ATLANTA — President Donald Trump visited Wheeler High School in Cobb County Wednesday to talk about the midterm elections, the impact of his policies on the economy and new tax-advantaged retirement accounts for children created under his administration.
He also talked about what he called the “skirmish” in Iran, saying the Iranian government was not yet ready to negotiate peace.
Prior to his arrival in Georgia, Trump had gone to Dover Air Force Base to salute the remains of four service members killed in the conflict.
Among them was Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feeha, whose family is from the Marietta area. Trump gave them a ride home on Air Force One, and they attended his event at Wheeler High.
Trump said Iran cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.
He also said Democratic victories in the midterms would pose a greater threat to the country than both world wars and the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, because, he said, Democrats want to take America toward communism.
“The blue states are all going bad. They’re all going bad because communism is a loser,” the president said midway through his speech to an adoring crowd in the high school arena, which seats 3,000.
“With communism, everything turns to shit,” he added later to a roar of approval.
The visit was an opportunity to promote his party ahead of the November elections.
Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mike Collins for U.S. Senate, with the hope of unseating Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Collins skipped Trump’s event, saying in a social media post that he had important votes to cast in Washington. Trump concurred from the stage, saying he ordered Collins to remain at the Capitol to vote on farming and military bills.
Trump used his visit to make it clear that other candidates for state office in Georgia had his “complete and total endorsement,” including state Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, who is running for secretary of state, and two state senators — Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, for attorney general, and Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, for lieutenant governor.
Trump had endorsed the current lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, during Jones’ primary campaign for governor. But after Jones’ loss last month to political newcomer Rick Jackson, Trump switched to the winning candidate.
Trump invited Jackson onto the stage with him to talk about the retirement accounts for children, which are being called “Trump accounts.”
They are available to any American under age 18, but babies born during Trump’s current term will get a $1,000 contribution from the federal government.
Jackson said that if he wins against Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, he will urge the General Assembly to match that $1,000. The wealthy entrepreneur pledged to fund the matching contributions out of his own pocket if the Legislature refused.
Before Trump’s arrival, those other candidates took the stage to tout the tax-advantaged savings accounts, which were established by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year and took effect on July 4.
Also praising the new Trump accounts as transformational investments were U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Trump said the accounts would grow with the stock market, expanding to hundreds of thousands of dollars in value by the time newborns become adults.
But before his arrival, Bessent gave the crowd a slightly different estimate.
“Millions of American youth are now able to watch their investment accounts compound in real time from a couple thousand dollars in kindergarten to an estimated half a million dollars by retirement age,” he said.
Whether that will help the GOP in November, amid widespread frustration with the high costs for gasoline, groceries and other daily staples, is an open question.
Democrats see affordability as a clear line of attack.
Liz Pancotti, a vice president of the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative in Washington, D.C., said in an interview Tuesday that the accounts would do little to address financial pressures on households in the near term.
Trump also touted the tax cuts he signed into law last year, but Pancotti said many of the president’s other policies, including the war in Iran and related fuel prices, had wiped out the benefits from tax cuts and refunds for most working people.
Trump’s trip to Cobb was in many ways a standard pre-election campaign event, she said. “The problem, of course, is that he has mostly delivered higher prices and a lot of economic pain for American families.”
Even so, throngs of Trump fans, many wearing red MAGA ball caps, stood in long lines in the baking sun to watch Trump speak.
As they waited, the Wheeler Wildcats rifle team was hawking bottles of water for a dollar.
Across the street, an anti-Trump protest had assembled behind metal barricades. One of the protesters yelled that water was free on their side.
During his time on the stage, Strickland, the candidate for attorney general, said that despite “all the noise” from those protesters, the Trump accounts were a “real investment” in American families.
“And I’m proud to put my name behind this kind of work,” he said.
After Strickland spoke, U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, a former Georgia state senator, noted the significance of Trump for GOP candidates.
“President Trump may not be on the ballot,” Beach said, “but his policies are.”