President Donald Trump delivered a speech focused on policy changes affecting constituents over the past year at the Horizon Events Center in Clive on Jan. 27.
Trump delivered his speech almost a year after he entered office, aiming to sway midterm votes. He highlighted the areas of policy his administration has targeted, focusing on economic shifts, benefits for farmers, energy, immigration, national security and more.
“I terminated the so-called diesel exhaust fluid requirement, you know what that is, saving family farmers more than $1 billion a year,” Trump said during his speech in Clive, recorded and transcribed by Roll Call on Jan. 27. “And we’re going to do a lot more.”
First-year Sebastien Meyers, the political director of Drake College Republicans, volunteered with the event organizers of Trump’s speech on Tuesday. He said that two main focuses of Trump’s speech — the economy and energy — were relevant to the Drake University community.
“Especially as college students, we are all going through our own ways of life, and we all come from different backgrounds …” Meyers said. “When he talked about the economy and what he wants to do to try and improve it, I think that should be very important for all of us because … it’s not cheap to go to college.”
During his speech, Trump endorsed the ongoing negotiations to make E15 — a gas with 15% ethanol content — sold year-round. He also discussed deals to export ethanol to Japan and the United Kingdom.
“Energy will [definitely be] a hot topic later on,” Meyers said. “I’ve seen people here at Drake talk about it, but not to the fullest extent. But I think it will become very important here soon.”
Trump’s speech comes after an increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer presence in Minneapolis and other major cities. As a response to the mass deportations, arrests and deaths of protesters occurring in these cities, protesters gathered outside the Horizon Events Center, with We Are Iowa estimating 2,000 protesters. First-years Aubrey Lambi and Meghan Barnett joined the crowds outside in protest.
Upon hearing that Trump would appear in Clive, Lambi told Barnett, “We have to go [protest]. He’s in Iowa.”
An increased ICE presence in Minneapolis has heightened armed agent responses to protests and, most recently, resulted in the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the latter occurring three days before Trump’s speech in Clive.
“We’re standing with Minneapolis, but we’re also standing with our state,” Lambi said.
Trump referred to individuals who protested his rally as “paid agitators” who, when asked why they were protesting, would say “I don’t know.”
Trump expressed support for several Iowa officials and businesses — Attorney General Brenna Bird, Gov. Kim Reynolds and John Deere, for example — during the speech as he urged attendees to help Republicans win in the Iowa midterms on June 2.
“With the help of the incredible people of Iowa, we’re repairing four long years of disaster and decline and we’re beginning what will be known as the greatest years in the history of our country …” Trump said near the end of his speech. “We are entering a period that will be called the Golden Age of America.”
The term “Golden Age of America” has been used throughout Trump’s second presidential term to describe his vision for the United States in anticipation of midterm elections.
