Trump says tele-rallies only work for him, then puts the Kansas and Iowa rallies back on

On Thursday, Donald Trump cancelled his weekend rallies in Kansas and Iowa to do tele-rallies. On Friday he put them back, and explained why the phone works so well for him.

Asked in the Oval Office to explain “all the schedule changes,” Trump said he had wanted to see whether he could do tele-rallies because, he said, “I’m very successful.” The secret, he said: “It only seems to work for me because other people call and nobody gets on the phone.” Then, he said, people in Iowa and Kansas called and told him that if he could come, “it would be better than a tele-rally.” So he’s doing two rallies on Sunday.

The Washington Post reported that his political team had cancelled the events on Thursday so he could hold roughly 20 tele-rallies for candidates around the country. Asked on Thursday why he’d dropped Kansas, Trump told reporters, per NBC, that Sen. Roger Marshall is “doing well” and would get a tele-rally instead. NBC now reports both rallies are back on for Sunday, in Salina, Kansas and Dubuque, Iowa, and that one Iowa GOP operative had said an in-person rally would have been “really helpful.” The crowds, Trump said, have been the “biggest crowds anyone’s ever seen.” That’s his claim. He also gave the midterm history lesson: “Typically, a president, whether he’s good or bad, Republican or Democrat, loses the midterms.”

So the tele-rallies only work for him, and the people he’s helping would still rather he showed up.