Donald Trump was back in full form Wednesday night at a rally in Cedar Falls, Iowa that ran over an hour and played like a remix of his favorite topics. And like he has before in other largely unscripted speeches, the president said several things that were inaccurate or outright false.
“We’re not even campaigning and look at this crowd,” Trump declared, though the event was advertised as a campaign rally and tickets were distributed on his campaign website. It also had the feel of a pre-election rally — one point, the crowd began chanting “lock her up.”
Ostensibly in Iowa to focus on agriculture, the president promised to rebuild rural America and extolled vocational training for farmers, saying,“We will rebuild rural America. Though Trump noted that American farmers haven’t been on a “level playing field,” he also said that he selected men like former Goldman Sachs exec Gary Cohn for director of the National Economic Council and Wilbur Ross for Secretary of Commerce because of their status as “a rich person.”
President Trump on wealthy cabinet picks: "In those particular positions, I just don't want a poor person" https://t.co/rhCZP28VqS — NBC News (@NBCNews) June 22, 2017
“I love all people. Rich or poor. But in those particular positions I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense?” Trump said. “If you insist, I’ll do it, but I like it better this way.”
He made a few other notable statements:
On immigration: “The time has come for new immigration rules which say that those seeking admission into our country must be able to support themselves financially and should not use welfare for a period of at least five years.”
Trump promised to create legislation to this effect “very shortly.” Hopefully, he won’t get too deep into drafting it before somebody clues him into the fact that that’s already the law and has been since 1996.
On the Paris climate accord: “They all say it’s non-binding. Like hell it’s non-binding.”
That’s mostly correct — the accord is indeed non-binding. Still, it’s a common theme for Trump. In his speech announcing the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Trump repeatedly, and paradoxically, portrayed the United States as hamstrung by the non-binding accord’s requirements while other countries did as they pleased.
On energy: “I don’t want to just hope the wind blows to light up your homes.”
This attack was less inaccurate than flat-out bizarre, since jobs in wind energy sector are not only a rapidly growing industry in Iowa and across the country, but wind supplies Iowa with almost a third of its total energy. It’s also not how wind energy works.
On the wall: “We’re thinking about building the wall as a solar wall. Solar creates energy and pays for itself. And this way, Mexico will have to pay much less money. And that’s good, right? Is that good?”
Trump’s announcement appeared to confirm a June 6 report from Axios, citing three anonymous sources, that Trump had been pitching solar panels in a meeting with lawmakers. Despite the new proposal, Mexico is still refusing to pay for any of the wall.
By Carter Sherman and Gabrielle Bluestone on Jun 21, 2017