THE VILLAGES, Fla. _ The official subject of President Donald Trump's visit to The Villages was an executive order on Medicare and to praise Gov. Ron DeSantis' prized drug importation law.
But his first large event before a friendly crowd since Congress began impeachment hearings last week made it hard for him to resist going off-script, despite being billed as an official, non-political event.
At the invitation-only speech at the 1,000-seat Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center, he railed against "radical" Democrats and their ongoing impeachment hearings, called U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" again, and joked about serving another 16 years.
He also implied the various "hoax" allegations surrounding his administration could have stemmed from pharmaceutical companies.
But the statements that could play a huge role in the Democratic House of Representatives' impeachment hearings came a few hours earlier.
Trump kicked off his day by asking not just Ukraine but also China to investigate his potential 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, on the South Lawn of the White House while leaving for Florida.
That request is the thing Democrats are calling a potentially impeachable offense for doing so in a call with the Ukrainian president in July, according to a memo of the conversation released by the White House. Trump had halted military aid to Ukraine days before.
"I would say President Zelenskiy, if it was me, I would start an investigation into the Bidens," Trump said Thursday. "China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is as about as bad as what happened in Ukraine."
There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by Joe Biden or his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine or China, despite Trump's dispatching his sometime attorney Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to look for any.
"What Donald Trump just said on the South Lawn of the White House was this election's equivalent of his infamous 'Russia, if you're listening' moment from 2016 _ a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country," Biden responded in a statement.
Back in The Villages, audience member Tim Trebil, asked about the Ukraine issue before the speech, said it wasn't proven that Trump asked Ukraine to investigate Biden.
Told Trump did so again just an hour earlier on the way to the event, Trebil said, "Then I believe Biden should be investigated. (Trump's) the sitting president, and he's looking out for the security of the country right now. If in fact he said that, I'm in complete support of that."
Trebil added he hoped Trump would say something in his speech "to unite the country. To get everyone on the table together."
Richard Yoder, of Harbor Hills, said Trump "was just pointing out fraud and corruption. He's not asking for help against a political rival."
The president was at The Villages to sign an executive order titled "Protecting Medicare from Socialist Destruction," which expands the Medicare Advantage program.
In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday, Seema Verma, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, cited figures showing that on average, Medicare Advantage premiums in 2020 are expected to decline 23% from 2018 _ the lowest in the past 13 years.
The order also served as a way for Trump to criticize "Medicare for All" plans being proposed by Democratic presidential candidates including U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders. I-Vt., a self-described democratic socialist, and Warren.
Those plans, while not quite based on how the actual Medicare system currently works despite its name, would replace private coverage with a national system where the government reimburses medical providers. Sanders and Warren say that while taxes will go up, premiums would go down or even disappear.
Biden and other candidates are backing a public option plan that preserves private plans but allows anyone to enroll in a government-backed program such as Medicare.
"These people on the other side, these people are crazy, by the way," Trump said of Democrats. "They want to take it away, give you lousy health care. As long as I'm president, no one will lay a hand on your Medicare benefits."
Trump said the order would reduce unnecessary regulations, stop fraud and lower drug prices. He also said it would force pharmaceutical companies to put the cost of drugs up front in commercials.
Barbara DeVane, state secretary of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, said in a statement released before the event, "We are outraged that Trump would dare to come to a place that has so many retirees that depend on Medicare and Social Security ... (and) he is here to tell more lies, I know he's here to try and scare seniors."
Vane said Trump "and his cronies in Congress have already proposed drastic cuts to Medicare."
In his speech, Trump also criticized Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe for their "socialist" health care systems, citing waits of weeks or months for certain treatments.
But in praising Florida's drug importation law, backed by DeSantis and signed into law this spring in The Villages, he talked about how low drug prices were in those same countries. The law would allow Florida to buy and import prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere.
"Believe it or not, they pay much less money for exact same drug," Trump said.
"In a little while, your governor is going to be able go out and negotiate to his heart's content," Trump said of DeSantis, who was at the event but did not speak. "He's going to go to Canada and go to some European countries and others and he's going to bring drug prices down to a level you can't believe."
DeSantis, he added, "better do good. Otherwise he's making us both look bad."
Trump at first only alluded to the impeachment process, citing unspecified "corruption," and later joked in response to "Four more years" chants from the crowd, "If you want to drive them crazy, don't say 'four more years', say 'eight more years' ... or '12 more years.' Sixteen would do it, you'll really drive them into the loony bin.
"That's why they do the impeachment crap, they know they can't beat us there," Trump added. "They can't win, they can't win, and it'll be a sad, sad day for our country if they ever won."
Trump also said, after promising to "hold pharmaceutical companies accountable," that he "wouldn't be surprised if the hoax ... came from some of these industries like pharmaceuticals."
Sumter County provided the president with 68% of its votes in 2016, one of his highest percentages in the state, and Lake County gave him 60% of the vote. Supporters who couldn't get tickets watched from law chairs on a screen outside the theater, while a small gathering of anti-Trump protesters held signs and blew whistles.
