Fact Checking Trump's Claims on Election Battlegrounds

Despite Mr. Trump’s characterization of ethanol as a partisan issue, Democrats from corn-producing states are “strong supporters of policies that favor ethanol,” Mr. Manuel said. For example, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, introduced a bill that would grant relief funding to the biofuels industry hard hit by the coronavirus. Bipartisan groups of lawmakers from both chambers have written to Mr. Trump urging him to deny waiver requests. The Congressional Biofuels Caucus is led by two Democratic and two Republican House members. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign proposals include more funding for ethanol.

Similarly, Mr. Trump promised Michigan voters to help protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp, a nonnative fish that pose a significant threat to the natural ecosystem and commercial fisheries of the region.

“Who would have thought that was going to happen?” he said in January during an event in the state. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers already has a plan, and we are going to get this done and ready to go.”

Contrary to his suggestion that support for tackling the invasive species problem had been slow to arrive, the Obama administration provided $40 million to $80 million each fiscal year starting in 2010 to control the Asian carp population in the Great Lakes.

While federal funding has continued under Mr. Trump to the tune of $30 million to $45 million a year, neither the president’s 2021 budget proposal or the Corps’ own list of projects for this fiscal year included funding for its plan to construct a variety of fish barriers at a lock and dam south of Chicago.

National Boasts With a Local Spin

The president’s regional overtures can also mirror familiar campaign riffs about the economy.

Accustomed to trumpeting a national unemployment rate that had been declining for years and reached a five-decade low last year, Mr. Trump has adapted the line for audiences in particular states with varying degrees of accuracy.

He overreached when he said during a town hall event in Scranton, Pa., that the city and the state “had the lowest and best unemployment numbers” ever and when he told attendees at a rally in Phoenix that “Arizona, you’ve had the best year, the most successful year you’ve ever had in the history of the country.”