President Donald Trump will hold a rally tonight in Ohio for Republican Troy Balderson, who is running against Democrat Danny O’Connor in Tuesday’s special election in Ohio’s 12th congressional district. Trump, who has said he wants to hit the campaign trail “six or seven days a week” in the lead up to the midterm elections, will be holding his third campaign rally this week.
It may take Trump’s appearance in a district he won by double digits in 2016 to get more casual voters, many of whom may be more concerned about who will be coaching Ohio State football in the fall, to pay attention to the race and push Balderson across the finish line.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates throughout the evening.
All times eastern.
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8:20 PM: Trump closes with: “We will never give up. We will never give in. And we will never back down. We will never ever stop fighting for our families, our freedom, or our great American flag. Because we are Americans and our hearts bleed red, white, and blue. We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. And together, as a nation, we will make American wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America Great Again!”
8:17 PM: Trump says Ohio is the home of everything good — “where the Wright Brothers invented the airplane and where Annie Oakley got her guns.” He talks about his time in Swifton Village and says Ohio is the place that gives us “American legends and American heroes like Thomas Edison, Neil Armstrong, and John Glenn.”
8:16 PM: Trump blames Democrats for being obstructionists and “haters.” He says Democrats have “tremendous hatred” but will do anything they can do “obstruct” and “resist.” He tells the crowd he withdrew the U.S. from the Iran deal and “instead of apologizing for America, we are standing up for America, standing up for the heroes who are protecting our country.” Trump also says we are proudly “standing up for our national anthem, thank you.” Crowd chants “USA! USA! USA”
8:15 PM: Trump now speaking about increased defense spending and battling the opioid problem. He says he has given “our service members the largest pay raise in a decade.” And, of course, he touts his “Space Force.” “Look, so much is happening in space,” Trump says, talking about “tremendous” defensive and offensive capabilities in space not limited to Mars.
8:12 PM: Trump touting his support for “Right to Try.” He says the healthcare companies, the pharmaceutical companies had a problem but Trump got done what “they have been trying to do for 40 years.”
8:10 PM: Trump speaks about getting rid of the individual mandate, the death tax, and burdensome regulations.
8:06 PM: Trump hammers Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), one of the leaders of the Russia witch-hunt on the left, for having employed a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years. Trump’s mention of this will ensure it gets more coverage than the MSM have given this story. He says he doesn’t like the fact that she had a Chinese spy as a driver even though he like Feinstein personally.
8:05 PM: Trump says China is “spending a fortune on public relations” because they don’t like that America is taking its wealth back.
“We are taking our wealth back,” Trump says. “We are taking our jobs back.”
8:00 PM: Trump blasts the “globalist” who care more about foreign workers. He blasts Charles Koch for saying “Donald Trump doesn’t take care of foreign workers.” Trump says Koch is right because ” I want to take care of American workers. I want to be America First.”
“America’s economic surrender ended the day I took office, folks,” Trump says. “Now after rebuilding foreign countries, we are finally rebuilding our country.”
Trump reminds Ohioans that William McKinley understood the importance of tariffs.
He says now that we have the best economy in history, it is time to straighten out the country’s terrible trade deals.
Ballsy: Trump going full throttle on his America-first agenda in this affluent Ohio district is why his “America-first” voters voted for him and love him when speaks this way about economic nationalism. He isn’t watering his trade talk down one bit in a district whose voters are less blue-collar than other parts of Ohio like Youngstown, etc…
7:59 PM: Trump also says 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off of food stamps since he was elected. “That’s a big number,” Trump says proudly.
Now, talking about the 110-degree temperatures in the room, Trump says, “If you can take it, I can take it.”
He says the room wasn’t designed for this big of a crowd. “You people are hot,” Trump says.
7:55 PM: Trump touting the strong economic numbers that he says the fake news media won’t talk about. Unemployment rate for people without high school degrees at a record low, Trump proudly says. He says he has NEVER HEARD THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA TALK ABOUT THE RECORD-LOW UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS. He proudly says the Hispanic unemployment is at the lowest rate in history. Same for Asians.
7:52 PM: Trump blasts the “fake news” media: He says “CNN is down at the bottom of the totem pole” and “MSNBC isn’t close” to the top-rated Fox Shows. He taunts them by saying they are torn because they need to air his rallies to get ratings but that also gives him the platform to call out their “fake news.”
He says MSNBC is so “corrupt” and “so disgusting.” Trump says “the guys that we love—they are blowing them away in the ratings.” He name-checks Fox News host like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and “the great Lou Dobbs.”
7:47 PM: Trump says if he didn’t do anything on trade, the stock market could be higher but eventually “you would have to pay the piper.” Trump now talks about “fair” and “reciprocal trade.” Trump says he doesn’t like it when Congressmen ask him not to treat other countries just like they treat us re: trade. Trump says China taxes our cars 25% and “when they make a car, we charge them essentially nothing (2.5%)….” Trump says China has “taken $500 billion a year” from us for many years and have grown “off our backs.”
