President Donald Trump has been enduring a punishing schedule in recent weeks, crisscrossing the country to campaign for Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections.
Now, he has jokingly suggested replacing himself with a robot bearing his likeness.
The relentless travel appears to have worn down the usually energetic 80-year-old president, particularly after he arrived back in Washington, DC, at 4.00am Thursday following speeches in Arizona and Montana.
“So it’s a lot,” Trump said in a raspy voice during a Thursday afternoon lunch at the White House, referring to his campaign schedule. “I just hope my voice holds out.”
Amid his recent enthusiasm for artificial intelligence—or “super intelligence,” depending on whom you ask—Trump appeared to improvise a solution that would allow him to get more rest.
“I could maybe get one of those beautiful robots that they make nowadays and make them look just like me, and you wouldn’t know the difference,” Trump said, floating the idea of sending a robotic stand-in onto the campaign trail.
“They make them pretty good. Send them out on the trail. I can sit home and watch them on television.”
Trump has maintained an aggressive pace as November 3 approaches, completing multiple long-haul flights and appearing at back-to-back rallies in an effort to energize Republican voters before Election Day.
President Donald Trump joked that he was considering creating a robotic version of himself to avoid traveling across the country to campaign for Republicans after several grueling days on the road
Supporters of President Trump fill the front row at his October 7 rally in San Antonio
“I could maybe get one of those beautiful robots that they make nowadays and make them look just like me, and you wouldn’t know the difference,” Trump said, suggesting a robotic replacement could keep campaigning while he took time off
In a little over a week, Trump has held events in Texas, New York, Tennessee, Ohio, Alaska, Arizona, Maryland and Montana—covering eight states and thousands of miles.
The White House has dubbed the effort a “midterm blitz.” Much of it has taken Trump to Republican strongholds rather than traditional battlegrounds such as Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia.
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His latest West Coast swing was especially compressed.
On Tuesday, Trump spent more than seven hours flying from Washington to Wasilla, Alaska, where he attended an evening rally before traveling on to Las Vegas to stay at the Trump hotel.
The next day, he flew to Bullhead City, Arizona, and then to Kalispell, Montana, for two additional rallies before heading back to the capital early Thursday morning.
The combination of late nights, early starts and nonstop travel has visibly affected the president. His raspy voice on Thursday highlighted the physical strain that a campaign schedule can place on even the most durable politicians.
Although Trump acknowledged the exhausting demands of the midterm blitz, he also turned his attention to the health and well-being of Democratic candidates.
At the Thursday lunch, Trump singled out Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, criticizing him for taking two weeks to recover from the flu during the campaign.
Large signs urging rally attendees to vote on November 3 have appeared at many, if not all, of the president’s recent campaign events
Trump has upcoming trips scheduled to Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina
‘I never heard of a flu that lasted that long, but maybe he had a different kind of flu that we don’t know about,’ Trump said.
As for Talarico’s Republican opponent that was hand-picked by Trump, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, well he is ‘controversial’ too, the president said Thursday.
‘Look, Ken Paxton’s a guy that, whether you like Ken or not, honestly, I mean, I understand some people are controversial, etc. I don’t happen to be a controversial person, so but Ken is a little bit controversial.’
With just 19 days until Election Day, Trump has a schedule jam-packed with upcoming events.
On Monday, October 19, Trump will visit Wichita, Kansas. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to campaign in Greenville, North Carolina, and on Wednesday he will make a stop in Greenville, South Carolina.
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