By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
President Donald Trump was hailed as the champion of jobs, conservative judges – and now of “American-style” justice after the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
The red-capped crowd at Huntington Center in Toledo, Thursday evening, welcomed the president with unconditional support.
Vice President Mike Pence set the stage, by ordaining Trump as the savior of America’s faith, freedom, firearms and the flag.
“This president said ‘No more Benghazi,’” Pence said. And when the Iranians struck back with ballistic missiles hitting two bases housing U.S. military, there were no American casualties.
“That’s what leadership looks like,” Pence said.
But there’s more work to be done – and the Trump-Pence ticket needs Ohio’s support in November, the vice president said. Ohio has 18 electoral votes that may be critical in the race.
“It’s going to take at least four more years to drain that swamp,” Pence said.
After taking the stage to the booming “Proud to be an American,” Trump reminded his supporters of all he had done for them.
“I’ve completed more promises than I’ve made,” he said.
“The economy is booming, wages are soaring. America’s future has never ever looked brighter,” the president said.
Trump informed his supporters that his approval rating was at 95 percent – higher than Ronald Reagan’s peak at 87 percent, and even higher than Abraham Lincoln, he said..
The audience repeatedly erupted into cheers for Trump. They wore shirts saying “Ban idiots, not guns,” and “Trump’s tweets matter.” Many had traded their former “Make America Great Again” clothing for “Keep America Great” items.
The supporters were quick to show their love for president, and their loathing for his enemies.
Trump repeated some of his favorite nicknames – of “Nervous Nancy” Pelosi, “Crooked Shifty” Adam Schiff, “Crazy Bernie” Sanders, “Sleepy Joe” Biden, and “Pocahontas” Elizabeth Warren. He compared Pete Buttigieg to Alfred E. Neuman, the cartoon mascot from “Mad Magazine,” then mispronounced the Democratic presidential candidate’s name multiple times, adding “Nobody has any idea how the hell to say his name.”
And when he mentioned President Barack Obama, Trump made sure to insert his middle name, Hussein.
Each nickname was met with boisterous boos from the crowd.
The president placed the blame on Pelosi, “who was not operating with a full deck” and on “pencil-neck” Schiff, who “buys the smallest shirt collar you can get and it’s still lose,” for his failure to consult with Congress before the drone strike to take out Soleimani.
At one point in his 90-minute speech, Trump said that Congress was too busy with impeachment to be bothered by the plans to take out Soleimani. Trump needed to act swiftly, and Congress could not gather fast enough.
But at another point, Trump said the information was not shared with Congress because he could not trust them to keep the plan confidential.
“They want us to tell them, so they can leak it to the fake media,” he said.
However, the president told his Toledo audience that Soleimani had been planning attacks on American embassies. That information differs from details shared by senior defense officials, and was considered classified.
Trump stirred up his crowd Thursday night by sharing details of the deliberation before the drone attack.
“I called up our great generals and said, ‘Get them over there now,’” Trump said.
According to the president, a general said the attack could be launched the following day. But Trump insisted it be done “immediately.”
“We delivered American justice – and you know what I’m talking about,” he said. “We stopped him cold. He was a blood-thirsty terror, and he’s no longer a terror. He’s dead.”
Trump blamed the Obama administration for giving Iran $150 billion that was then used for the ballistic missiles that hit the U.S. military sites.
“The last administration was leading us down the path of war,” he said.
But that money came from a lifted freeze on Iran’s assets that were held in many banks around the world. The money belonged to Iran – not the U.S. It had been made inaccessible by sanctions intended to stifle Iran’s nuclear program.
The president repeatedly directed insults toward the news media area of the arena.
“That’s a lot of corruption back there,” he said, with his fans responding with thunderous boos.
“They are sick,” Trump said, again pointing at the media. “They are very, very dishonest people.”
The president threw around a lot of numbers at the rally.
He cited the creation of 7 million new jobs, saying the U.S. is “the envy of every country.” Trump praised his idea for the USMCA trade deal that is replacing NAFTA.
