President Donald Trump is in the midst of a nationwide campaign blitz ahead of the November midterm elections, holding near-daily rallies to boost turnout for Republicans fighting to retain control of Congress.
In his 90-minute stump speeches, Trump defends his economic policies, boasts about crowd sizes, mocks protesters and has even admired a fellow Republican's buttocks.
Here are five takeaways from Reuters' coverage of the president's appearances, staged mostly in Republican-friendly areas across the country.
Trump's economic pitch collides with voter reality
At the start of the month, Trump said he had done a "bad job" of explaining his economic record. He has tried to address that at his rallies, pointing to a record-low poverty rate, low unemployment, record highs on the stock market and lower prices for some food items.
But his sales pitch is colliding with voters' concerns about how much they are spending on petrol, groceries and other everyday expenses.
Consumer prices accelerated in September as petrol costs surged. The nationwide average price of petrol is $4.27 per gallon ($1.13 per litre), nearly 40% higher than a year ago, according to AAA. Trump has repeatedly promised that petrol prices will fall once the Iran war ends.
The disconnect was evident outside Trump's rally in rural Kansas, where Chester Daniel, a 90-year-old military veteran and Trump supporter, said the economy had "a long way to go" to help working people.
"Prices? Too high! We will never go back to what they were when this all started, but they need to come way down," Daniel said. "I don't know how these young people make a living for their family."
Rally map shows Republicans playing defence
Trump's travel map signals just how difficult it will be for Republicans to retain control of Congress, with the president forced to play defence deep in conservative territory.
Trump has travelled twice to Texas for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, campaigned for Republican Senate incumbent Roger Marshall in Kansas and made two stops in Ohio for Senator Jon Husted. Trump also rallied for Republicans in competitive races in Alaska, Iowa, Montana and South Carolina. He is set to visit Mississippi on Monday.
Those are places Republicans are accustomed to winning easily, not battlegrounds where Trump would typically spend time during the crucial final weeks before an election.
Paxton narrowly trails Democrat James Talarico in polls, while Marshall faces a serious challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century. Husted trails former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in polls in Ohio, and Republican Senate hopeful Ashley Hinson is in a close race against Democrat Josh Turek in Iowa.
Notably absent from Trump's travels so far, with less than two weeks until Election Day, are Michigan, Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire, which are also home to tight Senate races. He is soon expected to visit some of those locations. He is scheduled to travel to Michigan on Sunday and has said he also plans to go to Maine.
Trump's boasts about big crowds meet uneven reality
Trump has made crowd sizes a recurring theme of his midterm rallies, portraying packed arenas and thousands of people he says are stranded outside as evidence of his enduring popularity.
But actual turnout on the campaign trail in recent weeks has been uneven. Some rallies have drawn capacity crowds but shown little sign of the overflow Trump described. At others, large sections of seats remained empty even in modest-sized venues.
"I'm doing these every night, and no matter where I go, it's the same thing. It's massive crowds," Trump said at a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday. "We have big screens outside. Thousands and thousands of people. There's something going on that's very special."
The venue was filled to capacity, but there were no signs of crowds outside waiting to get in or watching on screens.
At a 7 October rally in San Antonio, Texas, Trump said queues stretched two miles outside the arena even as sizeable sections inside remained empty.
Crowd sizes are not always an accurate measure of political support, but Trump has pointed to them as a sign of strength even as his approval rating has fallen to 31%, the lowest of either of his presidential terms, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday.
Trump is not on the ballot on 3 November. For Republican candidates, the question is whether the enthusiasm he generates among his supporters can translate into votes for them.
France becomes a 'bête noire' for midterms
Trump has often used French President Emmanuel Macron as a foil in his campaign speeches, claiming he strong-armed Macron into raising prescription drug prices in France by threatening tariffs on a popular French export, champagne, and other goods.
But over the past week or so, Trump has seized on another narrative about France, portraying its violent unrest in recent weeks as a warning of what he says could happen in the US if Democrats win the midterms. Trump has blamed the unrest on migrants and Muslims, following a familiar playbook that has featured in his politics for more than a decade.
"What the hell happened to France?" Trump told a crowd at a livestock competition arena in Clemson, South Carolina, on Wednesday.
Notably, the French protests have taken on a greater role in Trump's recent speeches than two other major foreign policy headaches he has been unable to resolve: Russia's invasion of Ukraine and his war against Iran.
"They'll end one way or another," Trump said of the two conflicts at his Clemson rally. He did not elaborate on how they might end, but complained that he had not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve conflicts around the world.
Trump puts the body in the body politic
Trump has long had a fixation on the human physique that extends beyond the body politic.
This campaign season, Trump has paid particular attention to Husted, a 59-year-old former college football player for the University of Dayton.
At rallies in Ohio, Kentucky and North Carolina, Trump marvelled at Husted's physique, at one point saying his backside was "like a pile of muscle".
"Then I looked at his legs, and I said, 'Man, his feet are big.' Then I looked at his shoulders, and I tapped him on the shoulder, and it actually hurt my hand. It was like a piece of steel. I said, 'This guy's a monster,'" Trump said.
Trump offered similar praise on Friday for Robert F Kennedy Jr, his secretary of health and human services, telling a campaign rally in Florida that the 72-year-old "has the body of a 30-year-old".
Such riffs are familiar territory for Trump. At the close of his 2024 campaign, he used a rally speech in Pennsylvania to tell a crude story about golf legend Arnold Palmer's prowess beyond the golf course. Trump's focus over the years on people's physical attributes has also included mocking the weight and appearance of his opponents.
Trump finds even some of his friends lacking in fashion sense, including the rumpled Paxton.
"Some may not like the way he dresses," Trump said about him at the Republicans' midterm convention in Dallas in mid-September, adding: "I don't."
That has not stopped Trump from campaigning for Paxton, however. He returns to Texas on Tuesday for two more campaign rallies.