DES MOINES — (CNN) Donald Trump brought his announcement tour to the first-in-the-nation caucus state on Tuesday evening, delivering a speech every bit as colorful as his New York announcement in the morning.
The event was held in Des Moines’ glitzy Hoyt Sherman Place theater, complete with intricate Trump-appropriate molding and fixtures. The campaign handed out free, American-made “TRUMP: Make America Great Again” t-shirts, bumper stickers and pins as crowds arrived.
Trump gave a more formal speech before taking questions and answers, encouraging the audience to “say whatever the hell you want.”
He touted his success as a businessman and made his pitch as someone who would be a competent negotiator.
“The problem with free trade, one problem, you need smart leaders. We have incompetent leaders. This trade project is a disaster,” he said.
The real estate mogul also talked about his money-centric strategy for defeating ISIS.
“Keep the oil! ISIS has the oil and what we should do now is go blast the oil, that’s what we should do,” he said. “Major oil hubs, you just blast the hell out of them, just take them over. You take away the oil and you take away the money.”
Trump attacked politicians with equal opportunity. He criticized Jeb Bush’s announcement outfit: “Jeb can’t even put on a tie and jacket. He’s running for president!” And on Sen. Marco Rubio: “I have better hair than he does by the way. And it is my hair.”
The famous New Yorker launched his presidential bid from Trump Tower in New York before jetting to the Hawkeye State for his first official campaign event in the caucus state. Next, he head’s to first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire.
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