President Donald Trump set aside midterm election messaging at a rally in Syracuse, New York, on Friday, delivering an extended attack on the Norwegian Nobel Committee for awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a former United Nations human rights chief honored for her work on justice and accountability for war crimes and genocide.

Pillay began her legal career in apartheid-era South Africa, where she became the first woman to open a law practice in the country’s Natal Province, and later presided over the United Nations tribunal for the Rwandan genocide, served as a judge on the International Criminal Court, and held the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.

Trump, who has long sought the prize — previously awarded to U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama — argued that the award represented “an indelible stain on the country of Norway” and insisted he “should have received the Nobel Peace Prize, but didn’t.”

He dismissed Pillay as “a liberal person who works at the United Nations who nobody has ever heard of,” adding: “The Nobel Peace Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy and really enemies of civilization. And we will not forget, Norway.”

The peace prize, endowed by Alfred Nobel, is the only Nobel awarded in Norway: a five-member committee elected by the country’s parliament chooses the laureate, who is traditionally honored at a ceremony in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

As he often does, Trump claimed to have ended eight wars, though some of the conflicts he says he resolved were in fact tensions rather than wars, and the extent of his role in easing them has been disputed. The war with Iran that he and Israel launched — which Trump predicted would last only weeks — remains unresolved and has weighed on his party heading into midterm elections before a dissatisfied electorate.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted last month and published Oct. 1 found that 71% of U.S. adults disapproved of Trump’s handling of Iran, while 28% approved. The conflict has pushed gas prices higher, and surveys indicate voters hold Trump responsible for the elevated cost of living.

Friday’s event was nominally aimed at promoting Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for New York governor. While Trump criticized Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is seeking a second full term, he devoted just as much time to New York Attorney General Letitia James, a prominent adversary who brought civil charges against Trump and his business. Those charges led a court to find Trump liable for fraud; an appeals court subsequently threw out the massive financial penalty but upheld the fraud finding. Speaking from the stage at the Oncenter in Syracuse, Trump called James “a dog.”

The appearance was part of a string of political stops intended to energize his base as Republicans work to fend off setbacks in their effort to hold congressional majorities in elections on Nov. 3. Friday’s mission was to lift up Blakeman in a Democratic-leaning state. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, has adopted a recognizably Trumpian style: he has suggested Democrats might steal the election, played up fears about immigrant criminals, and posted AI-generated videos portraying New York as dangerous and unaffordable.

Though he brought Blakeman onstage, Trump spent large swaths of time pushing back against a national narrative that American voters lack confidence in his handling of the economy. With the midterms 25 days away and set to determine whether Republicans keep control of Congress, he devoted much of the first half of the rally to talking past Americans’ gloomy feelings about the economy.

“The poverty rate has just reached its lowest level, the best number,” he said. “Lowest level in American history.”

“The job numbers are the best. The stock market has soared,” Trump said.

Gas prices have slipped a few cents per gallon over the past week but remain about 15 cents higher per gallon than a month ago, according to AAA. Breaking briefly from his economic cheerleading, Trump addressed oil retailers directly, calling on them to “start dropping their prices now.”

The latest AP-NORC poll also found that only 26% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy — a new low, down from 32% in July. Just 17% approved of his handling of the cost of living.

So far, Trump has largely steered clear of political battlegrounds on his travels, focusing on red states and friendly crowds at a moment when Republicans worry that his unpopularity could drag down the party. New York’s most closely watched U.S. House race is several hours from Syracuse, where Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is trying to fend off a challenge from Democratic candidate Cait Conley.

On the campaign trail, Blakeman presents himself as the moderate candidate in his race against Hochul, arguing that he is winning over Democrats and independents and dismissing suggestions that his closeness to the president could hurt him in blue New York. In an interview, he denied being aligned with the president on everything.

“I am somebody who takes every issue and makes a decision based on good advice from smart people and common sense,” Blakeman said. “I’ve proved my independence over and over and over again. I make my own decisions. I call my own shots.”

Hochul has emphasized Blakeman’s ties to Trump, mirroring much of the Democrats’ national strategy for the midterm elections and hoping the president’s dismal approval ratings help sink her Republican foe at the ballot box. In a sarcastic press release, Hochul’s campaign described Trump’s visit as “an extremely boring puppet show” and said Hochul, like Trump, is asking voters to pretend the president is on the ballot. “Why is Trump in Upstate New York?” the campaign asked. “Because Bruce Blakeman, for some reason, begged him to do so.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.