President Donald Trump opened his re-election year on Thursday night with a “Keep America Great” rally in Toledo, Ohio, and spent much of the evening reciting the economy’s numbers back to the crowd.
The 7 p.m. event at the Huntington Center was the president’s first campaign rally of 2020, with Vice President Mike Pence at his side. Trump told the audience that “at stake are the values of America,” before running through what he cast as the results of his first term.
He said 12,000 new factories had been built in a short stretch, and that the steel industry was pouring $13 billion into new investment. Forty million families, he claimed, were now collecting a Child Tax Credit worth $2,200 a year, and median household incomes were set to rise by more than $10,000.
The president tied several of the gains to Ohio itself. He said the Army tank plant in Lima had been restarted and was turning out close to 500 tanks a year, and that drug overdose deaths in the state had fallen 22% in 2018.
He also returned to the border, saying illegal crossings were down 75% since May, that more than 100 miles of wall had gone up, and that a court ruling had freed up $3.6 billion in military construction funds to keep building.
Trump closed the economic pitch by crediting the trade deal with China and a revamped North American pact, telling supporters the country was finally putting “America first.” He also hailed the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, saying the military had ended the “bloodthirsty terror.”
Sources
- What does Toledo look like for Trump's rally? | wtol.com
- Trump wows the crowd at Toledo rally — and takes no prisoners – American Thinker
