President Donald Trump told a rally crowd in Highland Heights, Kentucky, on Saturday that his second term has made him more powerful than ever, drawing a contrast with his first term as he campaigned for Senate nominee Andy Barr and House candidate Ed Gallrein. "I don't think I could have done this in my first term," he said, riffing on his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. "This is a much more powerful term. I can do stuff that's unbelievable."
"Google wouldn't have taken my call in the first. Now, they kiss my ass," Trump added, before joking that he had also renamed Canada's Lake Ontario "Lake America." According to CNBC, Trump told the crowd that if Republicans hold both chambers of Congress on November 3, every American adult would receive a $5,000 check, a proposal that would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval. The Associated Press reports he also stumped for Barr, who is vying for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell against Democrat Charles Booker, and Gallrein, running in Kentucky's 4th district against Melissa Strange.
Trump's self-proclaimed power is set against voter frustration with how he has wielded it, with tariffs and the nearly eight-month war with Iran driving up prices. He told the Kentucky crowd the Iran war would end soon and gas prices would drop, an assertion he has made many times. With control of both chambers of Congress on the line, Trump has put himself at the fore for voters, asking them to "pretend that I'm on the ballot," even as Republicans privately worry his dismal approval ratings make him a liability.