While in Iowa, the Republican president will make a stop at a local business and then deliver a speech on affordability, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The remarks will be at the Horizon Events Center in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines.

The trip will also highlight energy policy, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said last week. It’s part of the White House’s strategy to have Trump travel out of Washington once a week ahead of the midterm elections to focus on affordability issues facing everyday Americans — an effort that keeps getting diverted by crisis.

The latest comes as the Trump administration is grappling with the weekend shooting death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse killed by federal agents in the neighboring state of Minnesota. Pretti had participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Even as some top administration officials moved quickly to malign Pretti, the White House said Monday that Trump was waiting until an investigation into the shooting was complete.

Trump was last in Iowa ahead of the July 4 holiday to kick off the United States’ upcoming 250th anniversary, which morphed largely into a celebration of his major spending and tax cut package hours after Congress had approved it.

Republicans are hoping that Trump’s visit to the state on Tuesday draws focus back to that tax bill, which will be a key part of their pitch as they ask voters to keep them in power in November.

“I invited President Trump back to Iowa to highlight the real progress we’ve made: delivering tax relief for working families, securing the border, and growing our economy,” Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, said in a statement in advance of his trip. “Now we’ve got to keep that momentum going and pass my affordable housing bill, deliver for Iowa’s energy producers, and bring down costs for working families.”

Trump’s affordability tour has taken him to Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina as the White House tries to marshal the president’s political power to appeal to voters in key swing states.

But Trump’s penchant for going off-script has sometimes taken the focus off cost-of-living issues and his administration’s plans for how to combat it. In Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, Trump insisted that inflation was no longer a problem and that Democrats were using the term affordability as a “hoax” to hurt him. At that event, Trump also griped that immigrants arriving to the U.S. from “filthy” countries got more attention than his pledges to fight inflation.

Although it was a swing state just a little more than a decade ago, Iowa in recent years has been reliably Republican in national and statewide elections. Trump won Iowa by 13 percentage points in 2024 against Democrat Kamala Harris.

Still, two of Iowa’s four congressional districts have been among the most competitive in the country and are expected to be again in this year’s midterm elections. Trump already has endorsed Republican Reps. Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Democrats, who landed three of Iowa’s four House seats in the 2018 midterm elections during Trump’s first term, see a prime opportunity to unseat Iowa incumbents.

This election will be the first since 1968 with open seats for both governor and U.S. senator at the top of the ticket after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst opted out of reelection bids. The political shake-ups have rippled throughout the state, with Republican Reps. Randy Feenstra and Ashley Hinson seeking new offices for governor and for U.S. senator, respectively.

Democrats hope Rob Sand, the lone Democrat in statewide office who is running for governor, will make the entire state more competitive with his appeal to moderate and conservative voters and his $13 million in cash on hand.

___

Kim reported from Washington.

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The Iowa State Cyclones have solidified their standing as one of the best teams in men’s college basketball during the 2025-26 season.

After defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Jan. 24, the Cyclones now have 18 victories on the season. They remain ranked inside the top 10 of the AP Poll, bouncing back in a big way after going on a two-game losing streak after a 16-0 start to the campaign.

There have been a lot of players contributing to the team’s historic success thus far this season. Arguably, their most important piece has been forward Joshua Jefferson, who is performing at a high level on both ends of the floor.

So much so, he has steadily moved up NBA draft big boards with his stellar numbers. Coming into the season, he was viewed as a top 100 player and a fringe second-round pick. More than halfway through the 2025-26 campaign, he has put himself squarely in the mix as a first-round pick.

Thunder select Joshua Jefferson in first round of recent mock draft

In a recent NBA mock draft put together by Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report, Jefferson has moved into the first-round. He lands with the Oklahoma City Thunder, via the Houston Rockets, with the No. 25 overall pick. His teammate, Milan Momcilovic, was also selected.

That is the third of three first-round picks that the Thunder are projected to have in the 2026 NBA Draft. They also selected at Nos. 12 and 18, coming away with Florida Gators forward Thomas Haugh and Houston Cougars big man Chris Cenac Jr.

Oklahoma City also has the No. 38 overall pick, via the Dallas Mavericks. With that selection, they land Paul McNeil, a guard from the North Carolina State Wolfpack who drew a pro comp to Isaiah Joe, a current member of the Thunder’s rotation.

Cracking the rotation of the defending NBA champions, especially with so many other talented youngsters also being added in the draft, would be a challenge for Jefferson. But he is the ideal kind of target for a contender.

He may not have as high a ceiling as some of the other prospects in the Class of 2026, but he is certainly capable of making an immediate impact. A team that is focused on winning as much as possible and contending for another title should be taking someone of Jefferson’s caliber into strong consideration during the draft.

He has shown excellent playmaking ability thus far this season, averaging 5.2 assists per game, which is second on the team behind Tamin Lipsey, who is averaging 5.4. The talented forward is also grabbing 7.8 rebounds and scoring 17.4 points per game.

A versatile player capable of filling several roles on both ends of the floor, drawing a comparison to Kyle Anderson, Jefferson looks ready to contribute to an NBA team immediately.

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