(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Lee Yu-mi = U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly appealed for support for Alaska's Republican senatorial candidate in the midterm election on the 1st (local time), the day after he unilaterally announced investment in Korea's liquefied natural gas (LNG) business.
The previous day, he had praised Senator Dan Sullivan, who is running for a third term, by announcing that Korea was planning to invest more than $50 billion in the Alaska LNG project, and on this day, the first day of his national campaign tour, Senator Sullivan was once again featured.
βWe have great candidates, but some of them are close races,β President Trump said in a speech at an event in Durant, Oklahoma that day. βYou have to get out there to vote.β
He also said, βThis election depends on 35 elections,β and selected Michigan and Texas as close battlegrounds.
He said he would go to these regions as well as Alaska, adding, "There is a great senator there, Dan Sullivan, and we will get him elected."
President Trump repeatedly mentioned the fact that a candidate with the same name as Congressman Sullivan is running in the Alaska Senate election, and urged voters not to confuse incumbent Congressman Sullivan with the candidate with the same name, saying, "If Congressman Sullivan loses 2 percentage points because of this person, that could decide the outcome of the election."
The day before, President Trump announced Korea's investment in the Alaska LNG project as if it had been confirmed. Representative Sullivan also attended the White House announcement at the time, and President Trump praised him and gave his support to the election campaign. However, the Korean government's position is that it will decide whether to invest after reviewing the commercial rationality of the project.
On this day, President Trump began a full-scale support campaign about a month before the midterm elections, visiting Denton, Texas, ahead of Oklahoma, to support Republican Senator Ken Paxton.
In his speech that day, President Trump emphasized his economic performance, mentioning jobs, stock prices, and poverty indicators.
In particular, he emphasized that manufacturing and jobs are returning to the United States through tariff policies. He also mentioned egg and gasoline prices and argued that prices are improving compared to the previous Biden administration.
This is interpreted as a move to highlight his economic performance as prices and economic issues have emerged as major issues ahead of the midterm elections in November.
Regarding the Iran war and energy prices, President Trump said, "As I promised, we are ensuring that the war with Iran ends very quickly," and added, "Energy prices will also go down very quickly."
On this day, President Trump continued to attack the Democratic Party with a βcommunistβ frame, defining Democratic candidates in close contested areas as βcommunists.β
He claimed, βThere are now outright communists running for office in Michigan, Texas, and several other states,β and βThey are skipping socialism and going for communism.β
President Trump warned of the possibility of the Democratic Party winning the midterm elections and appealed to his supporters to rally, saying, "If we don't win, they will eventually impeach me."
