Our coverage of President Donald Trump’s Montana rally has concluded for the night. For more, visit CNN Politics.
President Trump tonight warned if he was impeached, the country “is going to turn into a third world country, because if the opposite party becomes president, before it even starts, before you’ve even found out whether or not he or she is going to do a great job.”
It came during his rally tonight in Billings, Montana. In a section of his remarks focused on impeachment, he said, “It’s a hell of a place in Washington. You know I was thinking if that happened every time a Republican or a Democrat, opposite got elected President, so let’s say a Democrat gets elected someday, hopefully it’s a long time. But let’s say a Democrat gets elected, and let’s say we have a Republican House – we will impeach that Democrat. Right? And then a Republican.”
The President said:
President Trump questioned why the press in 1863 initially criticized President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address only to praise it years later, and wondered if that would happen with him, too.
“You know when Abraham Lincoln made that Gettysburg Address speech, the great speech, you know he was ridiculed?” Trump asked. “And he was excoriated by the fake news. They had fake news then. They said it was a terrible, terrible speech.”
Then Lincoln died, Trump explained, and “50 years after his death they said it may have been the greatest speech ever made in America. Pretty good.”
He admitted, “I have a feeling that’s going to happen with us. In different ways, that’s going to happen with us.”
President Trump expressed his frustrations over an anonymous New York Times op-ed from a senior administration official, describing it as “a horrible thing,” calling on the Times to out the author and admitting he had no idea who wrote it.
“You just look. He was- nobody knows who the hell he is… or she. Although, they put he – but probably that’s a little disguise. That means it’s she. But for the sake of our national security, the New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop.”
Trump then went into a rant on “deep state actors” calling them a threat to democracy.
“I mean you look at the Washington Post or the New York Times, I can never get a good story. I mean you look at this horrible thing that took place today, it’s really, is it subversion? It is treason? It’s a horrible thing. You know the good thing about that? Even liberals that hate me say, ‘that’s terrible what they did.’ And it is, really terrible.”
Trump also complained about the news coverage about him and his administration.
“I can never get a good story. I mean, you look at this horrible thing that took place today. Is it subversion? Is it treason? It is a horrible thing. You know the good thing about that, even liberals that hate me say that is terrible what they did. And it is really terrible.”
President Trump told Montana supporters it was imperative they get out and vote for Republicans in the fall election, and would be their fault if he got impeached.
“You are not just voting for a candidate, you are voting for which party controls Congress,” Trump said. “Very important thing. Very important thing.”
“I don’t even bring it up because I view it as something, you know, they like to use the impeach word. Maxine waters, ‘We will impeach him.’ But he didn’t do anything wrong. It doesn’t matter, we will impeach him. We will impeach – but i say how do you impeach somebody that’s doing a great job? That hasn’t done anything wrong?”
He added, “It is so ridiculous. But we will worry about that, it ever happens, but if it does happen it is your fault because you did not go out and vote. You did not go out to vote, that is the only way it can happen. I will be the only president in history that will say what a job he has done, by the way, we are impeaching him.”
President Trump believes his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was “one of my best meetings ever.”
“They wanted me to have a boxing match on this stage. We had a great meeting. We talked about Ukraine, we talked about Syria. We talked about the protection of Israel. We talked about so many great things,” Trump explained. “But they came back and they said it was terrible. I said what was terrible, we had a great meeting.”
The meeting between Trump and Putin was private, one-on-one with one translator per leader, and we still don’t know what specifically was discussed.
President Trump, pleased with the positive rhetoric coming out of North Korea, told Kim Jong Un to “take your time” tonight at a rally in Montana.
Trump was talking about Kim’s purported statement that he hopes to denuclearize North Korea sometime during Trump’s presidency. “That is the nicest,” Trump said.
“We have a good feeling. He likes me, I like him, who knows what is going to happen.”
President Trump, speaking at a rally in Montana tonight, sharply criticized Democrats participating in Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing.
He described the Democrats’ actions as “sick.”
“As you saw this week, the Senate is now considering a truly exceptional nominee for the United States Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh,” Trump said. “And he is doing really well. But do you believe the anger and the meanness on the other side? Sick. It is sick.”
He continued: “The whole country is now seeing his amazing intellect and his brilliant legal mind. Judge Kavanaugh deserves overwhelming bipartisan support, and I think he is going to be one of our truly great to Supreme Court justices.”
President Trump, when asked who was “winning” the “culture war over the NFL and the National Anthem answered simply: “we are.”
When this happened: Trump made the remarks moments before the NFL season kickoff, in an interview with Fox News that was done in front of tonight’s rally crowd in Montana.
“We are,” Trump said when asked who was winning the culture
“I don’t know what the NFL is doing… from what I understand it’s in contracts that you have to stand for the National Anthem,” Trump said adding, “I don’t know why they’re not enforcing it.”
Trump also complained, as he has in the past, that staying in the locker room is “worse than kneeling in a certain way.”
“I honor the flag, I honor our National Anthem and most of the people in this country feel the same way.”
President Trump, in an interview with Fox News before a rally in Montana, addressed the New York Times Op-Ed saying it’s “a very unfair thing” that the writer of the opinion is anonymous, adding that the administration can’t discredit the account without the person’s identity.
This was unusual: The interview was taped on a stage in the arena in front of the crowd.
Trump also called the White House “a well oiled machine” and that there is “a lot of love in the administration.”
“So they take one person out of thousands but what’s unfair – I don’t mind when they write a book and they make lies, cause it gets discredited. We just discredited the last one. We discredit all of them because it’s lies,” Trump said.
“But I’ll tell you,” he continued, “when somebody writes and you can’t discredit, because you have no idea who they are usually you’ll find out it’s a background that was bad. It might not be a Republican, it may not be a Conservative. It may be a deep state person that’s been there a long time.”
President Trump took the stage in Billings, Montana, just 10 minutes after he was scheduled to do so.
The President flew here after a rollicking 48 hours in Washington, D.C.
“Hello Montana,” Trump said. “This is going to be a lot of fun.”
You can watch the rally in the player above or right here.
President Trump is speaking tonight in Montana after a tumultuous week at the White House and for his administration.
He’ll likely have a lot to say about Bob Woodward’s new book, an anonymous New York Times op-ed and other key issues.
Here are a few subjects that Trump could bring up:
Scores of Trump supporters in their seats ahead of the rally are being treated to a Fox & Friends interview that is being pre-taped for tomorrow’s show. The audio is being pumped over the speakers, and they are cheering at certain remarks.
President Trump is set to rally Republicans in Montana tonight in Montana behind state auditor Matt Rosendale’s bid to oust Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in November’s midterm elections.
The rally is scheduled to start 9 p.m. ET.
Montana is one of five states that Trump won by double digits in 2016 where a Democratic senator is up for re-election this fall – which the White House and Republican strategists hope will give the President outsized influence on their Senate races.
His evening rally in Billings is Trump’s second visit to Montana this election cycle – two months after he held a similar campaign event in Great Falls.
Trump’s rallies often veer far from the topic of the Senate race he’s there to weigh in on. In his July visit, Trump mocked the #MeToo movement, called Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas,” claimed California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters’ I.Q. is in the “mid-60s” and ridiculed Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who died nearly two weeks ago, for opposing his Obamacare repeal effort.
One thing to note: On Thursday, the swirl of news included the confirmation hearing of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and an anonymous New York Times op-ed in which a senior administration official strongly criticized Trump.
