President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. Photo / AP
President Donald Trump feels wronged.
Standing at center stage in a hockey arena here, delivering a rollicking speech that harkened back to the glory days of his 2016 campaign, Trump was simmering with frustration.
Trump said he felt wronged that he was not given more credit for his historic meetinglast week in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Wronged that his administration's move to separate migrant children from their parents at the border garnered round-the-clock news coverage.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally. Photo / AP
Wronged that the media are not instead focused on this week's congressional hearings over a Department of Justice inspector general report, and wronged that the report backed up the FBI's decision not to charge Hillary Clinton with crimes.
Wronged that he has to share some of the credit for the good economy with his predecessor, former president Barack Obama.
Wronged that the media does not focus enough attention on the size of his crowds.
Wronged that a handful of protesters interrupted his rally speech.
And wronged that, after defying the predictions of political experts to become elected president as a populist hero, he still is not considered part of the nation's elite.
"You ever notice they always call the other side 'the elite,' " Trump asked. "The elite! Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do. I'm smarter than they are. I'm richer than they are. I became president and they didn't."
Trump's electric connection with his supporters is powered in part by his propensity to speak his mind, and he did not disappoint on Wednesday night. The president veered from his prepared script repeatedly to air his grievances before a capacity crowd of 9,000.
Many of Trump's frustrations were about the way he is covered by the media - "those very dishonest people," as he put it, gesturing toward the press riser and eliciting loud boos and chants of "CNN sucks!" from the crowd.
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. Photo / AP
"I just got back, as you know, from Singapore, where I met Kim Jong Un, and we had a great meeting, great chemistry. We got along very well," Trump said. "At first, everybody was amazed - amazed! - that we had the meeting. They couldn't believe it."
Then, as Trump told it, the media turned on him. "They said, 'The president gave away so much!'"
"I got along with Kim Jong Un - and that's a good thing, not a bad thing," Trump said. "The fact that we do get along means we're safe. I'm not saying things can't happen. Things go wrong. Mistakes are made. Relationships get broken. But right now, you are so safe, and such a great event took place."
Trump falsely accused the media of focusing on family separations and the detention of children at the border in order to distract the public from congressional inquiries into a Justice Department watchdog report. The report backed up the FBI's decision not to bring charges against Clinton after its investigation of her use of private emails as secretary of state.
"Have you been seeing this whole scam?" Trump asked. "No matter how many crimes she committed, which were numerous, they wanted her to be innocent."
President Donald Trump, left, listens as Republican Pete Stauber addresses the crowd in his run for Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District during a Trump rally. Photo / AP
The crowd replied with chants of "Lock her up!"
For those who have closely followed Trump for years, the night was filled with many moments of deja vu, when it felt like suddenly it was 2016 all over again.
He lashed out at the media several times, prompting his fans to boo the reporters in their midst, and demanded to know why television news networks don't pan his crowd, showing its mass and might. He mocked the protesters who dared to interrupt him.
When one young man was escorted out by authorities, Trump yelled, "Going home to his mom." A few minutes later, when another man with long, straggly hair was led out of the arena, the president asked, gleefully, "Is that a man or a woman? I couldn't tell. Needs a haircut."
There were chants of the president's name, along with "Build that wall!" and "Lock her up!" and "USA! USA! USA!" and "Drain the swamp!" When the president vaguely alluded to the Senate who unexpectedly voted against repealing and replacing Obamacare, a man in the stands bellowed, "John McCain!" and a woman shouted, "Coward!" One of the president's loudest applause lines came after he mentioned reforms at Veterans Affairs and bragged that federal officials can now tell underperforming medical center employees: "You're fired!"
And at one point, the president asked - as he often used to - if there is "anything more fun than a Trump rally."
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. Photo / AP
The crowd signalled there was not. Some people jumped their fists into the air, while others whistled, whooped and screamed out: "Thank you!" and "We love you, Trump!"
But there were some new additions to the old line-up, reminders that the year is 2018, not 2016.
The stage was decorated with signs proclaiming, "Promises made. Promises kept." Before the rally, the crowd was entertained by newscast-style video clips featuring the president's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who interviewed the manufacturer who makes the campaign's signature hats and small company owners that have benefited from the Republican-pushed tax cuts.
Early on, Trump invited congressional leaders onto the stage and gave the microphone to Pete Stauber, the GOP candidate in Minnesota's 8th Congressional District, which is currently held by a Democrat and a top target for Republicans hoping to gain seats in the House.
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. Photo / AP
Trump ticked through his accomplishments in office, including job growth and steel tariffs, which could be a boost here in Duluth, which is home to the state's Iron Range and has been buffeted by global economic trends in the steel and other manufacturing industries.
He also talked about his plans for the future. When the president mentioned new investments in NASA, which he had announced Monday at the White House, the crowd chanted, "Space Force!"
