The speech where Trump made the comment about lying to Justin Trudeau was in support of Josh Hawley, who’s running against Claire McCaskill:
The president was in Missouri to raise money for Josh Hawley, who is taking on incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November’s election. He called McCaskill “bad for Missouri and bad for the country.” But he barely spoke about Hawley. Instead, he talked about Trump — even bragging about his 2016 election win — and lavished praise on himself while ticking through a list of U.S. allies that he said were actually taking advantage of the United States.
It makes sense to have Trump in town a few months before the election to raise some cash. And I’ll be the first to note that McCaskill has an uphill battle in Missouri, where Trump got 57% of the vote. But do you think having Trump around will help later in the year? I’ll be interested in seeing McCaskill’s approach to handling that. She’s going to want some Trump voters to vote for her, so she’ll have to tread somewhat lightly, but even in Missouri there’s got to be a way to tie a Trump boat anchor around Hawley’s neck.