President Trump on Thursday visited Iowa to kick off a year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding at an event that doubled as a victory lap for the passage of a major legislative package.
Trump spoke at a “Salute to America” event in Des Moines, Iowa, on the eve of Independence Day. His remarks came hours after the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, sending the legislation that contains many of the president’s campaign promises to Trump’s desk.
The president also mused about the mutual “hate” between him and Democrats, a potential exemption for farmers to avoid the deportation of their undocumented workers and a recent exchange of missiles between the U.S. and Iran.
Here are five takeaways from Trump’s Iowa remarks.
A victory lap on big, beautiful bill
The speech offered Trump a chance to bask in the legislative success of getting a massive tax and spending bill across the finish line in the House and Senate after months of negotiations and tense final hours of convincing holdouts to support the bill.
While Trump is expected to sign the bill into law on Friday at the White House, he used Thursday’s remarks to highlight some of what’s in the package.
The legislation extends the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017, which were set to expire later this year. It also eliminates some taxes on tipped wages, a provision that drew roars from the crowd in Iowa.
The bill provides a $150 billion increase in funding for a border wall, immigration enforcement and deportations. It provides $150 billion in new defense spending for priorities like shipbuilding and a “Golden Dome” missile defense project.
Democrats have seized on how the bill contains cuts to low-income health and nutrition programs — reductions designed to help offset the loss of revenues from the tax cuts but that are also expected to eliminate health coverage for millions of people.
“This is a declaration of independence from a really national decline. We had a national decline,” Trump said. “We were a laughingstock all over the world. We had a man as president who shouldn’t have been there.”
Trump on Democrats: ‘I hate them, too’
Trump is no stranger to using harsh rhetoric to attack his critics and political opponents, and he did just that on Thursday as he railed against Democrats for voting against the GOP reconciliation package.
“All of the things we did with the tax cuts and rebuilding our military, not one Democrat voted for us. And I think we use it in the campaign that’s coming up, the midterms,” Trump said.
“But all of the things that we’ve given, and they wouldn’t vote. Only because they hate Trump,” the president continued. “But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth.”
Trump has in the past referred to political opponents as the “enemy from within” and “scum” and described then-Vice President Harris as “mentally impaired.” The president’s critics have regularly compared him to dictators and authoritarian regimes.
Trump mocks Iran’s counterattack
The president, who has racked up a number of foreign policy victories in recent weeks, took time during Thursday’s event to poke fun at Iran for its response to U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities last month.
Trump touted the U.S. strikes, and he noted that the pilots and mechanics who worked on the planes that flew over Iran would be at the White House for Fourth of July celebrations.
The president also seemed to mock Iran for giving the U.S. a heads-up before firing missiles at a U.S. military base in Qatar in response to the strikes on the nuclear sites.
“They were nice enough — this is Iran — to call me and tell me that they would like to shoot at me 14 times,” Trump said. “So, they want to shoot us, and I said go ahead, and they shot 14 high-grade, very fast missiles. Every single one of them was shot down routinely.”
Trump claimed earlier Thursday that Iran wants to speak to him and signaled an openness to having conversations. He noted Steve Witkoff, his special envoy for the Middle East, has been handling talks with Iran.
“I think they want to meet. I know they want to meet,” he said. “And if it’s necessary I’ll do it.”
Trump signals deference to farmers on undocumented workers
Speaking to a crowd filled with farmers and others with a stake in the agriculture industry, Trump acknowledged a conundrum with his aggressive deportation efforts.
The president has vacillated in recent months between deporting all individuals who are in the country illegally and being sympathetic to farmers and hospitality executives who rely on migrant workers for labor.
On Thursday, Trump indicated he was open to leaving farmers to their own devices.
“We want all the criminals out, everybody agrees. The farmers, some of the farmers… they’ve had people working for them for years, and we’re going to do something,” Trump said.
“If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people in some way, we’re going to have just say that’s going to be good. We’re going to be good with it,” Trump added. “Because we don’t want to do with it where we take all the workers off the farm.
“Serious radical right people, who I also happen to like a lot, they may not be quite as happy. But they’ll understand,” Trump said.
Fireworks prompt brief flashback for Trump
July 13 will mark the anniversary of the campaign rally in Butler, Pa., where Trump survived an assassination attempt after being grazed by a bullet.
When a firework boomed in the distance as he spoke in Des Moines, Trump’s mind appeared to flash back to that moment nearly a year ago.
“It’s only fireworks, I hope. Famous last words,” Trump quipped.
“You always have to think positive,” Trump added. “I didn’t like that sound either.”
Trump is expected to sit down for an interview with his daughter-in-law and Fox News host Lara Trump for an interview next week at the White House that will air ahead of the anniversary of the Butler rally. Axios first reported on the planned interview.
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Author: Brett Samuels
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