Trump is about to start a rally in Fargo. I am going to tweet tweets. Mute this thread if you want to not see the tweets.
Trump begins by noting that the crowd is very big and that, he says, there is a bigger crowd outside. He says he should have held this rally in a 24,000-seat arena instead of this arena, but then, if there were two empty seats, the media would say it wasn't full.
Trump congratulates the North Dakota State Bison. He says he thought it was Bisons, with an S, and was told it is, but they just "pronounce it" without the S. (There is no S.)
Trump is thanking various people, including, at length, pillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell. "You ever see this guy with the pillows on Fox? My pillow guy, Mike Lindell...he does make a great product, great pillows. I actually use them, believe it or not."
Trump invites up Rep. Kevin Cramer, who thanks Trump for the tax cuts, "on behalf of the middle class," and for "standing for life," on behalf of "the unborn babies."
Trump on Democrats: "Now they have a new leader. Who's the new leader? Maxine Waters is their new leader...I think she's taking over."
Trump begins to attack North Dakota candidate Heidi Heitkamp for her vote against Obamacare repeal, then quickly forgets about her and starts criticizing Republican non-candidate John McCain for his vote against Obamacare repeal.
"Obamacare is essentially dead," Trump falsely claims for the 28th time.
Trump is now back to Heitkamp. He accuses her of abandoning her promise to be "independent" and instead being an acolyte of "Chuck and Nancy."
A vote for Heitkamp, Trump says, is "a vote for Schumer, Pelosi and Maxine. Maxine, she's a beauty."
Trump claims of Waters: "I mean she practically was telling people the other day to assault." She made clear she was calling for verbal confrontation of Trump Cabinet officials, not assault.
Trump briefly touts the Supreme Court ruling upholding the travel ban. There is a U-S-A chant. Then he starts mocking the media and Hillary Clinton's crowds. Then he says NFL ratings are down because people are watching him instead.
NFL ratings are down, the president explains, because "they find this more exciting than the NFL and a helluva lot more dangerous." (Is he calling his own rallies dangerous I don't know)
Trump is doing the thing about how the TV stations don't show the crowds. This crowds-related segment is lasting much longer than the travel ban segment.
"The late, great Cecil B. DeMille would not have set it up this way," the president says of his rally, then returns to the travel ban, then notes Anthony Kennedy's retirement.
Trump on Kennedy: "I'm very honoured he chose to do it during my term in office because he felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on his legacy."
"We really have to take our hats off to Justice Kennedy. Thank you very much," Trump says. He adds "we have to pick one" who's on the court "for 40 years, 45 years."
Trump says Kennedy's retirement makes the issue of Senate control one of the most essential issues of our time.
Trump guarantees that Heitkamp will vote against his Supreme Court pick. She voted for Gorsuch.
Trump: "Their blue wave is really sputtering pretty badly. The red wave is happening."
Trump says Democrats want judges who will "throw open the jailhouse doors and destroy your freedoms."
It's an extraordinarily low bar, but Trump is way more on-message and policy-focused than he was at his absurd rally on Monday night.
Trump hails ICE agents: "They're mean. But they have heart."
"We're sending MS-13 out by the thousands. By the thousands," Trump says. This is an exaggeration. ICE says it arrested 405 MS-13 members in the first quarter of fiscal 2018.
Trump is repeating his usual graphic remarks about MS-13 chopping up innocent girls: "They cut people up in small pieces. Beautiful young women walking home from school."
"We've already started it...it's already begun, and it's beautiful," Trump falsely says of a border wall that has not begun.
Trump claims that San Diego is very happy about how the wall is there, though all that is there is prototypes of the wall and though even the Republican mayor is opposed to the actual wall.
Trump is doing a new, extended attack on Democrats' criticism of ICE. He says, of ICE abolition, "You know what would happen to parts of our country? It would be overrun with the worst criminal elements." Worth noting Abolish ICE advocates aren't calling to abolish enforcement.
"We're respected again," Trump says to applause. "All over the world we're respected again." Respect is subjective, but public approval of the U.S. has plummeted in almost every country except Russia and Israel during Trump's tenure.
"The European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States," Trump falsely says for the fifth time.
For the 12th time, Trump says the trade deficit with the EU was $151 billion last year. That figure ignores the services trade at which the US excels. The net deficit was $102 billion.
Trump again threatens tariffs on imported Mercedes and BMW cars. He boasts of his steel and aluminum tariffs.
"United States Steel is opening up six plants," Trump says, though the company has only announced it is restarting furnaces at the Granite City, Illinois plant. The company didn't respond to my five requests to tell me if Trump's repeated "six plants" claim has any truth.
Trump is giving his usual fictional description of the previous and current state of the solar industry. This time he adds a complete lie that a formerly struggling solar firm is now thinking of opening "10, 11 or 12" plants. All of this is completely invented by Trump.
