Trump rails against Iranian threats, courts crucial swing state voters: 3 takeaways from NC speech

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump took to the stump Wednesday to address issues ranging from Iranian threats to the economy, courting voters in the crucial state of North Carolina as the 2024 race for the White House enters its final stages.

“This is a very important place, a very important state,” Trump said during a speech in Mint Hill, near Charlotte.

North Carolina has long been viewed as a pivotal swing state, though it has backed Republicans in every presidential election since 2008. Still, some say the Tar Heel State is suddenly at risk for the GOP nominee because of the scandal engulfing gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.

Trump didn’t mention Robinson, who’s facing backlash over a CNN report alleging he made shocking comments on a pornography website. The former president hasn’t retracted his support for Robinson, who insists he’s staying in what’s expected to be one of the tightest governor races this fall.

The former president instead promoted his economic plans, while denouncing those of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

At the start of his 67-minute speech, Trump stressed intelligence reports that Iran is targeting him. He also suggested that Tehran might be involved the two recent assassination attempts against him − despite assertions from authorities that there is no evidence of Iranian involvement.

“As you know, there have been two assassination attempts on my life, that we know of, and they may or may not involve – but possibly do – Iran,” Trump said.

Here are USA TODAY’s top takeaways from the Wednesday speech.

Bashing Iranian threats

Trump in North Carolina said the U.S. government should warn Iranian officials that their country and its cities would be blown to “smithereens” if any harm comes to presidential candidates.

“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens,” Trump said. “We’re going to blow it to smithereens. You can’t do that, and there would be no more threats. … But right now we don’t have that leadership.”

Trump traveled to North Carolina the day after his campaign announced that intelligence officials briefed the former president about “specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”

American officials have accused Iran of hacking Trump computers, but said there is no evidence linking the regime to the two attempts on Trump’s life.

In discussing Iran with a supportive crowd, Trump again invoked the July 13 attempt on his life, when a bullet whizzed just past his head – nicking his ear and drawing blood. A week ago Sunday, authorities arrested and charged him with attempted assassination after he carried a rifle onto Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

After the North Carolina speech, the Trump campaign announced that he will return to Butler for a rally on Oct. 5.

U.S. officials and Trump aides have long said they suspect Iran will seek revenge on Trump for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, which occurred during Trump’s term in the White House.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, appearing on NBC this week, said that “this is something we’ve been tracking very intensely for a long time – an ongoing threat by Iran against a number of senior officials, including former government officials like President Trump, and some people who are currently serving the administration.  So it’s something we take very, very seriously.”

Courting North Carolina voters

This was Trump’s second North Carolina rally in four days, following a CNN report that Robinson made the offensive online posts.

The report was sweeping. CNN accuses Robinson of frequenting a pornographic website between 2008 and 2012 and posting a variety of comments that are sexually explicitly, racist, transphobic or insulting in other ways.  

The outlet also reported the Robinson called himself a Black Nazi, and that he supported some degree of slavery in the United States, as well as supporting Nazi leader Adolph Hitler over then-President Barack Obama’s leadership.  

Robinson has denied being the author of these posts; he also did not attend either of the recent Trump rallies in his state.

As during an airport rally Saturday in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump gave shout-outs to prominent North Carolina Republicans, but did not so much as mention Robinson’s name, his party’s candidate for governor.

The North Carolina governorship is one of the major races Republicans have hoped to pick up in November. However, in recent polls, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic nominee, has led Robinson by as much as 10 percentage points.

The Harris campaign – citing Trump’s repeated praise of Robinson in months past – has revved up get-out-the-vote efforts in North Carolina since the CNN story broke. Polls in the presidential election show a tight race in a state that Trump carried in both 2016 and 2020, and probably has to win to have a chance of regaining the White House.

Focusing on the economy

Trump made the economy a major theme of his Wednesday speech event, just as he did Monday in Savannah, Georgia.

The Republican nominee promoted plans to reduce taxes and business regulations, along with efforts get companies to bring jobs back to the U.S. from overseas. He also defended calls for more tariffs on companies that move jobs from America to other countries. Trump has made economic policies the focal point of his campaign for weeks, though he again on Wednesday offered few details of how he would make these promises a reality.

Trump also attacked Harris over her own economic program, as well as inflation, illegal border crossings, Ukraine, the Middle East – and the impact of all that on state of North Carolina. He particularly focused on the furniture manufacturing industry, a longtime factor in the swing state’s economy which has seen major upheaval in recent decades.

“This November,” he said, “the people of North Carolina are going to tell her we’ve had enough.”