Thread by @josh_wingrove

Macho Man is playing at NASCAR-race volumes here in Tupelo, Mississippi, which means only one thing: Trump's about to take the stage.

Highlights in this thread.

As we wait, a White House spokesman came by to try and clear up some of the DHS stuff. McAleenan will leave ``after Veteran's Day." After that, Chad Wolf ``will serve as acting secretary in the interim," per spokesman Hogan Gidley.

Trump is speaking now. He starts by endorsing Tate Reeves, the Republican running for governor in an unusually close race next week.

He's touting the economy, says the best economy the U.S. has ever had, and adds also: "the best president we've ever had." Huge cheers.

"Just days ago, the United States brought the world's number one terrorist leader to justice," Trump says.

"USA, USA, USA," the crowd chants.

"The following day, we got the number 2, I don't know if you heard about that," Trump says of the Islamic State.

Al-Baghdadi was "a savage and soulless monster but his reign of terror is over." The U.S. "punched out his ticket to hell, I guess you could say."

"The Democrat party has gone completely insane," he says, as boos roll out through the crowd.

"The radical left is determined to transform America into a country you would not recognize. We are the ones standing in their way and we will never get out of their way."

He singles out the media, as per usual. "The media are continuing with the deranged impeachment witch-hunt," he says. Impeachment is a dirty word, he says.

On impeachment: "Yesterday's vote by the radical Democrats is an attack on democracy itself. But I will tell you, the Republicans are really strong, the strongest I've ever seen them, the most unified I've ever seen them."

The Democrats' strategy "has created an angry majority that will vote many do-nothing Democrats out of office in 2020," Trump says.

"The Democrats, the media and the deep state are desperate to stop us."

"They are coming after the Republican Party and me because I'm fighting for you, they don't like it."

"Remember this: truth is a force of nature," says Donald Trump.

"Lock her up, lock her up, lock her up," the crowd chants as Trump raises Hillary's emails. "I love you," a man shouts shortly after, from the back of the arena.

Trump is soldiering on: "I don't know who Tulsi Gabbard is, but I know one thing: she's not an agent of Russia."

He's referring to "Barack Hussein Obama" here in Mississippi.

On Joe Biden: "He's gotten slower and slower, I'm afraid if he gets the nomination, he'll be so slow we'll have the lowest-rated debates in history."

(Everything is about ratings, as a reminder.)

"Poor Bastard," Trump says of Beto O'Rourke, who dropped out of the Democratic race today. "Pathetic guy."

"He came out of Texas a very hot political property, and he went back as cold as you can be," he said.

Trump turn to Ukraine stuff now.

"I'm an honest person anyway, but do you think when I'm making a call to a newly elected president of a country, that I would say something improper when I know there are so many people listening on the line?" Pompeo was on the line, he adds.

He's meandering about publicity, and lamenting the lack of coverage of the al-Baghdadi raid.

"Conan's coming to the White House in a few weeks," he adds about the dog.

(He'd tweeted earlier that Conan was "leaving the Middle East for the White House sometime next week.")

Pretty soon, we will have $100B paid into the treasury by a country that never gave us 10 cents, Trump says of China.

(A: importers, ie: Americans, typically pay the tariffs. B: the U.S. deficit is, ahem, nearly $1 trillion. C: Fed is cutting rates as economy wobbles.)

Trump is going on about the governor's race here, which looks much closer than normal for Mississippi. (Trump is also weaving in attacks on Stacey Abrams.)

"I can't believe this is a competitive race. It's like, embarrassing," Trump says of governor's race here.

The Republican candidate for governor is on stage now, saying he stands with Trump, and his Democratic rival stands with the liberals.

"Let's stand up to elect a conservative that will be an ally to President Donald J. Trump," Tate Reeves told the crowd.

Trump has now called up Senator @cindyhydesmith to speak to the crowd.

"This Tuesday, Mississippi can send a message to the entire nation," she says. (Again, Trump is here in part because the governor's race is actually competitive and usually isn't in this very red state.)

@cindyhydesmith Earlier, Trump criticized Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo and CNN.

On Cooper: "He used to interview me, he was so nice. Prior to running for politics, he was so nice to me. It was like they were love-fests, but I don't want anything to do with him. They were love-fests," he said.

The crowd kind of paused and, obviously, that remark could be read or interpreted as a remark on Cooper's personal life.

Trump continued: ``He's weak, he's a weak person, but they're all weak. But let me just tell you something: we need honesty with our media."

Trump says it's ``questionable'' whether Pelosi will ever let the USMCA trade deal (the Nafta replacement) come up for a vote.

"The do-nothing Democrats need to stop their madness and pass the USMCA right now," Trump says.

Trump again lamenting American defense obligations/commitments globally.

"We're protecting like 94 countries. Ask China: how many countries are you protecting, President Xi? And they look at me, like, what a stupid question. We protect one: China."

(People have been trickling to the exits for a bit now, as Trump passes the one-hour mark. Empty seats emerging at the back, crowd thinning on the floor.)

Arena still pretty full, to be clear. But Trump's rallies challenge the endurance of his supporters, many of whom arrive many hours beforehand to get a good spot.

This was the scene when he came on stage.

Trump pivots from an attack on sanctuary cities to an attack on Pelosi.

"Nancy Pelosi - go home and fix your district Nancy, go home and fix your district," he says.

He adds, on the day of Warren's big plan unveiling: "The Democrat healthcare agenda would obliterate medicare."

Trump is warning that markets will crash if he's impeached.

If they do anything bad to us, "that stock market will crash like you've never seen it crash before, and you will not be happy with your 401ks like you're happy right now," he says.

"How do you impeach a president who didn't do anything wrong?" he asks.

Trump fires back at Romney, here at the Mississippi rally.

"The Democrats don't seem to have any Mitt Romneys. We do, we do," he says. "I don't know, maybe he'll get better, maybe he'll get better, we'll see."

Trump again says he'll end the "AIDS epidemic" in 10 years. Says it's funded. Also mentions curing childhood cancer. We're in the greatest-hits-album phase of the evening now.

And that's it. Trump, as always, plays "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as his exit song.

Addendum: the Conan quote is getting traction, so here it is:

"Actually, I'm happy about this - Conan, the dog, got more publicity than me."

"Conan's incredible. And Conan's coming to the White House in a few weeks. But it is true? Did you ever see a story disappear so fast?"

(He was lamenting that the al-Baghdadi raid did not receive enough media attention, in his estimation.)