“It’s a great victory for the U.S.,” he said. The agreement will benefit farmers in the U.S., so “go buy larger tractors.” Despite the “fake news” showing concern for the agricultural industry hurt by tariffs, Trump said, “Our farmers did just fine.”
The president said Ohio is experiencing the best economic year in the history of the state.
“We brought a lot of car factories into Ohio,” he said.
Trump said the U.S. lost 60,000 factories under the last administration.
“They’re all coming back” from Mexico and China, he said. “We have the best jobs, the best of everything. After years of rebuilding other nations, we are rebuilding our nation,” Trump said. “We are finally putting America first.”
But according to the Associated Press, the Toledo area lost more than 6% of its white collar jobs in the professional and business services sector in the past year.
The president talked about an Army tank factory in Lima that has been brought back from the brink of closing at his urging.
“Instinct sometimes works better than anything else,” he said, then adding about the manufacturing of tanks, “I know a lot about it.”
“Steel mills are roaring back to life in Ohio,” he said. “The steel industry was dead and now it’s vibrant.”
But the numbers don’t actually show that, according to industry experts.
Trump said his administration has gotten rid of many “job-killing regulations” and ended the war on “clean beautiful coal.”
“We are putting our miners back to work,” he said.
At the same time, the president said the air and water in the U.S. is “cleaner than it’s been in 40 years.”
Trump reminded his audience that he got the nation out of the worldwide climate plan. “I took us out of the Paris Accord,” he said, claiming it would have forced 25 to 30% of the businesses in the U.S. to close.
“It took a certain amount of courage to do that,” he said of the exit from the agreement. Americans “are tired of being ripped off by the rest of the world.”
By getting rid of regulations and cutting taxes, Trump said the median American household is keeping more than $10,000 annually.
Trump also waved the red meat of illegal immigration. He blamed the “far left radicals” for creating sanctuary cities where undocumented immigrants “rob, attack and kill” American citizens.
“Innocent Americans are being brutalized and killed,” he said.
He recited stories of MS13 gang members using machetes to kill because it is more painful for their victims.
But under his administration, illegal border crossings are down by 75 percent, the president said.
“The wall is being built,” using military construction funds, he said. The president said there are “over 100 miles already” completed. The border is 1,900 miles.
Trashing the impeachment process was another crowd pleaser.
“They are stone-cold crazy,” he said of the “radical” Democrats trying to oust him.
Trump talked about his success in appointing 187 federal judges and two U.S. Supreme Court justices.
“Mitch helped a lot,” he said, referencing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to allow a new justice to be appointed while Obama was still in office.
It’s important to name conservative judges, since Democrats support late-term abortion, “right up to the moment of birth,” Trump said.
The president also touched on other issues, such as his feeling that he should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
He said the Democratic presidential candidate debates are too boring for him.
“It’s like watching death. Those debates are boring,” Trump said.
The president pointed out the many ways his presidency is bigger and better.
- “I think the crowds today area bigger than they were the day before the election.”
- The Evangelicals strongly support him. Trump said he was recently told, “We’ve never seen enthusiasm like we have for this president.”
- “America is now respected again – respected like never before.”
- Trump said he has plans to end AIDs in 10 years.
There was one disturbance at the rally from a small group of Trump protesters. They held up banners reading “No War” and something about “Bone Spurs” in reference to Trump’s exception that allowed him to avoid the Vietnam War draft.
The protesters were quickly drowned out by Trump supporters, then escorted from the arena by security.
“They’re going home to mommy,” Trump said as the protesters were led away.
Each of the lead-in political speakers Thursday evening – even a pastor leading a prayer – talked about Democrats as the “enemies within” the U.S., with socialist and communist agendas.
The pastor prayed to the “God of the Bible, God of the founding fathers,” and asked for help to “cause these anti-God agendas to fail.”
Pence referred to the Democratic party as “radical leftists,” who want higher taxes, late-term abortions and open borders.
“They are trying to impeach President Trump because they know they can’t beat President Trump in November,” Pence said.
