Trump Jr. pitches to base while his father fights for Texas

Two days before President Donald Trump rallies in Texas, his eldest son on Tuesday looked to help him hang onto the reliably Republican state, playing to the conservative base by delivering red meat cultural attacks and lacing into several of his father's possible Democratic foes.

Donald Trump Jr., the swaggering embodiment of the Make America Great Again agenda, was the main event at a campaign event in San Antonio ahead of the president's rally in Dallas on Thursday. Trump Jr. did not shy away from taking on the primary threat to his father's presidency: the impeachment inquiry prompted by the elder Trump's push for Ukraine to investigate Democratic Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

"About the only job (Hunter Biden) could get would be a no-show job at a corrupt Ukrainian oil company because no one would else would hire this clown," said Trump Jr., showing no self-awareness that he, too, has at least in part been successful because of a famous father.

Donald Trump, Jr., left, and Trump campaign senior adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle, right, speak to supporters of President Donald Trump during a panel discussion, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, in San Antonio. (AP PhotoEric Gay)

Channeling his father, Trump Jr. complained bitterly about what he deemed was unfair media coverage, declaring: "For 50 years, conservatives have turned the other cheek. I'm done turning the other cheek, guys!"

The one-two punch in Texas this week displays a degree of wariness, drenched in bluster, from the Trump campaign about the Lone Star State. A Republican candidate can't win the White House without Texas' 38 electoral college votes. Trump carried the state by 9 percentage points in 2016, but Democrats have pointed to demographic trends — including increases in college-educated voters, suburban voters and Hispanic voters — as evidence that the second most populous state in the nation could soon be in play. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz won reelection last year by just over 2 points.

In the moments before Trump Jr. launched into his stump speech, his father's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, took a more data-driven approach. Parscale said his team had collected information from the several hundred people packed into a room in San Antonio's convention center, and he urged them to recruit neighbors as volunteers as the operation looks to expand exponentially from its shoestring first run.

Brad Parscale, campaign manager to President Donald Trump, speaks to supporters during a panel discussion, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, in San Antonio. (AP PhotoEric Gay)

"2016 was an airplane being built in the sky and we built the wheels on at just the right time," said Parscale. "This time we are building a fleet."

The Trump campaign has proven to be a fundraising juggernaut, and Parscale touted other lofty statistical goals, including growing the volunteer pool from 600,000 in 2016 to 2 million this time.

As an example of the expanded operation, the campaign has begun having preview events ahead of Trump's rallies. On the eve of Trump's raucous rally in Minneapolis last week, his daughter in-law Lara Trump and second lady Karen Pence held a much quieter "Women for Trump" meeting in St. Paul.

More than 200 women listened to the campaign's pitch, as Pence and Lara Trump sat in armchairs on a small stage. Campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany asked them questions, talk-show style.

Asked what young women should know about the president, Karen Pence said the president "cares about your pocketbook." She continued: "This is a president who cares. When I see the way he engages with women it means a lot to me."

The Texas preview rally was far more raucous in tone, at times resembling an R-rated political roast.

Trump Jr., whose own eventual political aspirations are the subject of growing rumors, has embraced his role as a popular emissary for his father, crisscrossing the country, showcasing his new relationship with former Fox News host Kim Guilfoyle and relishing button-pushing rally appearance and tweets. He riffed on political subjects, poking fun at Biden's recent gaffes and mocking Sen. Elizabeth Warren's claim of Native American heritage. He also took on cultural targets, laughing at Jussie Smollett, the actor who falsely said he was attacked by Trump supporters, and attacking hyper-political correctness, saying, "The amount of new genders multiply by 54 every day and I can't keep track anymore."

Guilfoyle was also greeted as a rock star and acted like a bawdy opening act for her boyfriend, saying she has known the president and his eldest son for 14 years — but stressing, "I know Donald Trump Jr. a little bit better, let's just get out of the way right now."

Additional reporting by Kathleen Hennessey in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will pull the majority of its troops from Chad and Niger as it works to restore key agreements governing what role there might be there for the American military and its counterterrorism operations, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Both African countries have been integral to the U.S. military’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations across the Sahel region, but Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month that allows U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. In recent days, neighboring Chad also has questioned whether an existing agreement covered the U.S. troops operating there.

The U.S. will relocate most of the approximately 100 forces it has deployed in Chad for now, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday at a press briefing.

“As talks continue with Chadian officials, U.S. AFRICOM is currently planning to reposition some U.S. military forces from Chad, some portions of which were already scheduled to depart. This is a temporary step as part of the ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chad’s May 6th presidential election," Ryder said.

In Niger, the majority of the 1,000 U.S. personnel assigned there also are expected to depart, Ryder said.

U.S. and Nigerien officials were expected to meet Thursday in Niger's capital, Niamey, “to initiate discussions on an orderly and responsible withdrawal of U.S. forces," the State Department said in a statement late Wednesday. Follow-up meetings between senior Pentagon and Niger officials are expected next week “to coordinate the withdrawal process in a transparent manner and with mutual respect,” Ryder said.

Called status-of-forces agreements, these deals allow the U.S. to conduct critical counterterrorism operations within both countries' borders and have supported military partner training. The reversals have prompted concern that U.S. influence in Africa is losing ground to overtures from Russia and China.

Relations have frayed between Niger and Western countries since mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president in July. Niger’s junta has since told French forces to leave and turned instead to Russia for security.

Earlier this month, Russian military trainers arrived to reinforce the country’s air defenses and they brought Russian equipment, which they would train Nigeriens to use.

Niger plays a central role in the U.S. military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region, a vast region south of the Sahara Desert. Washington is concerned about the spread of jihadi violence where local groups have pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State groups.

Niger is home to a major U.S. air base in the city of Agadez, about 920 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital, which is used for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. The U.S. also has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military since beginning operations there in 2013.

Officials from the State Department, U.S. Africa Command and the Pentagon will work with Chad’s government to make the case for U.S. forces to continue operations, Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady said Wednesday.

Grady told The Associated Press in an interview that if both countries ultimately decide the U.S. cannot remain, the military will have to look for alternatives to run counterterrorism missions across the Sahel.

“If we are asked to leave, and after negotiations that’s the way it plays out, then we are going to have to recalculate and figure out a new way to do it,” Grady said.

The news of the departure of U.S. forces in Chad was first reported by The New York Times.

FILE - Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Christopher Grady, right, arrives for a closed door briefing about the leaked highly classified military documents, on Capitol Hill, April 19, 2023, in Washington. Grady says there's been no final decision on whether or not all U.S. troops will leave Niger and Chad. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

US to pull troops from Chad and Niger as the African nations question its counterterrorism role

US to pull troops from Chad and Niger as the African nations question its counterterrorism role

FILE - A U.S. and Niger flag are raised side by side at the base camp for air forces and other personnel supporting the construction of Niger Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, April 16, 2018. The United States is attempting to create a new military agreement with Niger that would allow it to remain in the country, weeks after the junta said its presence was no longer justified, two Western officials told The Associated Press Friday April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Carley Petesch, File)