During a rally in Tennessee on Saturday, President Donald Trump teased his supporters about their blind devotion, telling a crowd, “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap.”

Trump, who has been touring the country trying to stir up his MAGA base amid shaky prospects for the November midterms, admitted visiting the deep red state wasn’t a must, but that he was there to thank his followers and soak up the love.

“What am I doing in Tennessee?” he said during his stop where Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) are primed to win their respective Senate and governor races. “I don’t have to campaign here and I win.”

Trotting out his favorite gripe, despite having taken Tennessee in all three of his presidential races, Trump said, “I’ve won your state by many, many, many points, some ridiculous number, all the time. So, three times I won the election, the big election three times. I got screwed the second time because they cheated. They cheated. We cannot let that happen again.”

“But, I said, ‘You know sometimes it’s nice to go to a place where you don’t have to be,’ but you are there to say thank you to the great people that elected you three separate times,” he continued, prompting cheers from his adoring crowd.

President Trump: "I could say the stupidest things and you'd clap." pic.twitter.com/16rxk6jIlc

Trump then mentioned a “very successful” friend who happens to have “stage fright” and had asked him how he does these marathon speaking events: “I said, ‘You know, for me it’s easy because there is such love in these rooms.’ It’s true.”

Chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!” then erupted, earning a “thank you” from the president.

“No, it’s true. No, there’s such love,” he went on while someone in the crowd shouted, “We love you!”

Ribbing his devotees, Trump then said, “It’s like, I mean, it’s amazing. When you stand up here, it’s just like, the love. I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap. ‘Oh, I love you so—’ It’s true.”

He quickly got back on message, adding, “But we don’t say the stupidest things, we say things of common sense.”

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