Trump casts his midterm ballot early in Florida

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump cast his ballot in the midterm elections Saturday, saying he voted for all Republicans in Florida before speaking at a Georgia rally.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at their West Palm Beach polling location at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office together after the president spent the morning at his nearby golf course. Trump has been criticized in the past for voting by mail despite his long history of railing against that method of submitting ballots.

Asked if he voted the party line, Trump, who was wearing an “I Voted” sticker, said, “Very much so.”

Speaking to reporters at the poll site, Trump again defended an ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The ad has faced intense blowback for featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton, who lost custody of her children after her husband, the children’s stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12.

Trump also defended his decision to instruct his administration to file its lawsuit to block certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses over the inclusion of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

As for the war in Iran, he said, “I may have to finish it off. Or maybe they’ll make a deal, but I’m not sure. Either way, we win.”

Melania Trump, who this week brokered a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the ravaged, Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky so that humanitarian aid could be delivered and civilians evacuated, was asked whether she might travel to Ukraine.

“We will see,” she told reporters.

In Florida, Trump has endorsed Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running against David Jolly, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis.

He has also campaigned for Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who is running to fill the last two years of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s former Senate term against progressive state lawmaker Angie Nixon.

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Colvin reported from New York.