Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s eldest son, on Monday ripped into Democrat presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, saying that the Democrat candidate seems determined to harm American workers.
Trump Jr. said in his speech on the opening night of the Republican National Convention (RNC) that Biden’s “radical left-wing policies would stop our economic recovery cold.”
“He’s already talking about shutting the country down—again,” Trump Jr. said. “It’s madness.”
Trump Jr. noted that Biden’s actual policies are at odds with Democrats’ pro-worker rhetoric, and that Biden’s agenda would “crush” the American worker.
“Democrats claim to be for workers, but they’ve spent the entire pandemic trying to sneak a tax break for millionaires in Democrat states into the COVID relief bill,” Trump Jr. said. “Then they attacked my father for suspending the payroll tax for middle-class workers. In fact, if you think about it, Joe Biden’s entire economic platform seems designed to crush the working man and woman.”
Trump Jr. then laid out on how everything from trade policy to China to immigration Biden has demonstrated he is against the American working class.
“He supported the worst trade deals in the history of the planet. He voted for the NAFTA nightmare. Down the tubes went our auto industry. He pushed TPP. Goodbye manufacturing jobs,” Trump Jr. said. “Beijing Biden is so weak on China that the Intelligence Community recently assessed that the Chinese Communist Party favors Biden. They know he’ll weaken us both economically and on the world stage. Biden also wants to bring in more illegal immigrants to take jobs from American citizens. His open border policies would drive wages down for Americans at a time when low-income workers were getting real wage increases for the first time in modern history. He’s pledged to repeal the Trump Tax Cuts, which were the biggest in our history. After eight years of Obama and Biden’s slow growth, Trump’s policies have been like rocket fuel to the economy and especially the middle class. Biden has promised to take that money back out of your pocket and keep it in the Swamp.”
He called Biden the “Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp,” arguing that he pokes his head out every now and again but never actually addresses any of Americans’ problems.
“But that makes sense, considering Joe Biden is basically the Loch Ness Monster of the Swamp,” Trump Jr. said. “For the past half-century, he’s been lurking around in there. He sticks his head up every now and then to run for president, then he disappears and doesn’t do much in between.”
While Trump Jr. definitely laid into Biden hard, he also had many positive and uplifting moments throughout his speech—a clear contrast with the Democrats’ dark and gloomy convention last week. He opened his speech talking about the economic successes of his father’s administration before the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, and noted that Americans can thank the Chinese Communist Party for the pandemic that upended that.
“Just a few short months ago, we were seeing the American Dream become a reality for more of our citizens than ever before,” Trump Jr. said, before listing off several accomplishments his father’s administration has had. “The greatest prolonged economic expansion in American history. The lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years. The lowest ever unemployment rates ever for black Americans, Hispanic Americans, women, and pretty much every other demographic group.”
Then he noted “courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party,” the coronavirus pandemic “struck.”
“The president quickly took action and shut down travel from China,” Trump Jr. said. “Joe Biden and his Democrat allies called my father a racist and xenophobe for doing it. They put political correctness ahead of the safety and security of the American people. Fortunately, as the virus began to spread, the President acted quickly and ensured ventilators got to hospitals that needed them most. He delivered PPE to our brave frontline workers. And he rallied the mighty American private sector, to tackle this new challenge. There is more work to do, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Job gains are outpacing what the so-called experts expected.”
Later in the speech, Trump Jr. cast his father as the candidate of “hope”—a clear reference to how the Democrats in their convention last week abandoned former President Barack Obama’s 2008 message of “hope and change” for a darker and gloomier version of the country.
“If you’re looking for hope, look to the man who did what the failed Obama-Biden administration never could do and built the greatest economy our country had ever seen—and President Trump will do it again,” Trump Jr. said. We will be stronger than ever, because when we put our mind to it, there’s no obstacle that America can’t surmount.”
Trump Jr. continued in the speech by noting that there is a “difference” in this political environment than in previous election cycles as in years prior “both parties believed in the goodness of America” and “we agreed on where we wanted to go” but “we just disagreed about how to get there.”
This year, Trump Jr. said, the Democrats are “attacking the very principles on which our Nation was founded” including “freedom of thought,” “freedom of speech,” “freedom of religion,” and the “rule of law.”
“Thomas Jefferson famously said, ‘I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man,’” Trump Jr. said. “Our Founders believed there was nothing more important than protecting our God-given right to think for ourselves. Now the left’s trying to ‘cancel’ all of those Founders. They don’t seem to understand this important principle: In order to improve in the future, we must learn from our past—not erase it. So we are not going to tear down monuments and forget the people who built our great nation. Instead, we will learn from our past so we don’t repeat any mistakes. And we will work tirelessly to improve the lives of all Americans. Joe Biden and the radical left are also now coming for our freedom of speech and want to bully us into submission. If they get their way, it will no longer be the ‘silent majority,’ it will be the ‘silenced majority.’ This has to stop. Freedom of expression used to be a liberal value, at least before the radical left took over. Now the Republican Party is the home of free speech—the place where anyone from any background can speak their mind. And may the best ideas win.”
He noted that “people of faith are under attack,” that “anarchists have been flooding our streets” while “Democrat mayors are ordering the police to stand down,” that small businesses “are being torched by mobs,” all while the Democrats “pretend it’s not happening.”
“That brings me to another important principle: Every American must be free to live without fear of violence—in your country, in your communities, and in your homes,” Trump Jr. said. “All men and women are created equal and must be treated equally under the law. That’s why we must put an end to racism, and we must ensure that any police officer who abuses their power is held accountable. What happened to George Floyd is a disgrace. And if you know a police officer, you know they agree with that, too. But we cannot lose sight of the fact that our police are American heroes. They deserve our deepest appreciation. Because no matter what the Democrats say, you and I both know when we dial 911, we don’t want it going to voicemail. So ‘defunding’ the police is not an option. Everything starts with safety and security. You can’t have anything else without it. You can’t focus on building a better future for your children without the peace of mind that they can study safely in their classrooms, play safely in their neighborhoods, and sleep safely in their beds. But safety is only the beginning. Trump’s America is a land of opportunity—a place of promise.”
Trump Jr. concluded by citing his father’s support for school choice, opportunity zones, limiting immigration, backing police officers, trade policies that put American workers first, and more.
“If Democrats cared for the forgotten men and women of our country, they’d do exactly what President Trump is doing,” Trump Jr. said. “America is the greatest country on Earth. But my father’s entire worldview revolves around the idea that we can always do even better. Imagine the life you want to have—one with a great job, a beautiful home, and a perfect family. You can have it. Imagine the country you want to live in—one with true equality of opportunity, where hard work pays off and justice is served with compassion and without partiality. You can have it. Imagine a world where the evils of communism and radical Islamic terrorism are not given a chance to spread—where heroes are celebrated and the good guys win. You can have it. That is the life, that is the country, that is the world that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are after. And yes, you can have it. Because unlike Joe Biden and the radical left Democrats, our party is open to everyone. It all starts by rejecting the radicals who want to drag us into the dark and embracing the man who represents a bright and beautiful future for ALL. It starts by reelecting Donald J. Trump president of the United States.”
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