Trump Brings Red-State Midterm Blitz to Nebraska, Signing Diesel Order Onstage in Grand Island

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — President Donald Trump brought his midterm rescue mission to the Nebraska State Fairgrounds on Monday night, rallying thousands of supporters in one of the reddest corners of America — and signing an executive order onstage aimed at the issue Republicans fear most: the cost of everything.

Air Force One touched down around 5:50 p.m., and by the time Trump stepped out to his customary walk-on music — Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” — the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center was standing room only, with thousands more outside. Estimates put the crowd between 3,000 and 5,000. “I love Nebraska,” he told them when the applause died down. “I like you, and you like me, and that’s how it is.”

The diesel order — signed with a Sharpie toss

The centerpiece of the night was economic: an executive order easing limits on the tax-free use of red-dyed diesel. Diesel intended for off-road uses like agriculture is exempt from federal and state excise taxes and dyed red so law enforcement can tell it apart; the order waives the off-road requirement and defers collection of the excise tax through the end of the year, allowing anyone to buy the cheaper fuel.

“The typical trucker will save more than $100 every time they fill up,” Trump said as he signed the order at the podium. “Farmers will also save millions and millions of dollars, and this order will also drive down the cost of all goods” — including, he said, grocery prices “very substantially.”

The signing came with theater. White House aide Natalie Harp carried the order onstage at Trump’s direction, and he compared her entrance to a “Price Is Right” presenter before signing, holding the order up for the crowd and tossing the Sharpie into the cheering audience. “Pete and Jim, this should absolutely ensure your election, I guarantee you that,” he said, turning to Sen. Pete Ricketts and Gov. Jim Pillen.

The policy drew immediate scrutiny. Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy, which tracks fuel prices nationally, noted that farmers already use red-dyed diesel — the savings would flow mainly to on-road users — and wrote on X: “Taxes aren’t the problem, supply is.” Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie raised a different concern: what penalties drivers might face if inspected after the waiver expires. Iowa GOP gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn defended the move, arguing critics were wrong to say it would hurt farmers by bidding up demand for the dyed fuel.

Why Nebraska — and why now

Nebraska should be safe territory. But Ricketts is in a genuinely competitive race against independent Dan Osborn, who is backed by national Democrats, and the White House is taking no chances. Pillen, meanwhile, is seeking a second term against Democratic nominee Lynne Walz.

Trump spent a good deal of the 90-minute speech on Osborn, calling him a “radical left lunatic” and claiming — without evidence offered onstage — that Osborn wants to pack the Supreme Court with 23 justices and, in Trump’s words, “trample all over your Second Amendment.” Ricketts, for his part, cast Osborn as a stalking horse for coastal donors. “They want a senator from New York and California, and they know they can buy Dan Osborn,” Ricketts said. The Osborn camp countered that it is aligned with the administration on rural priorities, crediting Trump’s support for Right to Repair and expanded red-dyed diesel access.

The Nebraska stop is one leg of what Trump describes as a 32-day blitz of rallies through the reddest states on the map — Oklahoma and Alabama already visited, a second Texas stop in two weeks set for Wednesday in San Antonio, with Ohio also on the itinerary. CNN’s Jeff Zeleny called the itinerary a “five-alarm fire”: a president spending the final month of a midterm campaign shoring up states he carried by double digits is a president whose party is bracing for losses.

The numbers explain the urgency. Reuters reports Trump’s approval has sunk to a career-low 32 percent. An AP-NORC poll released Oct. 1 found just 17 percent approve of his handling of the cost of living and 26 percent of his handling of the economy, with 65 percent saying his policies bear blame for high prices. Early voting is already underway in much of the country, with 28 days until Nov. 3.

“I’m running”

Trump closed the way he has closed every stop on the blitz: by making the midterms about himself.

“Just remember: I’m running. I’m running, OK?” he said. “We have to keep it going.”

He also used the stage to renew his “Trump Dividend” promise of $5,000 checks to every American adult if Republicans hold Congress, he told the crowd: “If the Republicans win, you will each have $5,000 in your pocket” — and pledged to pass the SAVE America Act on election integrity. Gov. Pillen, for his part, used his 25 minutes onstage to declare Trump an honorary “Admiral of Nebraska” — a real, if ceremonial, power of the governor as commander of the Nebraska Navy.

Not everything landed smoothly. Addressing the economic fallout of the Iran war, Trump called it “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe” — then Trump added, of Iranian retaliation: “They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Francisco.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the mayors of Los Angeles and San Diego condemned the remark as treating American cities as expendable; others read it as Trump voicing fear of what Iran might attempt. Either way, it was the most-shared moment of the night.

And in farm country, Trump is still nursing a self-inflicted wound: his administration’s plan to allow more beef imports to lower consumer prices has enraged Nebraska ranchers, who say it would undercut them. The diesel order was, in part, an attempt to change that subject. Whether a Sharpie toss and a tax waiver are enough — with 28 days to go — is the question the whole blitz is built to answer.