President Trump made his first campaign stop in North Carolina Wednesday since last week's Republican National Committee (RNC) Midterm Convention, rallying for Senate candidate Michael Whatley as Republicans hope to keep the Tar Heel State's seat red this November. Trump claimed the battleground state during his three presidential runs.…
Page F2From§Eachthe late evening edition — 16 September 2026
Asked about gas prices, Trump reaches back to Dukakis, 1988.
“Trump gets up there to answer a gas-price question and hands you Michael Dukakis instead, a case from thirty-eight years back that's got nothing to do with the tank. Whatley's the trucker who flies private, and now the governor next door is carrying a file that isn't his either. Two switches, one speech, same empty gauge.”
“Tariffs take time, that's just how trade works, the gas price thing is unrelated market pressure — did I say unrelated? I mean it's related, but not the candidate's doing, that's a separate — okay, different question. And Cooper's soft on crime, that's not fearmongering, that's the record, we just happen to reach for a case from 1988 to prove it.”
Earlier in this story
- Farmer raises tariffs and gas prices, campaign answers by blaming communists for crime By Ruth · the late evening edition, 16 September 2026
- Truck-driving everyman Senate hopeful skips the truck, spends over $100,000 flying private jet By Ruth · the early evening edition, 16 September 2026
The receipts
“He ended up losing the race because of that one incident, because he allowed a dirty, rotten killer to come out and rape and kill .. same as what you have over here,” Trump said at the Gastonia, NC, rally.
· From Iryna Zarutska to Times Square: It’s time our Gotham had its own Arkham from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.