Trump visits Iowa trying to focus on affordability during fallout over
shooting in Minneapolis
[January 28, 2026]
By SEUNG MIN KIM, HANNAH FINGERHUT and MICHELLE L. PRICE
CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday made his first big
pitch ahead of this year's midterm elections on his administration's
economic performance, even as his White House remains mired in the
fallout in Minneapolis over a second fatal shooting by federal
immigration officers this month.
Trump gave a speech in a suburb of Des Moines where he talked up the tax
cuts he signed into law last year and took credit for the soaring
performance of the stock market, saying he “made a lot of people rich,”
including some "that I don’t even like."
“If we lose the midterms, you’ll lose so many of the things that we’re
talking about," Trump told Iowans, who are expected to reflect their
feelings on his presidency when they vote in two highly competitive
congressional races this year.
The trip for the Republican president was part of a White House push to
focus more on affordability ahead of elections in November that will
determine control of Congress.
But the president once again suggested that concerns about prices were
exaggerated by his political opponents, saying, “They come up with this
word ‘affordability.’”
“First time you heard about it was like a few months ago,” he said.
He went on and added: “You’re not hearing it so much anymore. You know
why? Because the prices are coming down so much.”
The visit was 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
economic issues facing everyday Americans — an effort that keeps getting
diverted by crisis.
On the ground in Iowa, Trump first made a stop at a local restaurant,
where he met some locals and sat for an interview with Fox News Channel
— in which he said he was attempting to “de-escalate a little bit” in
Minnesota.
The latest effort comes as the Trump administration is grappling with
the weekend shooting death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse killed by
federal agents in Iowa's northern neighbor. 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, Trump said he was waiting
until an investigation into the shooting was complete.
Trump calls Pretti killing 'sad situation'
As Trump left the White House on Tuesday to head to Iowa, he was
repeatedly questioned by reporters about Pretti's killing. Trump
disputed language used by his own deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller,
who on social media described Pretti as an “assassin” who “tried to
murder federal agents.” Vice President JD Vance shared the post.
Trump, when asked Tuesday if he believed Pretti was an assassin, said,
“No.”
When asked if he thought Pretti's killing was justified, Trump called it
“a very sad situation” and said a “big investigation” was underway.
"I’m going to be watching over it, and I want a very honorable and
honest investigation. I have to see it myself,” he said.
He also said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was quick to
cast Pretti as a violent instigator, would not be resigning.
Later, as he greeted diners at an Iowa restaurant, Trump weighed in
further with comments that were likely to exacerbate frustration among
some of his backers who are also strong Second Amendment proponents.
"He certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,” Trump said of Pretti.
He called it a “very, very unfortunate incident" but said: "I don’t like
that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines.
That’s a lot of bad stuff.”
Republicans want to switch the subject to affordability
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.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to a restaurant in
Urbandale, Iowa, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Trump, speaking Tuesday in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines, talked up the
wide-ranging tariffs he imposed on nearly all U.S. trading partners. He
also promoted the deals he's struck with drugmakers to get them to lower
costs on some prescription drugs.
Republicans are hoping that Trump’s visit to the state 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.
Some attending Tuesday’s event said they didn’t think immigration
enforcement officers in Minnesota were being given a chance to do their
job, even as they expressed sympathy over the two shooting deaths that
have occurred in Minneapolis.
“You can’t interfere with these people when they’re trying to enforce
the law,” said 68-year-old Jerry Greif from Vinton, Iowa.
Greif, a Trump supporter, said he’s glad there are three more years of
Trump’s second term. He said there’s still room for some prices to go
down but he finds the economy is “definitely improving” from what it was
during the Biden administration.
Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart emphasized Tuesday that Trump’s
tariff policies have hurt Iowa farmers and criticized Iowa’s Republican
leaders for cheering Trump on “as he has taken a wrecking ball to our
economy.”
“It’s laughable that Trump is coming here today to talk about
affordability of all things when Iowans are literally paying more
because of his disastrous policies,” Hart said.
Trump last year made stops in Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina
to try to talk about affordability as the White House tried 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.
Competitive races in Iowa
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.
Zach 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 and Price reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Maya
Sweedler in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to
this report.
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