Vote Republican, or else: How Trump is dangling government help on the campaign trail

At campaign rallies this month, President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that states electing Democrats in the midterms could lose federal assistance their Republican-voting counterparts would receive. The remarks blend official policy with partisan appeals, bringing electoral stakes into areas such as disaster relief and veterans' compensation that have usually stayed outside politics, according to ABC News.

In Perry, Georgia, Trump mocked Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and said he would dismiss any request from him, while promising access to Republican candidate Mike Collins. In Greenville, North Carolina, he said $1 billion had reached Camp Lejeune contamination victims and that he would direct the Justice Department to resolve the rest quickly if Republicans win both chambers. Pressed later, he said he could not speak for a future administration. In Park City, Kansas, he tied making year-round E15 sales permanent to the election of Sen. Roger Marshall rather than Adam Hamilton.

Ossoff called the approach a losing one. Roy Cooper, running against Michael Whatley in North Carolina, described the Camp Lejeune comments as insulting and frustrating. Jill Steen Dilgard, an advocate for affected families, called them unacceptable. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Trump wants a Republican Congress to advance his agenda.

Summarized by PolitiKool from ABC News’s reporting. Read the full story at ABC News →