Donald Trump closed his midterm pitch with surreal comments on various topics, including celebrity appearances and the Nobel Peace Prize. While voters worry about high prices, Trump touted economic growth at a Corpus Christi rally. Strategist Ron Bonjean said, "The key for him is to try to gin up."
Voters want lower prices. Trump has other things on his mind, like backsides and the Nobel Peace Prize
Rapper Nicki Minaj's backside ("beautiful"). Senate candidate Jon Husted's backside ("a pile of muscle"). Senate candidate Jon Husted's fingers ("sausages"). Chat show host Bill Maher's TV ratings ("low"). Norway's failure to award him the Nobel Peace Prize ("shithouse country"). Solar panels eviscerating animals ("they fry"). A new name for the Atlantic ("Trump Ocean"). And the Cheesecake Factory.
It has been quite the closing message from Donald Trump.
Polling shows that Americans voting in next week's midterms care most about the economy -- and especially affordability. But the campaign pitch from the US president and his lieutenants has been a little more varied.
Two years ago it was different. Americans tired of high inflation powered Trump to the White House, thrilled by his pledge to drive down prices. Now he faces the same voter ire about soaring costs -- such as petrol and diesel -- that sank his predecessor Joe Biden.
Amid the stump routine about "lunatic" Democrats, his fondness for meat, and Husted's appearance, Trump has touted a booming stock market, chunky corporate investment pledges and GDP growth that makes the economy the "envy of the world".
"These are the big-picture numbers: most jobs ever, best poverty levels ever, best income levels ever, most things exported," he told a rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, this week.
But Americans struggling with the inflation surge since Trump launched his Iran war do not seem to be buying it. A recent FT poll found 56 per cent of respondents said they were worse off financially since Trump retook office in January 2025.
Strategists say this explains Trump's riffs on esoteric subjects and personal jibes that he hopes will excite his base.
"People aren't feeling the effects of the economic indicators that he's talking about so it's much more turbulent for him to try to land that message for voters," said Ron Bonjean, a Republican political strategist.
"The key for him is to try to gin up the Republican Maga base to get enthusiastic about going to the polls . So that's why at these rallies, he focuses on the economy, but he does a whole lot of other things too," he added. "At the end of the day, you get a whole lot of Trump -- and that's often just exactly what the Maga base wants to hear."
The president is not the only campaigner going off-piste as the vote nears. In Alaska, the Democrats' Senate campaign has been caught up in a scandal over electoral shenanigans. The party's bid to win a Maine Senate seat was initially derailed by a candidate with a Nazi-symbol tattoo who was accused of sexual assault.
But even as Republicans hoping for message discipline from the president wince, Trump has doubled down on what sometimes seems like a comedy routine.
On Tuesday in Texas, the riff returned to male physiques, with Trump deriding -- not for the first time -- the looks of Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, whose body would not "qualify" for presidential praise.
White House spokesperson Matthew Middleton said Trump had enacted a "historic economic growth agenda" that had brought stock market highs, economic investment and job creation and "helped blunt the effects of Biden's 40-year-high inflation crisis". The president had highlighted these and other economic achievements on the campaign trail, he said.
There is no doubt that the US economy has been purring. Official data released this week showed GDP growth accelerating to 3.4 per cent on the back of the AI investment boom and resilient consumer spending.
But for many Americans, rising inflation is a more tangible indicator the economy's health. Data released on Thursday showed the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, an inflation gauge, rose 3.6 per cent in the year to September, versus 2.6 per cent before Trump took office.
That backdrop has made non-economic trivia a more fertile ground for campaign messaging, say analysts. That means "the weave" -- Trump's now trademark stream-of-consciousness stump speech ramble. His crowds lap it up.
"This is not the time for rational, boring arguments. It's the time to keep it exciting and fun . . . to turn out the base," said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and former congressional aide.
"What Trump is really good at is coming up with messages that are always picked up by the media -- it's not always the messages that candidates want, but he's brilliant at making news."
And anything that gets a candidate in the news is a plus, analysts argue.
Trump has generated headlines by praising the sharp looks of Republican candidates such as Montana's Tim Sheehy and Georgia's Mike Collins. But Husted and his "pile of muscle" backside have been true stars of the show.
"Husted's biggest problem is people don't know who he is," said Feehery. "I think anything you can do to let people talk about John Husted in a positive way is great."
The Ohio candidate, who is trailing in his race, quipped this week ahead of a Trump visit: "Don't worry, I was in the weight room this morning, working out."
Some of Trump's attacks have been scattergun and nasty. He has riffed on "vegan" Democrat James Talarico, who he also calls "Talafreako" and "Alfred E Neuman", painting him as not manly enough to win a race in Texas.
He has mocked Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat running for Michigan's Senate seat, over his religion, calling him "Abdullah bah bah bah bah bah Mohamed" and a "jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member" who would need to "go through a metal detector" to enter Congress.
Then came the great Cheesecake Factory-gate scandal.
During a recent campaign speech, Barack Obama joked that Trump's Oval Office renovations looked like "Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory", a reference to the popular restaurant chain whose interiors verge on the gaudy.
Trump and other lieutenants, including Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, branded the Obama quip as the attack of a privileged Martha's Vineyard elitist mocking Americans' food tastes.
Bessent even held an impromptu press gaggle outside a local Cheesecake Factory. "I had a great meal. I always have a great meal," the former hedge fund boss said.
Some Republicans worry that these kinds of riffs and election-season tangents -- including Trump's boasts about his Washington construction projects -- undermine the issue the party should be focused on: Americans' anger at high prices.
"The base is going to say, tell me again how much you care about me," said Susan Del Percio, a Republican strategist.
"The news that comes out of those rallies should be reassuring to the people who voted for him -- and it's not.
"Every time he talks about a helipad or a museum or a ballroom or a golf course, those are all times he's not talking about the things that people care about."
There has been some mixed messaging from the administration too.
Trump's vice-president, JD Vance, has conceded that Americans are being squeezed. "I recognise that gas prices are too high right now," he told a town hall in Michigan recently. But his pitch is to ask for more time to correct the problem.
"Just as this country wasn't broken in one presidential term, it's going to take more than 18 months to fix things," he said.
But Vance is largely on his own with this pitch. Other Trump officials, such as Bessent and Kevin Hassett, of the president's National Economic Council, have played down inflation concerns, even suggesting it is made up.
"All of the things that have made the economy great means that affordability crisis -- it's a myth," Hassett told Fox News this week.
Trump has generally stopped deriding Americans' affordability concerns as a "hoax" -- his line from last year. But he has repeatedly pinned the blame on Biden and has falsely claimed that all prices have fallen since he retook office.
"Affordability is big, but it was caused by the Biden administration," he said in Alaska this month. "I've only been here a little more than a year and a half, and we're bringing it way down. Groceries have come way down; everything's coming down, and oil will be coming down as soon as I finish with Iran."
While many of the president's allies view his appearance on the campaign trail as a boon to local candidates, some, such as Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Michigan, have tried to distance themselves from unpopular policies like Trump's tariffs or trade war with Canada.
Democrats argue that whatever the president says on the stump -- on the Norway, Nicki Minaj or inflation being "defeated" -- the historically unpopular president is doing them a favour.
"He made all of these promises about lowering prices and costs -- and prices and costs in many cases have gone in the wrong direction," said Anthony Coley, a Democratic strategist and former official in the Biden administration.