Trump is giving an unusually long argument in favour of his steel tariffs. Making an unusual concession of possible imperfection, he says, "Even if it wasn't perfect, we need a steel industry."
Trump now makes it "7" new U.S. Steel plants, claiming the CEO called him to say, "We haven't opened up a new plant in 32 years, and now we're opening up 7 of them - six of them (expansions), and we're going to build a new one."
The company will not tell me if any call happened.
The company will not tell me if any call happened.
Trump slightly misrepresents a Heritage Foundation statement, claiming the foundation has said he has accomplished 64% of his "top agenda items." It's actually 64% of *Heritage's* top agenda items, though there's lots of overlap.
Trump is talking about Hispanics and African-Americans, then points to one man and calls him "my friend." (I'm not there, not sure if he was a black or Hispanic man.)
Trump gleefully recounts his "what the hell do you have to lose" campaign question to African-Americans, explaining he used to read "the horrible statistics on crime and education" and such. He says his aides told him this was a "horrible" thing to say but he didn't care.
For the 22nd time, Trump falsely claims wages have just started to rise: "For the first time in 22 years, wages are rising again." Wages started rising in 2014. The pace last month was the same as the pace in Obama's last full month in office.
President Donald Trump on how he felt after his VA reform: "I am the smartest person. My uncle was a great professor at MIT for 40 years...but I'm smarter than him, I'm smarter than anybody."
President Donald Trump, in 2018, brings up Hillary Clinton, and then says, this is a direct quote: "When is she going to get over it? When does she get over it?"
There is a brief "lock her up" chant. Trump says Clinton is "guilty, guilty, guilty," complaining that he is subjected to a Russia "hoax" but nobody "looks at her."
Trump says he was the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. He was the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Trump says he used to be considered "an interloper" but now a poll "came out" that said, he says, "He's the most powerful, most popular Republican in the history of the party."
Trump: "A slovenly man named Joe Crowley got his ass kicked. By a young woman who had a lot of energy."
Trump: "Please: I want to make a plea to my Democrat friends. Please, please, please don't remove Nancy Pelosi...and please keep Maxine Waters on the air as your face and your mouthpiece for the Democrat party. Please."
This tweet did not age well
The president says Ivanka Trump told him to expand the tax credit, but "I said nobody knows what it is." He says Ivanka responded, "The women, know, Dad. The women know."
Trump is back to tariffs. Citing China, he mocks foreign politicians who say "we want free trade" when they themselves have tariffs and barriers.
Trump on his trade battles: "A game of poker: a game that we can't lose...Just play the game for a little while. It's a game we can't lose."
For the 41st and 42nd time, Trump falsely says the U.S. is "down $500 billion" with China. It has never once had a $500 billion trade deficit with China. It was $337 billion last year. He says that you can't lose if you're down $500 billion.
Trump chides critics who criticzed him for boasting about his chemistry with Kim Jong Un: "No no, it's a good thing."
The president on people criticizing him on trade: "It's like rushing the turkey out of the stove. The women can tell me. And some of the men...have to be politically correct...in the old days...but it's true, some of the men can tell me."
Trump criticizes Canada's dairy tariffs, then falsely says Canada just raised those tariffs a few months ago.
Trump drops briefly into a mocking voice to comment on Canada's prime minister "Justin." He says it's true that Canadians fought with Americans in World War I and II, but he has to stop people from taking advantage of the U.S. now.
Trump says he'll let rich guys do their own rocket stuff and space exploration, but then, if they make accomplishments, he will seize the glory and "give them no credit."
Trump falsely says people are saying, "Any time Trump gets a poll, add 12 to it." Nobody says this.
Trump scoffs at the "elite," calling them "stone-cold losers." This time he boasts about his base as "the super-elite" instead of just himself: "We got more money, we got more brains, we got better houses, apartments, we got nicer boats...we're the elite."
Trump reads a note he says he was given about how Canada is unfair to American wheat growers, then says, "Do you know what that means? I don't know what the hell it means...what the hell does that mean?" He dismissively tosses away the card on which this was written for him.
Trump says foreign leaders come up to him and say this: "The fact that your country is respected again: congratulations, Mr. President.
Trump: "We will make America loving again. Loving. Loving."
After getting to his conclusion a few times and then declining to conclude, Trump has concluded.
Aside from all the weirdness and all the lying, the most interesting part of that speech was how much time Trump spent defending his tariffs, acknowledging they might not be "perfect" and urging people to give him more time with them. He hasn't done that before.
Here's how Trump delivered his complaint about Canada's wheat practices: 
This should read *child* tax credit. Trump said Ivanka told him to expand the child tax credit, he responded that nobody knows what that is, and she said, “The women know, Dad. The women know.”
