WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump will rally supporters in Ohio on Thursday days after a crisis in Iran threatened to upend his presidency and drag the U.S. into war.
For Trump, the rally – his first of 2020 – will provide a venue to explain the latest developments in the Middle East and may signal how the president will frame the complicated and perilous relationship with Tehran during his reelection campaign.
The Toledo rally is one of three Trump has scheduled so far this month. The others are set for Wisconsin, a critical state for his reelection effort, and New Jersey. The president is set to take the stage in Ohio at 7 p.m. EST.
Trump has raised Iran at virtually every political rally he has hosted since entering the White House in 2017. His remarks on one of Washington’s most challenging foes in the Middle East have generally focused on the 2015, multi-national nuclear agreement that offered sanctions relief in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program. Trump pulled the U.S. out of that agreement in 2018.
“I withdrew from the horrible one-sided Iran nuclear deal,” Trump told a rally in Louisiana in November, falling back on a phrase he has used to describe the agreement four dozen times since mid-2018. “You have a president who is standing up for America.”
President Donald Trump (Photo: Ralph Freso)
But his remarks Thursday will mark his first major political event since he ordered a drone strike last week that killed top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Iran retaliated Tuesday with a series of rockets aimed at two Iraqi airbases housing U.S. soldiers, though those attacks appeared to have caused only minimal damage.
Both sides moved Wednesday to deescalate the confrontation. Trump largely avoided saber-rattling during a nine-minute address to the nation and even suggested the possibility of a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. Iranian leaders, including foreign minister Javad Zarif described the attack as “self-defense.”
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Trump faced a similar test in 2017 as his rhetoric over North Korea began to boil. Trump held an Arizona rally at the end of August just weeks after he threatened to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea. Trump raised the issue at that rally, though his remarks were overshadowed by his comments about the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
“What I said, that’s not strong enough,” Trump said, referring to his “fire and fury” tweet. “Some people said it’s too strong; it’s not strong enough. But Kim Jong Un, I respect the fact that I believe he is starting to respect us. I respect that fact very much.”
The rally in Ohio also comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is poised to send impeachment articles to the Senate, which will determine whether to remove Trump from office. Pelosi said Thursday that she would transmit those articles “soon.” The Republican-led Senate is expected to acquit Trump on the charges of abusing his power and obstructing the congressional probe into his interactions with Ukraine.
Trump carried Ohio in the 2016 election with nearly 52% of the vote. By rallying in Toledo he can also draw from supporters in nearby Michigan, which he won narrowly.
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