Why Trump is campaigning in red states

With the midterm elections approaching, Trump, 80, has been stumping in states that should already be safe for his party, including an Alaska appearance for Senator Dan Sullivan, whose Democratic opponent Mary Peltola is running neck and neck against him. The president and his party both poll as unpopular, which helps explain the tour.

Ramble of the week

The rallies have run long past their script. At one stop Trump spent 15 minutes complaining about how he did not win the Nobel peace prize, despite claiming to have settled eight wars. In Montana he turned to wildlife and the second amendment, telling the crowd the animals would be very, very happy to see you without guns and would gain a lot of weight. He said he had discussed the subject with Montana's senators on the plane.

Other digressions included:

• •A musing about doctors, in which he said: "I travel with more doctors than any human being. If people get sick in the audience, they don't – they leave them alone".
• •A riff on the expression "as clean as a newborn baby's ass".
• •A threat aimed at Pakistan and India over their conflict: "If you guys don't stop killing each other I'm going to charge you 250% in tariffs".
• •A moment of candour at a Clarksville rally, where he told the audience: "I could say the stupidest things and you clap".

Insults and odd observations

The trump rally comments ranged from attacks on opponents to odd personal asides. In Alaska, Peltola - a native American former tribal judge - was called "a whack job". Trump insulted immigrants from Somalia, claiming they come from a part of the world that only knows how to kill each other, describing them as low IQ and saying they do not have pants.

In Ohio he offered a physical appraisal of Senator Jon Husted, who is running for re-election and played university football: "I looked at his ass and I looked at the whole – and then I looked at his hands", which he likened to claws. He later praised Husted, 59, for having a good jawline.

Other remarks included:

• •Repeated complaints about Ken Paxton, his handpicked US Senate nominee in Texas, whom he has said he does not like how Paxton talks, dresses, or looks.
• •Praise in Bullhead City, Arizona, for Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, as "young" and "handsome" - Sheikh Tamim is 46.
• •Confusion at a Syracuse rally meant to back New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, where Trump said he had both known him "just for a second" and for years.

False claims and endorsements

Alongside the trump midterm campaign come statements that do not hold up. Trump repeated, falsely, that the 2020 election was rigged, and claimed he had secured $21tn in foreign investment in the US. In Syracuse he asserted that New Yorkers must say "gestating" instead of "mother", which is not true. And while he told the tariff story about Pakistan and India, India has repeatedly denied that a ceasefire was reached because of any intervention from Trump.

He also made news of his own on stage. In Alaska he granted pardons, on stage, to two Alaska auto shop owners who had pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act. In Arizona he endorsed Alex Kolodin, a state house member seeking the secretary of state office, calling him "Alex Kolodin, a warrior for election integrity, as your next secretary of state" and adding that he was "a little bit nerdy".

With two weeks to go until the midterm elections, there will be more appearances to come. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.