DES MOINES — Donald Trump made a direct pitch to Iowa’s farmers in a speech here Saturday — and then pivoted back to his appeal for support from African-Americans, even though there were virtually none in the audience.

The GOP nominee referenced the murder of NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin in Chicago overnight, hours after mentioning it in a controversial tweet in which he commented, “Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP.” It was the third time Trump seemed to claim credit for predicting another tragedy, as he did following terror attacks in France and Florida.


Speaking from prepared remarks loaded into a teleprompter, Trump called Wade, whose first name was misspelled in his script, a “great guy” before telling the crowd about his cousin’s murder. “She was the mother of four, and was killed while pushing her infant child in a stroller. Shot,” Trump said.

“It breaks all of our hearts to see. It’s horrible, it’s horrible and it’s only getting worse. This shouldn’t happen in our country; this shouldn’t happen in America. We send our thoughts and our prayers to the family, and we also promise to fight for a better tomorrow.”

Before more than 1,800 attendees at Sen. Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride” fundraiser inside the dusty livestock pavilion at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Trump again blamed the “deplorable conditions in many of our inner cities” on Democratic policies, citing statistics about crime and unemployment rates in Chicago and Detroit. “As a father, as a builder, as an American, it offends my sense of right and wrong to see anyone living in such conditions. They are living in terrible, terrible conditions. Beyond belief: bad, bad, bad.”

For much of the past week, since installing a new campaign manager and CEO atop his operation, Trump has been making direct overtures to African-American and Hispanic voters, two blocs that appear to have largely written him off. Some analysts see his blunt appeals — “What do you have to lose?” Trump has repeatedly asked minority voters — as an effort to improve his standing with women and center-right Republicans who might struggle to vote for a candidate viewed by many Americans as a racist.

Trump’s Saturday morning tweets prompted a strong backlash from prominent African-Americans including Ice Cube and Holly Robinson Peete. But his comments about minority outreach were well received by the all-white audience at the fairgrounds, drawing cheers and positive reactions.

“I like how he’s addressing the issues with the blacks, how they’ve been held down for 50 years by Democrats,” said Diana Hansen, an attendee from Victor, Iowa. “I like that he can go to Washington and shake things up. That’s what we need.”

Trump also blasted the “establishment media” for “missing the point” in focusing in his contradictory statements last week about his plans for the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. But he did little to clarify his plan, saying only that he plans to immediately deport “criminal illegal immigrants” in “the first hour” of his term.

“My priority is the well-being of 300 million American citizens, including millions of Hispanic citizens and legal residents who want a secure border — and I mean secure — a safe and drug-free community, and a growing economy,” Trump said.

Trump’s appearance in Iowa, his third since February’s caucuses, comes roughly one month before early voting begins here on Sept. 29 and with polls showing the state well within his reach.

Most recent polls of Iowa, by Quinnipiac University and CBS News, showed Hillary Clinton up 3 points and a dead tie, respectively. It is one of the few swing states that have not slipped out of Trump’s grasp over the past month due to a spate of controversial statements and missteps that have undercut and muddled his message and distracted from potentially damaging revelations about his opponent.

A woman takes a selfie with Donald Trump as he greets the crowd after speaking at Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride during a fundraiser at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 27. | AP Photo

Perhaps more than in any other swing state, Iowa’s Republican establishment is unified behind Trump. Ernst’s fundraiser, which began Saturday morning with 400 leather- and denim-clad motorcyclists embarking on a 42-mile ride that led to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, was an illustration of that unity. After the attendees had gobbled up barbecue pork sandwiches, they sat on metal benches spread across the dirt floor and in the grandstands of the old, brick pavilion to hear from Ernst, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Gov. Terry Branstad and every Republican member of the state’s congressional delegation.

Add that cohesion to the state’s favorable demographics — 92 percent of its residents are white, and 26 percent are college educated (6 points below the national average) — and it adds up to a swing state where Trump has a chance to pull out a win, despite his difficulties appealing to educated suburban women and Clinton’s sizeable organizational advantage.

Trump, who finished second in Iowa’s February caucuses despite having no actual ground game, has just 18 paid staffers in the state as Labor Day approaches. Clinton has more than five times that number.

She also has a strong state economy working in her favor.

In describing the high stakes of November’s election, Republican speakers focused on national security and control of the Supreme Court. “If the next appointment to the Supreme Court is made by Hillary Clinton, our Constitution is lost,” said Congressman Steve King.

Speakers spent less time talking about the working-class economic anxieties that have propelled Trump’s candidacy, somewhat glossing over Iowa’s undeniably healthy economy. Until ticking up slightly over the past three months, Iowa’s 4.1 percent unemployment rate — almost a point below the national rate — had held steady or decreased every month since May 2009, when the jobless rate was 6.6 percent.

“People feel economically insecure,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Branstad, whose son, Eric, is running Trump’s Iowa campaign, criticized the Obama administration for “backing away from” the Renewable Fuel Standard and warned of a future economic downturn under Clinton. Trump picked up on that theme, extolling the virtues of small farming in his prepared remarks.

"Family farms are the backbone of this country,” he said. “We are going to end the EPA intrusion into your family homes and your family farms."

Before honoring a local veteran, Ernst, an Air Force reservist who Trump considered as a running mate earlier this summer, focused her remarks on Clinton, whom she argued is “not fit to serve as commander in chief.” A day earlier, she told reporters she hoped Trump would follow her example and the advice of his advisers urging him to avoid overheated rhetoric he resorted to again last week, when he repeatedly referred to Clinton as a “bigot.”

But she could not avoid questions about Trump’s tumultuous campaign. Asked Friday whether she understood the GOP nominee’s plan for the 11 million undocumented immigrants, which had seemed clear until last week, when Trump began hedging on his proposed deportation force, Ernst responded: “I don’t know, but I am excited about looking at what he’s proposing next week.”

Audience members react as Donald Trump speaks at Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 27. | AP Photo

On Saturday, amid a slew of reports detailing past charges of domestic abuse and anti-Semitic comments by Steve Bannon, Trump’s newly installed campaign CEO, Ernst was asked whether she’d hire someone who’s made anti-Semitic remarks. “I probably wouldn’t,” she said.

Many of the attendees, loyal Republicans, cheered their presidential nominee. Some, in fact, are more energized by him than the slate of politicians who preceded him. “He’s got the guts to say what I want to say,” said Susie Johnson, 64, who caucused for the first time in February because of Trump and chose to spend her birthday Saturday cheering him with her sister. “It’s my birthday and this is my party,” she said.

But milling throughout the crowd were Republicans who worry about having a nominee who has struggled so much to stay on message.

“He’s intelligent enough, but he just doesn’t know when to shut his mouth,” said Cathy Jones of Waterloo. “I’m really concerned about foreign policy. And I worry about his temperament. He can’t go into meetings with foreign leaders and just tell them to F off.”