Trump is starting a rally in West Virginia. I'll tweet about it in this thread.
"Poverty is plummeting," Trump says, a couple weeks after the Census Bureau announced the poverty rate has dropped from 12.7% to 12.3% and the better supplemental poverty measure has dropped from 14.0% to 13.9%.
Trump: "America is respected again. I just left the United Nations. Believe me, they respect us now again. They all respect us."
Trump on the midterms: "This is one of the big, big...I'm not running, but I'm really running. That's why I'm all over the place." (By which he means travelling.)
Trump accuses Democrats of "meanness" and "nastiness." He says, "They don't care who they hurt. Who they have to run over. In order to get power and control."
"Nobody's ever had a presidency like this," Trump says.
Trump, talking about the "last few days" in the Senate, complains of Democrats who are "angry and mean and nasty and untruthful."
Trump: "The entire nation has witnessed the shameless conduct of the DemoCRAT party. They're willing to throw away every standard of decency, justice, fairness and due process to get their way."
Trump is touting Kavanaugh at length. He says the American people saw his "really incredible character" on display this week. Calls Kavanaugh a "jurist with a sterling record of public service." Trump says, "He has suffered. The meanness. The anger."
Trump: "I love polls. Only when they're good. When they're not good, I don't talk about them." For the 8th time, he lies that the "fake news" intentionally manipulates poll numbers to suppress his vote.
Trump says a vote for Kavanaugh is a vote to reject "the ruthless and outrageous tactics" of Democrats. He's framing the vote as a partisan statement.
Trump: "The fake news media." Crowd: "CNN SUCKS CNN SUCKS CNN SUCKS." Etc.
Trump on the media: "They stoke the fires of resentment and chaos." This has been a very you're-the-puppet kind of speech so far.
Trump again with a word many Native Americans consider a slur in this context: "Pocahontas is now considered a conservative in the Democrat party...Pocahontas, Elizabeth Warren...they've gone crazy. They've gone LOCO."
Trump calls West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice maybe the biggest human being he's ever seen. Justice comes to the mic. He begins: "Nobody can love this man more than I. Except YOU, maybe."
Trump says he gets "hugged backstage" by miners, big tough guys, and asks them if they want to make "little delicate computer parts," but they say no, they wanna mine coal. (The miners were not crying this time.)
Trump calls Democratic West Virginia congressional candidate Richard Ojeda "a total whacko" unfit to be in government. He adds, "That person is stone-cold crazy."
Trump boasts that he won West Virginia by 42 points in 2016. He adds that it's extra-impressive because he won by 42 points "against a Democrat," "not, like, an independent."
WV Senate candidate Patrick Morrisey: "For far too long, Barack Obama" - crowd: BOOOO! - "Hillary Clinton" - crowd: BOOOO! - "and Washington liberal Joe Manchin" - crowd: softer BOOO - "all of these individuals, and the coastal elites, they abandoned our West Virginia values."
Morrisey is still talking. He repeatedly describes Manchin as "Washington Liberal Joe Manchin," linking him to "radical" Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Maxine Waters. He also advocates standing for the national anthem. The crowd roars, chants "U-S-A."
Trump promises that he will start using his 2020 campaign slogan, Keep America Great, soon, but says he doesn't know when, but says, "Very soon. I don't want to switch yet."
If Democrats are elected, Trump says, "You'll have Venezuela, Big Version."
"We've built a lot of wall already," Trump lies for the 39th time about the wall he has not started.
Trump gets to the part of his speech where he used to bash John McCain for his Obamacare vote, which he hasn't done since McCain died. This time, he says, "I'll be nice now. We couldn't get a single Democrat vote."
Trump bashes Maxine Waters, the second time she's been mentioned tonight. Trump says, "The Democrat Party will stop at nothing to run your lives, run down your values, and ransack our nation's wealth."
Trump says he uses "Democrat" rather than "Democratic" because "I hate the way it sounds, and that's why I use it." He then insists that "Democrat Party" is the real name of the party. He explains: "When you see 'Democratic Party,' it's wrong. There's no name."
Trump on Democrats: "The party of crime. It's the party of crime."
Trump, whose administration is arguing in court that the ACA's pre-existing protections are unconstitutional and should be voided: "I will always fight for and always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. You have to do it. You have to do it."
Trump: "How 'bout Cory Booker. Did you watch the performance? He ran Newark, New Jersey into the ground, and now he wants to be president. What was the moment he said he had?" Crowd: Spartacus! Trump: "I don't think so. I think we'd take Kirk Douglas in his prime."
