Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Nov 2: US President Donald Trump wrapped up his midterm election campaign with a rally in Salina, Kansas, claiming that the United States could shut Iran down whenever it wanted and asserting that no one had entered the country illegally for the past 17 months.
"This is actually, this is our last stop. We close it down tonight," Trump told supporters, describing the Salina event as the 30th rally of his campaign. He said he had travelled to Kansas to help Senator Roger Marshall secure re-election. "I didn't want to take a chance," he added.
The rally was held after Trump earlier in the week cancelled his planned in-person events in Kansas and Iowa in favour of tele-rallies. He addressed supporters in Iowa earlier on Sunday before flying to Kansas.
Speaking about Iran, Trump claimed that the United States had overwhelmed Tehran and could bring its operations to a halt whenever it chose.
"We can close them down any time we want. We're trying to be nice," he said. "But I think it's going to be very close. We're just going to close them down. That's going to be the end of it."
Trump also criticised the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed under former President Barack Obama.
"You know, that JCPOA was a path to a nuclear weapon. We did the opposite," he said, adding that Iran "never will have a nuclear weapon."
The US President also claimed that oil prices in the country were much lower than during the administrations of former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
However, figures from the US Energy Information Administration showed that the national average price of regular gasoline stood at around $4.27 per gallon on October 26, approximately $1.23 higher than a year earlier.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude averaged around $107 per barrel in the week ended October 23, compared with approximately $73 to $79 per barrel in January 2025, when Biden left office.
On immigration, Trump repeated his claim that the southern border had been sealed and that illegal entries had stopped.
"And now we've gone 17 months, think of it, with zero people coming into our country illegally," he told the gathering.
He accused Democrats of "openly promising to abolish your borders" and alleged that they wanted to increase taxes by trillions of dollars.
A significant portion of Trump's speech focused on Republican Senator Roger Marshall's Democratic opponent, Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton, whom he described as a "radical left lunatic".
Trump also urged voters to support Republican Ty Masterson in the Kansas gubernatorial race.
Calling on supporters to turn out in large numbers, Trump encouraged them to vote in person on Tuesday rather than through mail-in ballots.
"I really want you to pretend I'm on the ballot," he said, adding that if Republicans matched the voter turnout recorded during his own elections, "we win in a landslide."