A hoarse-sounding President Trump cast his ballot alongside first lady Melania Trump in West Palm Beach Saturday, vowing to keep up the grueling campaign schedule that has him hopscotching between rallies to help Republicans ahead of the midterms.
“It’s a strain on your voice. It’s a strain. You know, it’s not normal, what I’ve done,” Trump told reporters after voting before heading to a campaign rally in Georgia.
“It’s hard because I’m not campaigning for myself – I’m campaigning for other people, some of whom I don’t know.”
Trump said he might return to South Carolina, after just visiting the state Wednesday to campaign with embattled appointed Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.), who is in a tight race and who was in Florida Friday night.
He praised Ohio Sen. John Husted (R-Ohio) as a “John – great athlete” and a “big, powerful strong guy,” and even had an upbeat take on keeping the House in Republican hands.
Trump even refrained from playing a round of golf while at home in Florida, opting instead to hit balls with some unidentified golf pros: “I wasn’t in the mood to play. Because I’m too busy.”
Asked about finding ways to work with Democrats, Trump acknowledged the historical challenges facing the president’s party in midterm elections but insisted his own campaigning could make a difference.
“A sitting president always does badly in the midterms,” he said. “There’s no president that’s ever campaigned like I have.”
He also took shots at former presidents Barack Obama, who was campaigning in Ohio and Michigan Saturday, and Bill Clinton, who criticized Trump’s redesigned Rose Garden.
“They’re critical because we beat them,” Trump said.
“Obama was a lousy president. Clinton was not bad, but he got caught up in a lot of scandals. Outside of the scandals he would have been a good president.”
Trump also declined to rule out pardoning lower-level White House staffers, reassuring glamorous aide Margo Martin, who was traveling with him, after being asked about a Washington Sun report that mass pardons for junior staffers were under consideration for those dealing with deportations, war or trade.
Trump told her when asked about a Washington Sun report that mass pardons for junior staffers were being considered for those dealing with deportations, war or trade.
“Margo, you’re not going to have to worry about it, okay?” Trump told her. Trump slammed about question about whether he was preparing to attack Iran, but still kept his options open: “I may have to finish it off or maybe they’ll make a deal, but I’m not sure.”
Asked about corruption becoming a top issue for voters, Trump had a simple answer: “Because the Democrats are very corrupt.”
The president cast his ballot in his adopted home state after dismissing polling averages showing his approval rating at 38% or lower.
“I’m not at 38,” he told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t believe I could be beaten by anybody. I think that if I needed it, which I don’t, I think 60.”
Trump isn’t on the ballot this year, but he has urged supporters to treat the midterms as a referendum on his presidency.
Florida has a Senate race between Republican Sen. Ashley Moody and Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Moody is favored, while the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to be more competitive.
Former Republican Rep. David Jolly, now running as a Democrat, is challenging Trump ally Rep. Byron Donalds in the gubernatorial contest.
Trump, who spent the night at Mar-a-Lago in between a pair of campaign rallies, elected to vote in person, hours after telling supporters on his Truth Social site in other early voting states to vote however they can.
“If you have a mail-in ballot, return it immediately and, if not, GO VOTE at the Polls RIGHT NOW, and get everyone you know to VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICAN IN EVERY RACE, UP AND DOWN THE BALLOT!” Trump wrote in just one of his posts, directed at New Jersey voters.
“There is a lot of cheating in vote by mail,” Trump claimed Monday.
The Justice Department has been cranking up prosecutions of people accused of voting illegally in the weeks before the elections, and has told election officials in California they must help identify noncitizens on the rolls or risk being targets of federal “scrutiny,” the New York Times reported.
DOJ sued the state on Thursday and asked it to segregate the votes of 20,000 people until their citizenship status could be “determined.”
Trump referenced that probe Saturday: “It could be as high as a million votes. The 20,000 is just a little bit, and that had to do with the past election, not this current election.”