ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — President Donald Trump made his closing argument of 2025 on Friday night by touting his record after 11 months back in office, stopping in a rural part of this swing state to urge supporters to trust his economic agenda as the country heads into a midterm-election year.
Fresh off a prime-time speech Wednesday on his efforts to bring down prices and grow the economy, Trump used the rally to hammer the issue his advisers want him to emphasize as his poll numbers lag.
But after taking most of the year off from the campaign trail and his signature rallies, the president also used the late-night stage time to brush off some of his greatest hits during the 90-minute address: He called former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “nasty,” saying he was tempted to refer to her as “the b-word” and “wouldn’t want to go home to her.” He railed against a 2022 raid by federal authorities at his Mar-a-Lago home, alleging that agents went through his wife Melania’s “panties” and joking about how she stores her undergarments. And he riled up the crowd with cheers as he criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota): “Get her the hell out of our country.”
It was in this very part of the state six years ago where a Greenville crowd first broke into chants of “Send her back” about Omar, but his audience Friday was more subdued.
Inside the Rocky Mount Event Center, Christmas trees dotted the stage and “Merry Christmas!” signs flanked the lectern — all beneath a banner that read, “LOWER PRICES, BIGGER PAYCHECKS.” The crowd was smaller than the rallies Trump typically drew on the campaign trail, which he often touted as a measure of his popularity. White House advisers said he is focused on reenergizing his core supporters — some of whom have publicly complained that Trump isn’t doing enough to address their concerns.
Outside, a man hawking Trump merchandise was struggling to find takers for MAGA beanies, even after dropping the price to $5.
“I don’t have $5,” replied Thomas Schafer, 18 — not in his wallet, and not in his bank account. “We’re really broke. It’s Christmas time, man.”
Financial strain shapes politics, especially in places like Rocky Mount, a city roughly 55 miles east of Raleigh where the economy lags behind the state average on key measures like income, unemployment and poverty, and even small increases in prices or stagnant wages can be felt acutely. The city straddles counties that skew different politically: Nash, nearly evenly split, went to Trump by two points in 2024 after swinging between the parties in recent elections, while predominantly Black county of Edgecombe remains solidly Democratic — its median household income, $48,480, is about two-thirds the state average of $73,958.
“Everyone feels a little bit of a pinch, to tell you the truth,” said Laurie Buckhout, one of several Republicans in a crowded primary race here to represent North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. But she credited Trump with “improvements” to the economy this year and said this part of the state has been “living tough times here for quite some time.”
“They don’t have jobs here. Nobody’s tried to bring jobs here,” Buckhout said. “Working families are the bedrock of this community, and there have not been enough jobs here for some time.”
Trump spoke at length about his efforts to reduce drug prices, after a Friday afternoon program at the White House where he and executives from pharmaceutical companies announced new discounts on drugs in exchange for tariff relief and other incentives.
“This achievement alone should win us the midterms,” Trump said.
Buoyed from his success negotiating those deals, Trump said he would try to set up a meeting with executives from health insurance companies, whom he called “fat cats,” as part of a still largely undefined plan to create an alternative to the Affordable Care Act. The meeting could take place while he is in Florida over Christmas, Trump said, or in Washington right after he returns in the new year.
Places like Rocky Mount are set to be hit hard in the new year, when extra subsidies that made Affordable Care Act plans more affordable for millions of Americans for the past five years are all but guaranteed to vanish.
A local firefighter and hairstylist each spoke ahead of Trump, touting provisions in White House-backed legislation passed this summer by Congress that promised no tax on overtime and tips, and how it will improve their take-home pay.
White House advisers told The Washington Post that Trump will begin holding near-weekly rallies in the new year, part of the White House’s attempt to boost the president’s lagging poll numbers and energize his base — mobilizing 2024 Trump voters to show up in the midterms.
He is facing lagging poll numbers on the economy as inflation remains stubborn but sought to portray a positive view of recent economic data this week, saying on Thursday that the newly released inflation numbers showed “practically no inflation.” Economists have said the data, which shows that prices rose at a 2.7 percent rate from a year ago, should be taken with a dose of caution: The figures are likely skewed lower by quirks in how the report was compiled due to gaps caused by the government shutdown. Trump in his speech also downplayed rising unemployment numbers, acknowledging that a mass exodus in federal employees since he took office contributed to job losses.
“In any election cycle in a purple state like North Carolina — or anywhere else around the country — it is going to come down to the economy,” Michael Whatley, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, told The Post, emphasizing the Trump administration’s talking point that legislation passed this year will bring tax relief in coming months. “We need to create more jobs, we need to raise wages, and we need to bring prices down.”
Whatley is preparing to face former Democratic governor Roy Cooper next year in one of the country’s most watched Senate races, though polling has shown Cooper with an advantage. The rally Friday was held in Cooper country: The former governor hails from Nash County.
Trump is desperately seeking to block Democrats from retaking control of Congress, which is likely to open him up to a range of inquiries, as well as possible impeachment proceedings. Even he has suggested that Republicans may not win the midterms, telling the Wall Street Journal last week that the GOP is “going to try our best to win,” but acknowledging “statistically, it’s very tough to win.”
Still, Trump urged Republicans here to get to the polls next year. North Carolina was a target of the White House’s redistricting effort, and Republicans in the state legislature carried out Trump’s wishes to redraw congressional districts to try to flip a seat for the GOP.
In addition to seeking to keep the independent voters who supported Trump in 2024 — support that polls show has slipped since he returned to office — Trump is facing a political base that has become increasingly critical of his first year back in office.
Some in Trump’s base of longtime loyal backers, including outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), have claimed Trump has been too focused on foreign affairs and making announcements about business initiatives than serving his working-class supporters. On Friday, Trump again referred to her as “Marjorie Traitor Greene,” a joke that drew little reaction from the crowd.
A few hours before the rally was due to begin, Guy Harper, who has sold Trump merchandise at rallies around the country for eight years, was already packing up his tent and tables with Trump figurines, “Gulf of America” shirts and Charlie Kirk-inspired hooded sweatshirts.
“Look at this,” Harper said, gesturing at a street devoid of crowds or lines of cars waiting to park. “Usually, Trump rallies are like a football tailgate. This is strange.”
Harper chalked it up to a late start time — 9 p.m. on the Friday before Christmas — but speculated that people being “skeptical about the economy” could be playing a role.
The reduced crowd size didn’t stop Trump from claiming a massive turnout, anyway, and he falsely stated that people outside were waiting to get in.
But Jim Walsh, 60, showed up Friday for his first Trump rally ever, after voting for the president in all three of the past presidential elections. He described Trump’s tariffs as “great,” and said “America is bringing in a lot of money, finally, instead of being taken advantage of by the Chinese.”
Trump has “got a lot of work ahead of him to do still,” Walsh said. “But in one year, great.”
Schafer, who declined the MAGA beanie solicitor, wasn’t old enough to vote during last year’s election but said he supports Trump “100 percent.” He hasn’t decided whether he will vote in the midterms. In the meantime, he said he will wait and hope things improve.
“I feel like we should just give him some time. We ain’t really got no choice,” Schafer said. “I’d rather live in Trump’s America than anybody else’s.”
The post Trump makes affordability pitch in struggling corner of N.C., his last rally of 2025 appeared first on Washington Post.
