{"id":293229,"date":"2026-02-20T09:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/293229\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:49:10","slug":"trump-defends-tariffs-in-pre-midterms-appearance-in-battleground-georgia-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/293229\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump defends tariffs in pre-midterms appearance in battleground Georgia | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> forcefully defended his tariffs on Thursday, claiming \u201ctariffs are my favorite word in the dictionary\u201d and promoting their use to empower American manufacturing at an event in north-west Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout tariffs, this country would be in so much trouble right now,\u201d Trump said during his remarks at Coosa Steel Corporation, a steel-processing and distribution firm in Rome, Georgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He lamented having to wait for the US supreme court\u2019s decision on the constitutionality of his trade policy, attributing the lawsuit to \u201cChina-oriented\u201d people and Canadian partisans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m waiting for a decision from the supreme court,\u201d he said, complaining about having to \u201cjustify this, because people come from other countries and have ripped us off for 50 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s visit to Georgia, a key battleground state in this year\u2019s midterm elections, was ostensibly to promote his economy amid lagging approval numbers. But Trump spent a large portion of his remarks focused on his repeated, unverified claims of voter fraud.<\/p>\n

Trump unloaded on Democratic unwillingness to back the Save America Act, which would curtail voting by mail, require voters to present photo ID at the ballot box and require proof of citizenship when registering. The legislation passed in the House last week, but is unlikely to move in the Senate without lawmakers first ending the filibuster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democrats don\u2019t want to give us voter ID, because they want to cheat \u2026 They say they don\u2019t want voter ID because it\u2019s racist,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe want voter ID and proof of citizenship \u2026 they\u2019re fighting that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also argued against mail-in ballots, saying mail-in voting should be reserved for deployed military service members, or people who are ill or away from home: \u201cWith mail-in ballots, they cheat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mail voting fraud is exceptionally rare<\/a>, and Trump has provided no evidence of Democrats using the system to attempt to fraudulently win elections.<\/p>\n

And while addressing the court case emerging from an FBI raid seizing 2020 election material last month, Trump described the fight to return ballots to Fulton county control as nefarious.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t they want them to see the ballots after all these years? It\u2019s because they cheated,\u201d he said. \u201cThey cheated like dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

An affidavit unsealed<\/a> after the raid revealed that the rationale for the investigation was based on debunked claims from conservative activists who have long denied the 2020 election\u2019s results.<\/p>\n

Trump chose contested territory for his visit Thursday: Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>\u2019s former district. The former US representative\u2019s resignation in January left a seat open with Republicans holding a razor-thin majority in the House. Early voting is under way in the 10 March election, which appears likely to result in an April runoff between the top two candidates.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s visit reinforced his endorsement of Clay Fuller, a north Georgia district attorney and former White House fellow who serves as a reserve lieutenant colonel in the air force. The president\u2019s endorsement has helped to whittle the field, which now stands at 18 candidates, including three Democrats. With less fracturing among Democrats, the retired army general and 2024 nominee Shawn Harris is likely to make a runoff against the top Republican vote-getter.<\/p>\n

Appearing at Thursday\u2019s event, Fuller praised Trump\u2019s approach to the economy and the \u201cwar on inflation that President Trump had to inherit form President Biden\u201d. He joked with Trump, asking for a pardon for his child who got in trouble for skipping school to attend the rally.<\/p>\n

Trump also offered praise for the lieutenant governor Burt Jones, who is running for governor in a field recently joined by the billionaire founder of Jackson Healthcare, Rick Jackson. Jones \u201chas been with you and been with me from the beginning,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin released a statement as Trump spoke, noting that healthcare premiums will double on average for 1.4 million Georgians this year and 500,000 will lose their healthcare altogether \u201cbecause of Trump\u2019s Big Ugly Bill and refusal to extend ACA subsidies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Democrats who are \u201ccaptive\u201d to the insurance companies are holding up a Republican initiative to redirect insurance subsidies into direct payments to beneficiaries, Trump claimed in his remarks, saying: \u201cWe\u2019re slashing drug prices \u2026 we were paying the highest drug prices in the world, and now we\u2019re paying whatever the lowest prices are in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also reiterated comments he made last month about a supposed deal with French prime minister Emmanuel Macron to raise drug prices in France, set after threats of tariffs on French exports. Macron has forcefully denied this claim, writing on social media platform X that: \u201cIt is being claimed that President @Emmanuel Macron increased the price of medicines. He does not set their prices. They are regulated by the social security system and have, in fact, remained stable. Anyone who has set foot in a French pharmacy knows this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump forcefully defended his tariffs on Thursday, claiming \u201ctariffs are my favorite word in the dictionary\u201d and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-293229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}