Trump declares he will bring jobs back to U.S.
GOP presidential nominee tells Toledo crowd to get out the vote
9/22/2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, share the stage at a packed Stranahan Theater in South Toledo. Wednesday’s visit was Mr. Trump’s second appearance to the city.
THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, backed up by a cast that included boxing impresario Don King and Indiana coaching legend Bobby Knight, promised jobs, security, and child care while appealing directly for help in getting out the vote during his second campaign trip to Toledo on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump addressed a packed Stranahan Theater, which has a capacity of about 2,400. His trip to Ohio started in Cleveland and included a “manufacturing roundtable” in the Dayton area.
“You have to knock on doors. You have to pick up the phone. Become a volunteer. That’s what we have to do; we have to win Ohio. You have to campaign in the streets,” he said. “You have 47 days to change the world and make possible every dream.”
The New York real estate magnate flew in to Toledo Express Airport on his “Trump”-emblazoned Boeing 757 more than an hour late from Cleveland, where he taped an episode of the Sean Hannity Show for Fox News and met in a town hall-style event with a black pastor.
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Mr. Trump campaigned July 27 at Huntington Center. Democrat Hillary Clinton has not yet been in northwest Ohio. Her daughter, Chelsea, is scheduled to speak at 12:05 p.m. today in the Maple Room, which has a capacity of 200, in the University of Toledo Student Recreation Center. She then will visit the Clinton campaign’s downtown Toledo office.
Mr. Trump promised a renewed economy, saying he would replace the “failed and corrupt establishment” of the nation and would terminate all “job-killing” orders from the Obama Administration.
“Trade will be fair and reciprocal and products will be sold all around the world like we used to do when we were, you know, smart,” Mr. Trump said. “Starting in 2017 jobs are going to start leaving other countries and coming back to us, believe me. That includes Apple products.”
He promised tax reductions, child care, and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Trump said “extreme vetting” of immigrants would keep America safe from terrorism at home, whereas under Mrs. Clinton, “It’s going to get worse. If Hillary is president, it’s going to be a disaster.”
“That’s why on my first day in office I will immediately suspend the admission of Syrian refugees,” he said to cheers from the crowd.
He accused his opponent of refusing to use the words “radical Islamic terrorists” but calls his supporters “deplorable” and “irredeemable.”
“She thinks patriotic hard-working people like you are the problem,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump noted he was leading Mrs. Clinton by 5 percentage points in a recent Bloomberg Politics poll of Ohio.
‘Crowds get bigger’
“As I travel the country, the crowds get bigger and the enthusiasm grows,” he said.
After first asking if there were any coal miners in the crowd and getting no response, Mr. Trump called on farmers to be recognized.
He also argued his case for support from black voters.
“We’re going to fix those inner cities, and we’re going to make them terrific,” Mr. Trump said. He said his plan for this includes school choice. “There’s no better anti-poverty program in the world than really good jobs,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump blasted trade liberalization, saying Ohio has lost 221,000 jobs since China joined the World Trade Organization.
“It will be a new dawn for the American worker,” Mr. Trump said, if he is elected president.
Those introducing Mr. Trump included former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight.
“There’s nobody I’ve known in my lifetime that has a better grasp of how to correct mistakes and correct what’s wrong and get it going right,” Mr. Knight said.
Don King, formerly a boxing promoter and now publisher of the African-American newspaper Call and Post, said Mr. Trump would bring justice for “white women and people of color.”
Vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence introduced Mr. Trump as “a man who actually embodies the spirit of America — strong, independent, freedom-loving, optimistic, willing to fight for what he believes.”
Pushback from Trump opponents came from Democratic mayors who are traveling the state by bus on behalf of Mrs. Clinton.
Their bus pulled up outside the Clinton campaign headquarters on Jefferson Avenue just after Mr. Trump started talking to his rally crowd in South Toledo.
Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson said Mrs. Clinton will invest in small businesses and cities.
“We hear so much about ‘Make America great again,’ ” Mayor Hicks-Hudson said. “We’re already great. We just need to continue that momentum.”
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said the mayoral tour would stop in 17 cities over four days on behalf of Mrs. Clinton.
“On one side you have someone who has spent her life dedicated to community, dedicated to the work of the public and to children. And, on the other side, you see someone who, really, you don’t know what he’s going to say each and every day; and quite frankly pushes people in our community apart and not together,” Ms. Whaley said.
In Cleveland, black community leaders demanded Mr. Trump apologize for leading the “birther” movement, the discredited theory that President Obama is not a natural-born American citizen.
Bell attends event
“For five years, Donald Trump gave a voice to the birther movement, giving voice to the right-wing fringe groups who want nothing more than to delegitimize America’s first African-American president. Donald Trump’s actions have been absolutely disgusting, and he owes Barack Obama an apology,” said Cleveland Heights Mayor Cheryl Stephens.
One of the attendees inside the Stranahan Theater was former Toledo Mayor Mike Bell, who is the Republican nominee against Democratic Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken.
“I listened to him at the Huntington Center. A lot of what he says, if you break it down, it’s logical, it’s not complicated. What he’s saying is honest,” Mr. Bell said. He added that Mr. Trump is setting aside his business career to run for president.
“You can’t get any more American than that,” Mr. Bell said.
Inside the Stranahan, Trump supporter Amy Boggs, 53, of Toledo, said she backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the Republican primary and now supports Mr. Trump.
‘Too many scandals’
He’s a successful businessman who, she acknowledged, has had “his ups and downs” and has learned from those experiences.
“I’m definitely ‘never Hillary,’” Ms. Boggs said. “She’s not trustworthy. There’s been too many scandals, too many rumors.”
Nancy Love, 66, of Rossford, wore a small red, white, and blue top hat as she waited for Mr. Trump, whom she likes because he’s a political outsider and for his “outspokenness.”
She said she’s also a staunch opponent of abortion rights and said she couldn’t support Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy.
Twin 70-year-old brothers Richard and Robert McNutt of Maumee sat next to each other at the Trump rally. They wore patriotic flag-festooned shirts and agreed they are worried by what they perceive as a loss of patriotism in the United States.
Richard voted for President Obama during his first election because of his union leanings, but he changed course in 2012 because of concerns about the country’s debt and other issues. He said he believes Mr. Trump will strengthen the military, tighten immigration rules, and offer a better fiscal plan.
“I can’t believe this younger generation,” he said. “All of them are for Hillary; they’ve got themselves snowballed.”
As it did in July, Mr. Trump’s arrival in Toledo attracted a smattering of onlookers to Toledo Express Airport, some to see the candidate, others to see his aircraft.
“I just wanted to see the airplane,” Joe Fletcher of Genoa, Ohio, said while waiting nearby next to an airport fence.
Mr. Fletcher said he’d probably do the same thing for a Hillary Clinton plane, “only her name ain’t on the side of hers. That’s the difference between a businessman and a politician.”
Rick Pariseau of Holland took a break from his work of moving rental cars around the airport complex to watch the candidate’s flight arrive, also in part because of the Trump-branded plane.
“That’s who I’m voting for, and I want to see his plane,” Mr. Pariseau said, explaining that he’s a Trump supporter “because I can’t stand Hillary.’’
After the campaign rally, Mr. Trump met with Blade Publisher and Editor-in-Chief John Robinson Block and Blade Editorial Page Editor Keith Burris on his plane at Toledo Express Airport.
Staff Writers Vanessa McCray and Ignazio Messina contributed to this report.
Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.