Trump Reaches For His Old Security Blanket: The Free-Form Campaign Rally

During a trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday night, President Donald Trump returned to his comfort zone of the campaign rally, delivering a rambling speech resembling those he gave during his presidential campaign.

Trump bragged about his accomplishments in office and railed against Democrats and his favorite bogeyman, the media, in a speech that lasted for more than an hour.

Toward the beginning of his speech, the President touted Republican legislation to repeal Obamacare — the Senate GOP caucus is set to reveal its bill on Thursday. Trump complained about the lack of Democratic support for Republicans’ push to erase President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

“If we went and got the single greatest health care plan in the history of the world, we would not get one Democrat vote, because they’re obstructionists,” Trump said. “If we came to you and said, ‘Here’s your plan, you’re going to have the greatest plan in history, and you’re going to pay nothing,’ they’d vote against it, folks.”

He told the crowd that he wanted a “plan with heart,” even though a draft of the Senate bill proposed deeper funding cuts to Medicaid than the House version.

“If we had even a little Democrat support, just a little, like a couple of votes, you’d have everything. And you could give us a lot of votes and we’d even be willing to change it and move it around and try and make it even better,” Trump said. “But again, They just want to stop, they just want to obstruct. A few votes from the Democrats, seriously, a few votes from the Democrats, it could be so easy and so beautiful, and you’d have cooperation.”

Trump then pivoted to Democrats’ loss in the Georgia special election Tuesday night, bragging that Democrats spent millions only to lose the race.

“Their plan isn’t working because they thought they were going to win last night in Atlanta,” he said.

He also blasted the media for the way outlets covered the race.

“This phony NBC television network — they actually had one of the people say ‘It was a little rainy last night. Maybe that was the difference in Karen’s race,'” Trump told the crowd. “Can you believe that?”

At another point in the speech, Trump defended his decision to appoint wealthy businessmen to top cabinet roles, explaining that he doesn’t want “poor” people in that type of position.

“These are people that are great, brilliant business minds,” Trump said. “I love all people. Rich or poor. But in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? If you insist, I’ll do it—but I like it better this way, right?”