Donald Trump took his fight against Kim Jong-un to Alabama on Friday night, and threw elbows at John McCain and Hillary Clinton for good measure during a campaign rally for a Republican senator.
The president blasted the North Korean strongman as ‘Little Rocket Man,’ lobbing a rhetorical bomb toward Pyongyang after Kim called him a ‘mentally deranged U.S. dotard.’
Kim’s communist government has carried out six separate ballistic missile tests in recent weeks, and tested a hydrogen bomb underground.
Following Trump’s public condemnation of him at the United Nations on Tuesday, Kim said he might test an atomic weapon above the Pacific Ocean in a global show of force.
Donald Trump took his fight against Kim Jong-un to Alabama on Friday night, and threw elbows at John McCain and Hillary Clinton for good measure during a campaign rally for a Republican senator
‘We can’t have madmen out there shooting rockets all over the place,’ Trump said Friday in a raucous rally that included a return to his fans’ anti-Hillary-Clinton chant of ‘Lock her up.’
‘And by the way, Rocket Man should have been handled a long time ago,’ Trump said.
‘He should have been handled a long time ago by Clinton. I won’t mention the Republicans. By Obama.’
‘I’m going to handle it because we have to handle it,’ he said. ‘Little Rocket Man! We are going to do it because we have no choice.’
‘Now he’s talking about a massive weapon exploding over the ocean, the Pacific Ocean, which causes tremendous, tremendous calamity. Where that plume goes, so goes cancer, so goes tremendous problems.’
‘We can’t have madmen out there shooting rockets all over the place,’ Trump said Friday in a raucous rally that included a return to his fans’ anti-Hillary-Clinton chant of ‘Lock her up’
Trump criticized Arizona Senator John McCain (left) for saying he would not support a bill to repeal Obamacare, while he called Kim ‘Little Rocket Man’
The president said Kim ‘is listening, because he watches every word. … He’s watching us like he never watched anyone before.’
But he promised the northern Alabama audience that they were safe from any North Korean aggression.
‘We’re going to take care of the bad people,’ he pledged.
‘You are protected. Nobody’s going to mess with our people. Nobody’s going to play games,’ Trump said. ‘Nobody’s going to put our people in that kind of danger. Nobody.’
The evening rally benefited Sen. Luther Strange, who is running a special election for the seat he was appointed to when Jeff Sessions left the Senate to become the U.S. attorney general.
Strange, who served as the warmup act at his own political rally, delighted the crowd by pulling a red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat before he introduced Trump.
Chants of ‘USA!’ ‘Build that wall!’ and ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’ rang through the arena at various times on Friday.
Trump (seen above with Alabama Senator Richard Shelby) arrived in Huntsville, Alabama on Friday for an appearance at a campaign rally
Trump is hoping to boost the campaign of Republican Senator Luther Strange, who is in a tight race against a primary opponent. Strange (left) walks to embrace Trump at the rally on Friday
Strange, who served as the warmup act at his own political rally, delighted the crowd by pulling a red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat before he introduced Trump
Even ‘Lock Her Up!’ – an audience favorite directed at Clinton – made an appearance when Trump talked about protecting gun owners’ rights.
‘How about a thing called your Second Amendment, remember that?’ he asked. ‘If Crooked Hillary got elected, you would not have a Second Amendment, believe me.’
‘You’d be handing in your rifles. You would be saying, “Here, here, here they are.” You would be turning over your rifles.’
Hearing a chorus of ‘Lock Her Up!’ Trump stepped away from the podium for a moment.
‘You’ve got to speak to Jeff Sessions about that,’ he said when he returned.
Trump also predicted that Arizona Sen. John McCain’s decision to abandon an Obamacare repeal effort won’t ultimately doom the plan.
‘I say we still have a chance. We’re going to do it eventually,’ he said.
McCain’s stunning announcement Friday afternoon was seen as a fatal blow to a bill proposed by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana that would replace the Affordable Care Act with a more conservative-friendly scheme.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly gives a thumbs up sign to youngsters in attendance at the rally
Trump said Friday night that McCain’s legislative jilting ‘was a totally unexpected thing. Terrible.’
‘You look at his campaign, his last campaign, it was all about “Repeal and replace”,’ Trump recalled.
He hinted that Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a firm ‘no’ on the bill, might change his mind despite warning Friday that he would refused to be ‘bullied’ and ‘blackmailed’ for his support.
‘I haven’t given up on him because I think he may come around, okay?’ he said. ‘Wouldn’t it be ironic if he took John McCain’s place? They definitely do not like each other.’
Trump stumped for Strange, interspersing words of support among the rest of his standard campaign-rally fare.
Strange trails right-winger Roy Moore in polling ahead of Tuesday’s Republican primary, but the president said he told him things would turn around with his endorsement.
‘I think you’re going to come back and you’re going to kick everyone’s ass and you’re going to do great,’ he said.
In a surprising nonsequitur, Trump detoured into a criticism of the National Football League, whose ratings have slid since some black players have refused to stand up while the National Anthem is played before games.
In a surprising nonsequitur, Trump detoured into a criticism of the National Football League, whose ratings have slid since some black players have refused to stand up while the National Anthem is played before games
Eli Harold (58), Colin Kaepernick (7), and Eric Reid (far right) are seen above kneeling during the anthem prior to a game earlier this year
‘Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now! He is fired. He’s fired!”‘ Trump boomed.
He said American football is ‘not the same game anymore’ since referees have clamped down on aggressive tackles, throwing penalty flags whenever they hear the crack of a vicious hit.
But you know what’s hurting the game more than that?’ he asked. ‘When people like yourselves turn on television and you see those people taking the knee when they are playing our great National Anthem.’
‘The only thing you could do better is, if you see it – even if it’s one player – leave the stadium. I guarantee things will stop. Things will stop.’
‘Pick up and leave. Just pick up and leave.’