President Trump alternated between prepared remarks about his administration’s commitment to veterans and his own peeves about the reception of his tariffs.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — President Trump transformed a speech on Tuesday before thousands of veterans into a political rally, summoning a Missouri Senate candidate to the stage, venting about Democratic lawmakers and slamming the news media for not upholding his preferred interpretation of the success of his policies.
“Stick with us. Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news,” Mr. Trump said at the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, as part of the crowd booed and hissed in the direction of the press corps.
“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” the president added.
A spokeswoman for the veterans group, which is nonpartisan, said in a statement after the event that organizers were “disappointed to hear some of our members boo the press.”
The event on Tuesday was intended to showcase one of the Trump administration’s top priorities: improving the care of the nation’s veterans and stabilizing a department demoralized by scandal and staff vacancies.
Yet while Mr. Trump briefly acknowledged the presence of Robert Wilkie, the career Washington insider confirmed on Monday to head the Veterans Affairs Department, he did not invite Mr. Wilkie to speak in front of the veterans and members of the military he now serves.
Instead, Mr. Trump brought two other people onstage: Allen Q. Jones, 94, a World War II veteran, and Josh Hawley, the likely Republican challenger for Senator Claire McCaskill’s seat.
“We need him so badly,” Mr. Trump said, describing Mr. Hawley, Missouri’s attorney general, as a “great young man” and later criticizing Ms. McCaskill, a Democrat, for her opposition to the Republican tax overhaul.
When he adhered to his prepared topics, the president exaggerated the significance of recent pay raises for service members and mischaracterized recently signed legislation meant to change veterans’ health care. And he boasted of his administration’s investment in defense infrastructure and troop support.
“We stand up for the patriots who defend America,” Mr. Trump said to a standing ovation. “And we stand up for our national anthem.”
Among the handful of laws cited, he singled out the signing of the VA Mission Act, a multibillion-dollar health care overhaul Congress enacted last month that Mr. Trump described as “the biggest improvement you can have.”
Critics of the legislation, including members of the group hosting the convention, have warned that it could lead to the decimation of the government-funded hospital and clinic system that took decades to build.
But Mr. Trump quickly pivoted and began to riff on what he saw as the unappreciated successes of his administration, including the tariffs it has imposed. He asked the audience to “stick with us” and insisted that the country is “in the midst of a great economic revival,” just hours after the administration announced the distribution of up to $12 billion of emergency aid to farmers affected by the tariffs.
“The farmers will be the biggest beneficiary. Watch,” Mr. Trump said. “Just be a little patient.”
He called Democratic lawmakers “disciples of a very low-IQ person, Maxine Waters,” referring to the congresswoman from Los Angeles, and reiterated his attacks on lawmakers who have called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, falsely warning that Democrats wanted “open borders” and an increase in crime.
“To be a strong nation, we have to have these strong borders,” Mr. Trump said. “We cannot send our military to confront threats abroad only to allow those same threats to cross our borders and threaten us right here at home.”
“We’re going to have a lot of fun in four months, and we’re going to have a lot of fun in 2020 running against that,” he added, reminding the crowd that the Trump campaign’s 2020 slogan would be “Keep America Great.”
Mr. Trump also mentioned his plans to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the military, and he touched upon the efforts to return what are believed to be some of the remains of American soldiers killed in the Korean War, noting the V. F. W.’s lobbying efforts. About 7,800 Americans are unaccounted for, with 5,300 of them thought to be in North Korea.
“I think that process is starting fairly soon,” he told the crowd. “We hope.”
Before the president’s arrival at the event, a presentation outlining attempts to repatriate the remains earned sustained applause from the crowd.
After the speech, Mr. Trump headlined a closed Republican round table and luncheon for Mr. Hawley before returning to Washington. Tickets for the luncheon started at $1,000 per person, according to an invitation posted by the local Republican Party.
