Trump Says “Leakers Should Be Shot” at Arizona Rally, Claims Iran Was Weeks From Nuclear Bomb
President Donald Trump told supporters at a Bullhead City, Arizona rally on Wednesday that leakers 'should be shot,' promised gas prices would fall below prewar levels once the Iran war ends, and defended his tariff policies.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that people who leak information from his administration “should be shot,” as he rallied Republican voters in Bullhead City, Arizona, three weeks before the midterm elections.
“Leakers should be shot,” he told the crowd, speaking from behind a pane of security glass. “To me, they’re the scum of the earth.” A former White House communications director has said Trump made similar remarks behind closed doors during his first term, according to The Arizona Republic. A Trump spokesperson responded that “the best revenge is success.”
Gas prices and the Iran war
The war in Iran has become one of Trump’s biggest vulnerabilities heading into the midterms, The Arizona Republic reported, with gas prices up roughly 40 percent in Arizona since the fighting began. Trump defended the U.S. attack, claiming Iran was two weeks from completing a nuclear weapon when America struck. He pledged the war would end “very soon” and said gasoline prices would then fall to even lower than they were before the war started. The higher prices, he said, were a “very small price” to pay.
Tariffs and the economy
Trump defended his sweeping tariffs during the Bullhead City remarks, saying a 50 percent tariff on foreign copper had Arizona’s historic copper industry “roaring back.” He also took credit for growth in the state’s semiconductor sector and said Europe was “being eaten alive” for not imposing tariffs of its own.
On the economy, Trump said the cost of rent in Arizona had fallen 14 percent since the Biden years and would drop another 20 to 25 percent. He described his first term as the “greatest first term, financially speaking, in the history of our country.” He blamed past affordability problems on undocumented migrants and claimed car insurance premiums had seen their steepest decline in 14 years. The Arizona Republic noted that polling shows the economy is a top issue for voters this year.
The Arizona visit
Trump landed at Laughlin Bullhead International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, his third visit to Arizona in his second term and his second this year. Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Andy Biggs and other state Republicans warmed up the crowd before the president took the stage at about 1:30 p.m. local time. He also joked about the new Air Force One he flew in on, a gift from Qatar’s royal family: “When you’re given gifts, you take them,” he said.
Trump also repeated his claim that Republican Kari Lake won the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, a claim The Arizona Republic described as false, and said voting machines in Republican areas had been “broken purposefully.”
Reporting based on coverage by The Arizona Republic.
