President Donald Trump told West Virginians on Thursday that even though the stock market is hitting record highs, he will continue to fight for people who are not in the workforce and may not be benefiting from the booming stock market.
Trump’s speech and his recent comments to the Wall Street Journal in which he proved he is authentic on this issue reveal why working-class Americans across the country are sticking with the blue-collar billionaire.
In West Virginia before a jam-packed and raucous audience, Trump spoke about the stock market reaching “yet another all-time” high during his presidency, “boosting the retirement savings, hopefully, of everybody in this room.” He then said the unemployment rate is at a 16-year low during his presidency.
But the blue-collar billionaire said that the country’s leaders cannot forget about the hard-working people who are the “absolute backbone of America” who may not be invested in the stock market.
“I will never forget the millions and millions of people out there that want jobs, that don’t register on the unemployment rolls because they gave up looking for jobs,” Trump said. “So I accept the [record economic] number, but we all know that there are millions of people out there we love—the forgotten men and women—and they’re looking for jobs.”
Trump promised these Americans who may not be seeing their economic conditions improve with the booming stock market that they will get jobs as he brings factories back and pushes for a massive infrastructure bill that rebuilds the country while putting more Americans to work.
Trump’s not a phony on this, for it is an issue that goes to the core of who he is and has been as a political candidate. And that’s why he is received like a rock star in blue-collar towns across the country.
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal of all outlets that Politico’s Hadas Gold obtained this week, the president said though he will take care of the “job producers,” he will also “take care of middle-income people in this country.”
“They built the country, they started this whole beautiful thing that we have, and we have to take care of them. And people have not taken care of them, and we’re going to,” he said.
Trump said that it bothers him when super rich individuals pay less in taxes than working-class Americans by gaming the system.
“And I’ll tell you what I sort of don’t like, is when they – you know, you’ll do your charts in The Wall Street Journal and they’ll be brilliantly done, very nice, and they’ll show that a rich guy who made, you know, $25 million last year is going to pay less than [the working-class American] was,” Trump said. “In a certain way, I don’t like that.”