Final campaign stops in Iowa, Kansas

Trump claims pipeline 'going to Korea' as fait accompli

Promotional video briefly shows 2019 Panmunjom meeting with Kim Jong-un

US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Salina Regional Airport in Kansas on Sunday (local time). [AP]
US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Salina Regional Airport in Kansas on Sunday (local time). [AP]

US President Donald Trump held campaign rallies in Iowa and Kansas on Sunday (local time), two days before midterm elections, once again promoting Alaska's LNG development project as a done deal and stepping up pressure on Iran, warning that the US would strike the country "at some point."

At a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, Trump urged supporters to vote, saying his party would elect "America First" Republican candidates everywhere. "Go out and vote — that's all I'm asking," he said. He then called the Democratic Party "totally corrupt" and warned against what he described as "communists and jihadists who hate America" taking over the country.

Touting his second administration's achievements, Trump turned to Alaska, saying the state had been "completely dead" before he got involved. "We have a pipeline going to Japan and Korea and China," he told the crowd.

The remarks repeated his pattern of presenting the Alaska LNG pipeline project — which both the US and South Korean governments say is still under review — as an accomplished fact and a signature economic achievement. He has made similar claims at previous Alaska campaign events.

He did not, however, repeat his earlier assertion that South Korea had committed to investing in the Alaska project.

Instead, Trump credited his tariff policy with drawing foreign investment back to the United States. "Companies from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Japan and Korea are coming back," he said.

Trump also intensified his rhetoric on Iran. "The only reason I don't want to finish off Iran is because I want to show goodwill," he said. "I want to save everybody's lives if I can. But at some point we will hit them hard."

The US and Iran have maintained back-channel communications through Qatari mediation, yet Trump has repeatedly signaled a possible resumption of strikes — an apparent strategy to project military pressure while quietly advancing negotiations.

Trump then traveled to Salina, Kansas, for another rally, where he claimed that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored mortgage finance companies, would invest $4.3 billion in the state.

A promotional video played at the rally briefly showed footage of Trump stepping onto North Korean soil during his June 2019 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Panmunjom, drawing attention from the crowd.

Both Iowa and Kansas are heavily agricultural states that Trump carried by margins of more than 10 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election — reliably Republican territory. Yet Republican candidates in both states have been struggling in the current midterm cycle.

Trump had initially considered canceling the Iowa and Kansas stops but reversed course at the last minute after reporters asked whether his age was affecting his stamina — a question that visibly angered him.


kate01@heraldcorp.com