Joe Biden and Donald Trump both had speaking engagements in Iowa on June 11th.
What We Know:
- Biden and Trump are both fighting for the vote of the white, working class voters. Iowa is an early voting state and this was both candidates first time speaking there for the 2020 presidential campaign.
- Like they have done in the past, both Biden and Trump began by criticizing each other. Biden had his speaking engagement prior to President Trump. But before Trump left the white house, he referred to Biden as a “loser” and a “dummy”.
- Iowa is a farming state and Biden began by speaking on that. Biden feels that farmers are stuck in the middle of Trump’s trade wars with China. He considers the president to be an “existential threat”. Biden also suggests that Trump’s policies on trade are becoming an economic threat to the country. “Its easy to be tough when someone else absorbs the pain.”
- Trump has been engaged in a 10 month tariff war with China. The war directly affects the agricultural industry. Beijing has even threatened to stop all access to Chinese markets for the US. If no progress is made at the G20 Summit at the end of June, then Trump will propose new tariffs on Chinese goods.
Trump won the votes of Iowa in the 2016 election and Obama won those same votes in 2008 and 2012.