RICHFIELD, Ohio -- President Donald Trump pitched a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan on Thursday, using the occasion to also give a campaign-style rally in which he, among other things, touted economic gains and warned his political supporters against complacency in the fall midterm elections.
As Trump told it, the country was headed in the wrong direction -- until he took office.
"There's never been an economy like this," he said. "We can't lose that by getting hurt in the midterms, so we can't be complacent."
The president's visit to Richfield, Ohio, was his first public appearance since an adult-film actress claimed on national TV that they had sex months after Trump's wife gave birth to his fifth child.
At the rally, Trump also spoke of defeating Islamic State militants, veterans care, investing in the military and nominating conservative judges.
And he twice mentioned his 2016 foe, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Speaking to his infrastructure goals, the original focus of the speech, he called for a plan to deploy $200 billion in federal money to spur at least $1.5 trillion in spending over a decade to repair or replace highways, bridges, ports, airports and other infrastructure.
"We will transform our roads and bridges from a source of endless frustration into a source of incredible pride," he said.
But in a concession to political realities in Washington, where lawmakers are increasingly focused on their re-elections this fall in what is set to be a difficult campaign cycle for Republicans, Trump said, "You're probably going to have to wait until after the election."
Trump claimed Democrats don't want to work with him on infrastructure because they don't want to give him any additional "wins" since his tax bill passed in December.
Chief among the infrastructure projects Trump promoted Thursday was his long-promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"We're getting that sucker built!" Trump said. "That's what I do. I build. I was always very good at building. It was my best thing. I think better than being president, I was always very good at building."
Trump unveiled the sweeping infrastructure proposal in February and cast it as one that could garner bipartisan support. But the plan relies heavily on state and local governments for the bulk of the spending, raising concerns among members of Congress about the possibility of higher commuter tolls and the sale of assets to raise the money.
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There is little expectation that Congress will take up a sweeping infrastructure proposal along the lines of what Trump envisions -- or that Republicans in control of the House and Senate will write their own legislation -- as lawmakers begin to shift their focus to the challenge of getting re-elected in November.
Instead, Congress plans to package a series of related measures, including beefed-up spending in the budget bill Trump signed into law last week.
That bill, which funds the government through Sept. 30, included more money for transportation projects, rural broadband and other investments.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., promoted it in a tweet as "long-overdue updates to our country's infrastructure."
Trump's speech, before union engineers and maintenance workers in a chilly, dirt-floored industrial barn, was his first public appearance since last Friday, when he spoke at the White House and criticized the funding bill he had signed into law. The president, first lady Melania Trump and their 12-year-old son, Barron, spent last weekend at their Palm Beach, Fla., estate.
Trump returned to the White House on Sunday, shortly before CBS' 60 Minutes aired its interview with adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who says the married Trump had sex with her in his Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006.
Trump, through his personal attorney and White House aides, has denied that the encounter occurred. He himself has not commented on the allegations.
In Ohio, Trump also discussed findings in a new report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers saying the infrastructure proposal would contribute modestly to economic growth over the 10-year period and help put hundreds of thousands of unemployed laborers back to work.
As he left the Oval Office on Thursday morning to begin his trip to Ohio, Trump bade farewell to Hope Hicks, one of his longest-serving aides and closest confidantes. Hicks is leaving her post as White House communications director.
Trump was returning to his Florida home after the speech.
Information for this article was contributed by Darlene Superville, Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press and by Philip Rucker of The Washington Post.
A Section on 03/30/2018