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President Trump's new helipad on the White House South Lawn has been getting a lot of use lately. Trump is flying out of Washington more frequently, rallying with Republican candidates as the GOP tries to keep its majorities in Congress in next month's midterm elections. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram has the story.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: In Ohio, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Alabama, Trump's rallies have, well, been classic Trump.
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SHIVARAM: He dances to the same songs, and he references the same stories he's been telling since 2015. He continues to blame Democrats for the economy, and he insists America is doing great.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This is the golden age of America. We're doing numbers that nobody ever thought were possible.
SHIVARAM: Despite Trump not being on the ballot this year, he's telling voters to pretend that he is. But with just one month until voting ends, that might put Trump's party in a precarious position. Simply put, according to polling, the president is unpopular. And he continues to wade into topics that aren't doing his party any favors - for example, in Ohio last weekend. AI data centers have been an issue dragging Republican candidate John Husted in his race against Democrat Sherrod Brown. Despite voters on both sides of the aisle being opposed to data centers, Trump said this.
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TRUMP: We want them. Look. There's so much money to be made for Ohio. You can't just turn them off. They'll go to China.
SHIVARAM: And on high costs, the president isn't offering anything new. He's been telling voters that costs will come down for months. But war with Iran, which drove up prices, still has no end in sight. Here's Trump on Monday in Nebraska.
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TRUMP: It's going to end very soon, and your prices are going to come - all your prices have been tumbling down. In fact, oil is less than it was under Biden, just so you understand.
SHIVARAM: In the same rally, Trump said high costs from the war were a, quote, "small price to pay" to keep the country safe because Iran could, quote, "take out a city" such as Los Angeles or San Diego. Trump says he plans to go to other states where Republicans are in close races, like Alaska and Iowa, to help GOP candidates because he insists that Republicans have been doing better since he started campaigning with them.
Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, the White House.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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