Could Trump be visiting Lee County?

It seems President Donald Trump will be visiting Iowa to rev up the GOP base prior to the Nov. 3 general election.
He’s planning a stop in Sioux City on Oct. 22 and then has an open-ended date of Nov. 1, which is the Sunday two days prior to the general election. As always, Lee County is shaping up to be a pivotal county in the election and one wouldn’t be surprised to see both gubernatorial candidates in the area again.
It also wouldn’t come as a shock if the President showed up in Lee County on Nov. 1 for a rally maybe in the spacious fields of Green Bay bottoms to formally announce this time a truly “done deal” with Mesabi Metallics.
Yeah, that’s a bit dramatic, but not at all out of the realm of possibility. Lee County Supervisor Garry Seyb said, although no public announcement has been made proclaiming Lee County the home of the new $15 billion facility, Lee County officials are currently negotiating with Mesabi Metallics on localized incentives. One could imagine that those negotiations could be wrapped up by then. Again, maybe, a little dramatic.
One would also hope all the relative state oversight boards, DNR, DOT, IUC, and the other acronyms are also watching closely. The impacts of a facility of this size should be weighed very carefully.
There are still heavy questions to be answered around byproducts of the proposed facility. Air quality around the plant, water discharge, electrical demands, Mississippi River economic and logistical impacts, workforce hurdles, housing hurdles, crime that comes with projects like this, and all the peripheral things that come with the unfathomable size of this proposal.
It also shouldn’t be lost on anyone that this is a pre-election development. The same could be said for the more than $200 million invested in rural health care that was announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last week. The announcement ran in our publication earlier this week, but for some reason was embargoed for two days on receipt.  

Some more efforts to buy votes. But people have to see through the nonsense, while still insisting on the promises to be fulfilled.
One can only hope all these developments, along with a $5,000 check to Americans if Republicans maintain control of the Congress, are in good faith. But in a nod to my sister-in-law, ‘here’s my question’ - is the $5,000 worth it? Despite the blatant attempt to pay for votes, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone at this point, a voter now finds themselves weighing the cost of the $5,000 quid pro quo, not to mention the reality of Congress approving the payments. That could be considered an “out” for the President should the GOP keep control.
Whatever side of the aisle you’re on, there has never, and I mean never, been a more direct attempt from a controlling party to buy votes. Maybe I’ve just been obtuse about it, but this seems out of bounds. So does using taxpayer funds to pay for ads proclaiming how great a President you’ve been. Whether you have been that great or not is up for debate, and there is information supporting both suppositions, but using federal funds to showcase it shouldn’t be up for debate. And the courts ruled that way. So good on them.
Back to a possible visit from the President. The timing sure seems to make sense and it’s not beyond common sense to connect the dots. If he was coming to rally the Republican base, it sure wouldn’t hurt to have state and local officials around him and the owners of the plant saying they’ve finalized an agreement on a $15 billion investment in U.S. Steel – two days before the election.
But there’s nothing factual in that, just a neighborhood reporter trying to connect dots that are moving all over the place in a binary blur. Maybe the rally date is being held open, “just in case” a formal announcement could be made.
Either way, it makes sense for all of us to watch for Secret Service agents shoring up Presidential itineraries in Lee County. But again, just supposition on our part, and because the election is coming whether the President does or not – it is Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.