President Donald Trump returned to Iowa on Tuesday to deliver the kind of speech his advisers have been pressing him to give — a sweeping economic victory lap, tailored to a farm-state audience and framed as the opening argument of a high-stakes midterm campaign.

U.S. President Donald Trump rallied supporters in Iowa on Tuesday as he worked to shore up support in a Midwestern political battleground just south of Minnesota, where a confrontation ​was escalating over federal immigration agents' aggressive tactics.

While in Iowa, President Trump will make a stop at a local business and then deliver a speech on affordability, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The remarks will be at the Horizon Events Center in Clive,

The rally begins at the Horizon Events Center starting at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Thousands of protesters gathered outside the Horizon Events Center with demonstrations fueled largely by outrage over two killings in Minneapolis.

Mr. Trump promised a “very honorable and honest investigation” into the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday amid a growing furor over the shooting, which prompted him to shake up leadership of the immigration crackdown there and say that he may “de-escalate” the aggressive operation in Minnesota.

The president’s early midterm travel points to a defensive strategy focused on boosting turnout in GOP-held seats with thin margins, starting in places he carried but Republicans barely did.

As President Trump heads to Iowa this week, a grassroots conservative coalition is urging the president to stay out of the Hawkeye State’s gubernatorial race, at least for now.