President Donald Trump argued on Saturday evening in Ohio that the country’s booming economy presents the nation with the perfect opportunity to straighten out its atrocious trade deals that Trump said were the worst ever made by any nation.
“Now that we have the best economy in the history of our country, this is the time to straighten out the worst trade deals ever made by any country on earth at any time,” Trump said.
Not watering down his economic nationalist message in a more affluent congressional district (OH-12), Trump said America must stop building up foreign countries like China and focus more on rebuilding its own country. He even said of tariffs, “It’s my thing. I love it.”
“After years of rebuilding foreign countries, we are finally rebuilding our country,” said Trump, who tweeted about how he is using tariffs to negotiate fair and reciprocal trade deals before the rally. The audience roared when Trump vowed to finally rebuild America and put American workers.
Trump also blasted “globalists” like Charles Koch who have criticized Trump for being “unfair” to foreign workers and care more about foreign nations than America’s well-being and economic security.
“For decades, our politicians allowed other countries to steal our jobs, plunder our wealth, and loot our economy,” Trump said. “America’s economic surrender ended the day I took office, folks.”
Trump boasted about the record-low unemployment rates for blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. And he even joked that it is only a matter of time before the unemployment rate for women, which is at a 65-year low, reaches a record low.
Trump made similar remarks at his two previous rallies in Florida and Pennsylvania earlier in the week when he also jabbed the “brilliant pundits” and the so-called geniuses who never understood that “people that were never happy with anybody until we came along” made up the heart of the economic nationalist movement that got him elected in 2016.
“The United States was allowed to get truly ripped off,” Trump said earlier in the week. “The days of plundering American jobs and American wealth… those days are over,” Trump said.
At his previous rallies, Trump told the crowd that the “Make America Great Again” slogan will soon be replaced with “Keep America Great” as the 2020 campaign nears.
But his message of wanting to rebuild America first may be the better message that can attract working-class voters of all backgrounds regardless of whether the economy is still booming in two years.