Donald Trump touts Arizona copper and chips, revisits stolen election lie at Bullhead City rally

Copper, chips, cheaper rent and cartels.

President Donald Trump covered all four during a nearly 100-minute speech in Bullhead City on Wednesday, casting Arizona as proof his economic agenda is working while accusing Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs of doing “the bidding of the cartels.”

The speech quickly elicited a response from Hobbs after Trump called her “a dumb person.”

But with early voting underway and affordability a top issue in the governor’s race, much of his time went to claiming credit for Arizona’s new mines, a massive chip plant and falling rents.

President Donald Trump takes credit for copper, chips and rent

“I imposed a 50% tariff on foreign copper,” Trump said. “And as a result, Arizona’s historic copper corridor is roaring back to health.”

He claimed credit for two major mining projects.

“My administration approved over $1 billion of Ivanhoe Electric’s copper project near Casa Grande,” he said. “I approved the massive Resolution Copper mine near Phoenix, Arizona, which will create 3,700 jobs. Many of you are going to be there.”

He also took credit for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s north Phoenix expansion.

“I’m the one that got the great Taiwanese company, TSMC,” he said. “It’s $265 billion.”

Trump credited his border policies for falling Arizona rents.

“Since I took office, rent in Arizona has plummeted by 14%, and it’s going to go down by another 20% or 25%,” he said. “These were all the Biden-era highs where your rent was unaffordable.”

Apartment List data shows Arizona rents down about 3% over the past year, a decline that started before Trump returned to office in January 2025.

Trump says Biggs ‘not too tough,’ Hobbs does ‘bidding of the cartels’

Trump urged the crowd to back Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, Hobbs’ opponent in the governor’s race.

“We want Arizona in a landslide,” he said. “Just give some of (those votes) to Andy, please.”

“Andy Biggs will always stand with law enforcement,” Trump said. “I mean, they say he’s probably too tough. He’s not too tough. I’m not sure that you can be too tough when it comes to these people.”

He then turned to Hobbs, pointing to her vetoes of crime and immigration enforcement bills.

“Your Governor, Katie Hobbs, does the bidding of the cartels. People say she’s paid off by the cartels. I wouldn’t be surprised,” Trump said. “What she does, it doesn’t make sense. Something has to be between her and the cartels, because she’s causing tremendous death in your state.”

He offered no evidence.

Donald Trump revisits 2022 in Bullhead City speech

Trump also returned to Kari Lake’s 2022 loss to Hobbs. Problems with ballot printers in Maricopa County on Election Day that year fueled Lake’s unsuccessful legal challenges.

“You had a wonderful person, a wonderful woman who did great. And I won’t get into it, but it’s a disgrace what happened,” Trump said. “She won that election, probably won the other one, too.”

That appeared to be a reference to Lake’s 2024 U.S. Senate loss to Ruben Gallego.

Trump later named Lake and attacked the judge who heard her case.

“The Kari Lake situation was terrible,” he said. “You ought to tell that judge to go to hell.”

Biggs, the candidate Trump came to stump for, has called that race settled.

In July, he told KTAR News 92.3 FM, “I think every court has said she won.”

He added that he didn’t think anybody was questioning that Hobbs is the governor.

“I think most Arizonans are sick of those discussions and are ready to go forward with the issues like affordability, like public safety, like border security, like education,” Biggs said then.

Hobbs has accused Biggs of undermining confidence in elections.

On Jan. 6, 2021, he voted against accepting Arizona’s certified 2020 results, saying at the time that federal courts had allowed “tens of thousands of voters to unlawfully cast votes.”

Asked during a Clean Elections debate whether he would accept the outcome of this year’s race, Biggs said, “I will accept the outcome.”

The general election is Nov. 3.

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