“We have rebuilt China, and it’s time we rebuild our country now,” Trump says, echoing what he has been saying all week.
7:46 PM: Trump on tariffs: “It’s my thing. I love it.”
7:45 PM: Trump says he didn’t want to be accused of “exaggeration” by the fake news media while campaigning in 2016 so he understated what he was going to do for the economy. Trump says he thinks “we can pick up 3-4 points” on GDP if we clean up the bad trade deals. He says Balderson will help Meadows as well.
7:38 PM: Trump asks voters to vote for Balderson to vote against the “radical” Nancy Pelosi-Maxine Waters agenda on the left. He is asking voters to send more Republican reinforcements to help him with judges and his agenda–infrastructure, the wall, border security.
7:35 PM: Trump now speaking about illegal immigrant crimes — brings up the illegal alien who murdered Air Force veteran Marilyn Pharis in California. Trump speaks about the “pathetic” laws like “catch and release” and “visa lottery.”
“What we’re doing is crazy,” Trump says before going off about “chain migration” and people bring aunts and uncles “fifteen times removed.”
7:33 PM: Trump says a vote for Balderson’s opponent is a vote for open borders and crime.
“They don’t care about crime. They don’t care about the military. They don’t care about the vets,” Trump says of the Democrats.
Trump says a vote for O’Connor is a vote for criminals to enter the country and MS-13 to “run wild in the country.” He says Democrats are running on “Let’s abolish ICE” and “not care about crime.”
7:30 PM: Balderson says he will fight along Trump to continue his economic success. Balderson says Trump will protect Social Security and Medicare and he’ll make sure “the benefits you were promised are there for you.” Balderson says “Dishonest Danny O’Connor” wants to repeal tax cuts, take away your guns, supports open borders and sanctuary cities, and will fight against policies that is turning our country around. He says, “worst of all, Dishonest Danny O’Connor will vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker.”
7:29 PM: Trump introduces Troy Balderson, who he says will never let you down. He says he is from the “Shaker Heights of Appalachia.”
7:28 PM: Trump again touting his record economy and the enthusiasm for it — “the likes of which we have never seen before.”
7:27 PM: Trump says Democrats are going to “raise your taxes” and “you’re going to have crime all over the place.” Trump says he thinks it should be a “red wave” because of the record economy. Trump says Democrats want to take away the tax cuts and says O’Connor is Pelosi’s puppet. Smart for Trump to emphasize taxes in a more affluent district.
7:25 PM: Trump says “I don’t think so” to the blue wave because “Maxine Waters is leading the charge.” He calls her a “seriously low-IQ person.”
7:23 PM: Trump now talking about his endorsement for Katie Arrington against Never-Trump Rep. Mark Sanford. He brings up Sanford’s Argentinian mistress and talks about the “Tallahassee Trail” (probably referring to “Appalachian Trail”).
7:20 PM: Trump praises his Ohio campaign team and predicts a “tremendous victory” for Troy Balderson on Tuesday.
7:15 PM: Trump name checks Mike DeWine’s (running for governor) and Jim Renacci’s names. Says Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) will not vote for his judges.
7:12 PM: Crowd starts chanting “Build the Wall!”
7:10 PM: Trump appears on stage to a thunderous ovation and talks about his “great victory” in Ohio in 2016. Trump says the steel mills are roaring again and “we have the greatest economy we have ever had.” Best numbers and setting records, he says. “America is respected again. And America is winning again. Because we are finally putting America first.” Trump says the economy is booming and the jobs are coming back. “This is where the action is,” Trump says. “We’re protecting American workers and supporting American law enforcement, including ICE. We love ICE.”
6:55 PM: Rep. Jim Jordan at Trump rally. What a day to have his last name. Crowd reportedly chanting “Jor-dan!” and “Speaker of the House!”
6:45 PM: Rally crowd chanting “CNN Sucks!”… But, unlike Jim Acosta, CNN reporter Boris Sanchez having a different reaction.
6:20 PM: Trump tries to tie Pelosi to O’Connor, calling the Democrat “a puppet of Nancy Pelosi.”
Before his visit, Trump slammed Ohio native and rabid Ohio State football fan LeBron James in a Tweet. In an interview earlier with CNN earlier in the week, James, taking host Don Lemon’s anti-Trump bait, said he would never sit across from Trump and slammed Trump as someone who is using sports to divide Americans. LeBron also said that in Trump’s America, “sometimes we do feel like we’re going backwards and even though we feel like we are going back to places of—some kind of slavery or Jim Crow and things of that nature.”
Left-wing protesters were already trying to use Trump’s tweet against LeBron against him: