Can Donald Trump win Ohio with slightly tweaked message?
ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Donald Trump dipped into Ohio Tuesday, bringing to the quintessential swing state the same message and tone he used when he campaigned unsuccessfully for the state’s GOP primary nod – but with a few subtle tweaks.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, referred to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal as “a rape of our country.” He praised the benefits of waterboarding against suspected terrorists of the Islamic State, arguing the U.S. must “fight fire with fire.” He extolled the beauty and size of his planned wall on the Mexican border, prompting the crowd’s standard “Build a wall! Build a wall!” chant.
But parts of Trump’s message have changed a little in recent days, amid pleas from Republican leaders to tone it down and a scramble from his campaign to build a national operation.
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He’s giving more policy speeches, such as an address earlier Tuesday against globalization and trade deals. So wonky trade details, such as a reference to the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, popped up later that day amid his standard rally material, much to the disinterest of the crowd of around 2,000. He worked in a request for donations: “DonaldJTrump.com,” he added.
He has backed off his plan to ban immigration by all Muslims, instead making several vague comments about screening or banning immigrants from countries where terrorists live. On Tuesday, he insisted, without giving documentation, that it was easier for Syrian Muslims to come to the U.S. as compared with Syrian Christians. One person started to boo. But then, as if seeking to ward off critiques accusing him of an anti-Muslim or xenophobic bent, he said: “I’m not saying one or the other (religion). I’m saying, how unfair is that? How bad is that?”
He took a similar approach when he referred to the TPP as “rape.” “That’s what it is, too. It’s a harsh word,” he said, preemptively responding to criticism of his comparison of a violent crime to a trade deal.
To win Ohio – and no Republican has made it to the White House without the Buckeye State – Trump must win over GOP voters who were wary of his controversial comments or positions. He lost the state’s primary in March to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, as many voters said they wanted to do their part to stop the billionaire’s march to the nomination. Many Ohio Republicans now say they dislike Trump’s presumptive opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, but haven’t decided whether they can stomach a vote for Trump in November.
Both Larry Waltz and Ashley Cochran referred to their choice in November as “the lesser of two evils.” Waltz, 74, who usually votes Republican, told a reporter driving through his hometown of Zanesville he hadn’t decided who would win his vote. Cochran, 28, has chosen Trump and drove from nearby Bridgeport to attend his rally at Ohio University Eastern’s campus.
“I like people who think with their brain,” Cochran said, and Trump may be able to “actually fix things” in the economy.
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Trump chose for his first visit since the primary an area of Ohio where he prevailed over Kasich: Belmont County, just across the Ohio River from West Virginia. The real estate mogul is hoping to gain an advantage over Clinton by keeping Appalachian voters in November. Belmont County, for instance, voted Republican in the 2012 presidential race, but voted solidly Democratic for decades before then, including for former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton, on the other hand, has focused her first visits on each of the swing state’s major cities, hoping to win over millions of moderate and Democratic voters to outweigh Trump’s possible advantage in rural and Appalachian Ohio.
Still, Clinton’s supporters aren’t conceding Appalachia.
“Secretary Clinton understands we need investment in southeast Ohio. There’s no magic wand to fix this,” U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told reporters earlier Tuesday on a conference call. “Donald Trump will say he’s going to bring back all these manufacturing jobs. He has no plan to do it.”
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In his Tuesday speech on trade, Trump vowed to reject the proposed TPP trade deal with Pacific Rim nations and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, withdrawing from it if necessary.
Later, he addressed a St. Clairsville crowd filled with people who had driven across the river from Wheeling, West Virginia, a historic manufacturing town.
As president, Trump said he would call companies considering moving American factory work to Mexico. If his proposals were to prevail, he would remind CEOs their Mexican-made goods would face a tariff upon being imported into the United States.
“It doesn’t work that way anymore. We’re not the stupid people anymore,” Trump said, imagining what he would say as president. Then, he said, to cheers from the working-class crowd:
“I’m not angry at Japan. I’m not angry at China. I’m angry at our leaders, who are so stupid.”
Washington reporter Deirdre Shesgreen and USA TODAY’s David Jackson contributed.