As the campaign heads into its final weeks, Donald Trump appears to be honing his populist message. According to Breitbart, Trump focused on a handful of themes in a series of post-debate campaign events.

IMMIGRATION — Immigration and border security helped Trump prevail in the GOP primaries and he is not backing down now. But he is smartly allowing others, such as Angel Mom Michelle Root, whose daughter Sarah was murdered by an illegal immigrant, to make the commonsense case for him.

Root appeared on stage with Trump at an Iowa rally [Wednesday]. She said:

“Hillary called me deplorable and irredeemable. She is not a friend to women… The Obama-Clinton policies released the man that killed my daughter after he showed up at the borders. Then after he killed my daughter, they released him again. Now where is he? Nobody knows… If Hillary wins, how many more girls are going to die? How many more women will die at the hands of their policies?”

It is impossible to portray Mrs. Root as a racist, a bigot or a xenophobe. She is a grieving mother who, like many other Americans, has suffered as a result of the left’s open borders policies.

CORRUPTION — When Mrs. Root finished speaking, Trump opened up on Hillary with both barrels. “We are going to end the Clinton Corruption — total corruption,” Trump said, which set off chants of “LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP!”

Trump said, “Hillary Clinton is an insider fighting for her donors and her insiders… I am an outsider fighting for you… Everything you need to know about Hillary Clinton can be understood with this simple phrase: Follow The Money.”

I have been saying for many months now that fighting corruption should be a major GOP theme. There is so much ammunition here: the IRS scandal, Hillary’s mishandling of national security secrets, the Clinton Foundation, the VA scandal, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, etc.

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM — A lot of people say that they want something to vote for rather than against. When Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again, that’s exactly what he is offering these voters — a positive vision of a strong America, a thriving economy, good schools and safe streets.

Trump told a massive Florida rally on Tuesday, “Our country is filled with so many amazing people, people who lift us up and inspire us… Ours is truly a special country… And we must never stop fighting to keep the American Dream alive. Never! Never!”

Obama Disses Gold Star Mother

President Obama held a military town hall event [Wednesday] at Fort Lee, Virginia. One of the questions posed to the president came from a Gold Star Mother who asked why the president refuses to say the words “radical Islamic terrorism.”

Obama thanked her for her son’s service and sacrifice, but then launched into a long-winded explanation, saying in part:

“The truth of the matter is that this is an issue that has been sort of manufactured… terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda or ISIL, they have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse, for basically barbarism and death.

"But … when you start calling these organizations Islamic terrorists, the way it’s heard, the way it’s received by our friends and allies around the world is that somehow Islam is terroristic…”

Obama’s response was incredibly disrespectful to this Gold Star Mother. Her son’s death wasn’t the result of a “manufactured” or contrived controversy. He was killed by a radical Islamic terrorist, and our leaders should not be afraid to say that!

As has been documented over and over again, there is a problem with violence within Islam. Our Muslims friends and allies know this. The radical Islamic terrorists kill plenty of Muslims they also consider to be infidels or insufficiently Islamic.

There is a reason:

That the Islamic State calls itself the “Islamic State.”

That the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism calls itself the “Islamic Republic of Iran.”

That the vast majority of terrorist attacks taking place throughout the world today are carried out by Muslims.

That disturbing percentages of Muslims living in Islamic nations support Sharia law and suicide bombings.

Islam has a problem with violence!

By the way, Obama also doubled down in his opposition to the idea of “extreme vetting” for refugees as a “religious test” that is somehow contrary to our values. The public overwhelmingly supports extreme vetting. Only 23% of voters oppose it, just like Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Follow-Up

I want to follow-up on several news stories from the past week.

Guess whose vote cancelled out yours in the last election? Arcen Cetin. That’s right — the Turkish immigrant who murdered five Americans at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, last week. He is a permanent resident, not a citizen, which means that he should not be voting.

However, records indicate that Cetin “registered to vote in 2014 and participated in three election cycles, including the May presidential primary.”

Democrats insist that voter fraud is a non-issue and that voter IDs laws, supported by 80% of Americans, are “a solution in search of a problem.” Really? Non-citizens are voting in Washington and the dead are voting in California and Colorado. Yet Democrats fight tooth-and-nail whenever someone tries to stop it.

Radicals in Charlotte are demanding that the black police chief resign. This demand comes in the wake of a black man, Keith Scott, being shot by a black police officer.

When Scott was shot, police insisted he was armed with a gun. His family insisted he didn’t own a gun. Well, here’s the latest twist: The Associated Press reports that Scott’s wife took out a restraining order last year because Scott “threatened to kill his wife and her son with a gun.” Mrs. Scott said her husband “said he is a ‘killer’ and we should know that,” and she warned police “he ‘carries a 9mm black’ gun.”

Protests against the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem continue to grow. Eight members of the New York City Council are now refusing to stand for the Pledge.

These are not political independents or conservatives protesting the flag. The people doing this represent the left-wing of America’s increasingly left-leaning political party.

It demonstrates the mindset of the people Obama brought into office and the people who will be empowered by Hillary Clinton if she wins this November.

The stakes in this election could not be greater.