MANKATO, Minn. — President Donald Trump flew to Minnesota Monday with a re-election message aimed at the small business owners and farmers who lifted him to office four years ago.
But first, he criticized the violence that took place in the Twin Cities earlier this summer and blamed local Democratic leaders, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for letting it happen.
“My message to Minnesota is clear. I’m here to help you. We will bring back law and order to your community, we will bring it back and bring it back immediately,” Trump said as met a small crowd after landing on Air Force One at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
He was scheduled to make a short flight to Mankato, where the White House said he would speak to an invited audience at the local airport on economic matters.
Trump planned to draw distinctions between himself and Vice President Joe Biden, who will become the Democratic nominee later this week, at a moment when coronavirus and recession have imperiled small businesses and farms much more than large ones.
As well, Trump hopes to flip Minnesota into his column by the time of the November election, ending the state’s long string of support for Democratic candidates that has been uninterrupted since 1976.
Trump came close in 2016, losing the state by 1.5 percentage points, the smallest margin of any of his losses to Hillary Clinton.
Recent polls show a statistical tie, though Biden holds an edge over Trump in most.
In an Emerson College poll taken on the weekend of Aug. 8-9, Biden’s support was 3 percentage points greater than Trump’s, within the statistical margin of error. Emerson’s polling found Biden held wider leads in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona, states Trump won in 2016.
Trump last visited Minnesota for a campaign rally in downtown Minneapolis last October. He held similar rallies in Duluth and Rochester in 2018, but the pandemic has prevented his campaign from scheduling rallies since the spring, except for an poorly-attended one in Tulsa, Okla., two months ago.