ST. PAUL, Minnesota – The ex-president Donald Trump He took advantage of a day off to headline a Republican fundraiser on Friday in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state that he claims he can win in November.
Trump took the stage late at the annual Lincoln Reagan dinner Republican Party state in St. Paul after attending his son Barron’s high school graduation in Florida.
The virtual Republican presidential candidate said that his presentation was “an official expansion” of the electoral map of the states that could be competitive in November, and stated: “We are going to win this state.”
“This November the people of Minnesota will say to corrupt Joe Biden: ‘The Apprentice?’ ‘You’re fired!’” Trump said, referencing his old TV show and the catchphrase he used on it.
Trump boasted that the high tariffs he imposed on foreign steel while he was president made the iron mining area of northeastern Minnesota “roaring again.” The area, with a large population of blue-collar and union workers, used to be solidly Democratic, but the region has trended Republican in recent elections.
He also attacked Biden, calling him “a horrible president” who is “destroying our country” and then adding: “He’s also a horrible human being.”
Trump then went on to call the president “non-athletic,” and criticized his golfing, accusing him of inflating his skills and making other misrepresentations, before using an expletive that drew loud laughter and sustained applause.
Trump was using part of the day granted by the judge for his son’s graduation to campaign in Minnesota, a state he argues he can win in the November rematch with Biden. No Republican presidential candidate has won Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972, but Trump came close to flipping the state in 2016, when he came within 1.5 percentage points of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump returned to Minnesota several times in 2020, when Biden beat him by more than 7 percentage points.
“I think this is something Trump wants to do. He believes it is a state he can win. We think that’s the case too,” David Hann, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, said in an interview.
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, a Biden ally, said the Trump campaign is “clinging to vain hopes” if it believes it can win the state.
Source: AP
