President Donald Trump flew into Phoenix on Tuesday to address a large gathering of supporters and prosecute his case against what he termed the dishonesty of the national media.

Trump often went off script and relitigated, in a fashion likely to give White House staff heartburn, how the media covered his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12.

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The president largely read off a teleprompter as he sought to exonerate himself from any mishandling of the Charlottesville fiasco. But he couldn’t resist lengthy and riffing remarks aimed at his media foes.

“But the very dishonest media — those people,” Trump said, as the crowd booed. “I mean truly dishonest media and the fake media … They don’t want to report I spoke out forcefully against hatred, bigotry and violence and strongly condemned the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, and the KKK. I openly called for unity, healing, and love, and they know it.”

He said the media are “damn dishonest” and read from remarks he made on Aug. 15 as the violence Charlottesville unfolded.

At one point, Trump noted just how he mentioned the haters involved in the Charlottesville protest.

“I hit them with neo-Nazi, I hit them with everything,” he said. “KKK. We have KKK, I got them all.”

It was not all negative. Trump promoted friends in the media.

“Fox has treated me fairly,” he said. “How good is Hannity? … Fox and Friends in the morning is the best show, and it is the absolute most honest show.”

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The remarks showed Trump has trouble getting off the media’s narrative on Charlottesville. His criticism of the media over Charlottesville is sure to keep the press commentary — which Trump presumably does not like — going.

There were other controversies he made sure to stoke. The president, for instance, invoked the name of “Sheriff Joe,” the former sheriff of Phoenix, Joe Arpaio, who lost a re-election battle in November. Arpaio was one of his top supporters and, like Trump, a huge opponent of illegal immigration.

Trump all but said he would pardon Arpaio on a recent federal contempt charge.

“I’ll make a prediction, I think he’s going to be just fine,” he said. “But … I won’t do it tonight. Sheriff Joe can feel good.”

Trump moved on to policy after about 45 minutes and suggested he would focus on his top campaign promise: Building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump had been to the border town of Yuma, Arizona, earlier in the day, and visited a U.S. Border Patrol office.

The president may have surprised some when he said the wall would be funded, even if he had to tie the funding to the debt ceiling, which has to be raised by September 30. White House officials had previously said they would not tie the wall funding to the debt ceiling, and would support a “clean bill” to raise the debt ceiling, free of amendments.

Trump said maybe not.

“Believe me: If we have to close down that government, we are building that wall,” said Trump.

He said he won on the border issue, and warned Congress.

“You need to represent the people on the border,” said Trump.

Trump didn’t criticize any U.S. senators, which is notable, since Arizona is home to two of his critics: Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake. But he didn’t need to. When he reminded the crowd that the Senate was just one vote away from repeal, but lost out in July, the crowd began chanting, remembering that John McCain voted against repeal.

“I won’t mention any names,” said Trump.

“Drain the swamp,” some chanted.

“McCain must go,” others chanted.

Trump more directly referenced Flake, perhaps his top critic in the Senate.

“Nobody wants to me to talk about your other senator,” he said, obviously talking about Sen. Jeff Flake. “He’s weak on borders and weak on crime.”

A final shocker came closer to the speech’s end. The president touted his “America First” record, his jobs record, and his manufacturing policy. Trump spoke of renegotiating the North America Free Trade Agreement, and warned the 24-year-old trade treaty is in danger.

“I think we will end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point,” he said. “But we’re going to see what happens.”