I think that's the first time Trump has bashed Cory Booker at a rally, certainly in recent months. Trump adds, of the potential 2020 Democratic field: "I dream of these people every night."
"We have set records on arrests at the borders. Nobody even close," Trump lies. He has not set records. Here's how he went from bragging about how few arrests were being made to bragging about how many:
Trump is on the part about MS-13 "animals" using knives instead of guns to inflict extra pain. He criticizes Pelosi for saying you shouldn't call them animals.
Trump claims that once-placid Long Island, where people used to not lock their doors, is now "like a fort" because people are so scared of MS-13.
Trump calls the media "fakers" for not reporting that Republicans want to protect people with pre-existing conditions. Republican AGs, including WV candidate Morrisey, have a lawsuit to get the ACA and its pre-existing protections voided. Trump endorses the lawsuit.
Trump: "Who the hell wouldn't vote for me from law enforcement?"
Trump: "We've added nearly - it will soon be 600,000 new manufacturing jobs." As of the August jobs report, it was 348,000 manufacturing jobs added since January 2017.
"I don't like having deficits with every country," Trump says on trade, so he is fortunate because the U.S. had surpluses last year with more than half of all countries.
For the 67th time, Trump lies that the U.S. has long had a $500 billion trade deficit with China. That has never once happened. It was $337 billion last year.
Trump: "The stupid days are over, folks, I'm sorry."
Trump complains about U.S. military support for wealthy Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea, saying the U.S. should be paid more for its protection.
"We were going to war with North Korea. That was what was going to happen. Millions of people would've been killed...(Obama) said he was, you know, very close to going to war," Trump says. Zero evidence this happened. Former Obama officials say zero chance Obama told Trump this.
Trump on Kim Jong Un: "I like him, he likes me. I guess that's okay. Am I allowed to say that?"
Trump now calls the media "loco," his second "loco" of the night.
"Obama with the Iran deal gave them $150 billion," Trump falsely claims for the 21st time. Less than $100 billion of Iran's own assets was unfrozen as part of the deal.
!!! Trump on Kim Jong Un: "I was really being tough and so was he. And we would go back and forth. And then we fell in love. No really. He wrote me beautiful letters. They were great letters. And then we fell in love."
Trump says the media is going to scold him for saying he fell in love with Kim Jong Un, but it's true, and it's easy to be boring and presidential, but his way is better.
Trump again mocks George H.W. Bush's motto "thousand points of light," saying it's boring, and it's a saying "which nobody has really figured out." It's the name of a Bush nonprofit promoting volunteerism.
I was going to make a "forbidden romance" joke when Trump said this below, but thought better of it...and then Trump literally said "we fell in love."
With African-American unemployment at the lowest level in history, Trump says, "Who the hell's gonna beat me?" (It's gone from 12.7% to 7.8% under Obama and then from 7.8% down to 6.3% under Trump.) He adds that Kanye West supports him.
Trump: "We've reached a deal to replace the horrible NAFTA, one of the worst trade deals ever, with a brand new U.S.-Mexico trade deal. And we'll see what happens with Canada, if they come along." He complains of Canadian dairy tariffs.
Trump is saying that countries that talk a big game about free trade have lots of non-free-trade policies. That is very true, and also true of the United States.
Trump: "The steel people love me. The coal people love me. Many people love me. You know who loves me? Our country has never done better. That's who loves me."
For the 18th time, Trump falsely claims that the Veterans Choice program couldn't get passed for decades until he came along. ("45 years they couldn't - we got it passed.") It was passed in 2014 under Obama. Trump's new law makes changes to the program.
Trump begins to repeat his "we reject globalism and embrace patriotism" UN lines, but stops himself: "We embrace the doctrine of - let's put it this way: we love our country. That's our doctrine. You can call it patriotism, but it's really the doctrine of we love our country."
For the first time, Trump reads a line about registering to vote and when the registration deadline is. He then adds that he "hates to break up this" - like, his speech momentum - by saying such a thing, but "those are the facts."
Trump says West Virginia pioneer "ancestors" didn't work so hard so that people today could sit at home and let Democrats "erase their legacy and destroy our proud American heritage."
Trump seems to be getting to his conclusion, but he stops to talk about how Election Night 2016 was "one of the great evenings."
Trump has concluded. Headline: The president says he has fallen in love with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and doesn't care if everyone knows it.
