Democrats of being communists and socialists. 

On Monday, Trump is heading to Youngstown, Ohio to deliver remarks. GOP Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill out the term of Vice President JD Vance, is in a tight race against former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. 

Trump is not only in Ohio to support Husted, but also to throw his support behind gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is up against Democrat Amy Acton.

Vance is also hitting the campaign trail this week. On Wednesday, he’ll visit Georgia and on Thursday will make another stop in Michigan. 

Trump is also likely to bring up in his campaign rallies Monday’s joint Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations raid of Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s house in Washington, D.C. It’s a rare move from the Justice Department only several weeks out from the election, given the department generally doesn’t conduct such raids unless in extreme circumstances. 

She, along with the broader Somali community in Minnesota, are regularly targeted by the president and disproportionately accused of widespread fraud. Recently, the president used violent rhetoric in a social media post that called on Minnesotans to “fight back” against Somali immigrants.

The president directed DHS to Minneapolis, where there is a large Latino and Somali refugee population. A months-long aggressive deportation drive there resulted in then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stepping down from her position after federal immigration officials shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.