CANTON: Donald Trump declared himself the candidate for all people, not just the Republicans and whites who are his core supporters, during Wednesday night’s rally at the Canton Memorial Civic Center.
“I will take my message to communities that are 99 percent Democrat or have voted Democrat for generations,” Trump said.
“This is a movement,” he said. “States are in play that no Republican has ever come close to winning.”
Instead of flying over those states, he plans to land his plane and campaign hard for every vote, as he did earlier in the day in Flint, Mich.
Speaking to thousands, Trump didn’t mention states like Georgia, which Republicans usually win but also are in play. And he led with recent polling data that shows him ahead after weeks of ignoring the same polls that showed him trailing Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.
Trump hurled his usual attacks at Clinton. But he focused much of the evening on his America First agenda on trade and immigration.
He furthered his argument that Democrats have failed America’s inner cities. He told the Canton audience what he found earlier in the day in Flint, a run-down city once home to more than 80,000 General Motors jobs.
Eight thousand jobs left, he said. Buildings boarded up. Poverty and crime rampant.
“You don’t see this in Third World countries. This is the United States,” he said.
The Republican presidential nominee appealed directly to disenfranchised workers who have watched companies like Ford, which Trump reminded had announced more production in Mexico that morning, move jobs out of the country.
“There will be consequences,” Trump said, for companies that make goods in Mexico then try to sell them back to the American people who used to make them.
“If you think you’re going to sell cars — tax-free right through our border, like we’re stupid people — it’s not going to happen. We’re going to charge you a 35 percent tax on every car,” Trump said.
“I will bring back vehicle production to the United States,” that includes Ohio and Michigan, Trump said. “Mexico is becoming the car capital of the world. We have to bring our jobs back.”
Enthusiastic crowd
The crowd erupted several times during Trump’s speech.
Upon uttering his opponent’s name, they repeatedly grumbled, “Lock her up.”
When Trump vowed, “It’s America first now folks. America first.” The crowds chanted “U-S-A!”
And when Trump promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act championed by President Barack Obama, they screamed.
Talk of upholding the Second Amendment and building a wall along the Mexico-American border also went over well.
Illegal immigration and trade, Trump said, have been at the center of his campaign since he announced his candidacy last year.
“We are going to renegotiate these horrendous trade deals,” Trump said, calling out Apple and other companies for moving jobs to China.
On immigration, Trump called resettling Syrian refugees in America “the great Trojan Horse.”
“We don’t know where these people come from. We don’t know if they have love in their hearts or hate, he said. “We’ll build safe zones.”
“We will lead it, but they will pay for it,” Trump said, speculating that Gulf states would house refugees. “We cannot let them into our country.”
Gesture to Democrats
Visiting Ohio on a day when another new poll pointed to Trump building significant momentum here, Trump made a direct play for Democrats to join his cause.
“If we don’t break out of our partisan boxes then nothing will ever change,” Trump said.
The new Bloomberg Politics poll of Ohio found Trump leading Clinton by 5 percentage points.
The Republican nominee leads Clinton 48 percent to 43 percent among likely voters in a two-way contest and 44 percent to 39 percent when third-party candidates are included.
The poll was taken Friday through Monday,
In the Canton crowd were several solid Democratic voters, until this year.
“I’m a strong union person,” said Brian “Bubba” Smith, a steelworker with the Local 3059 in Alliance. “But I’m done with the Democrats, man. Even a lot of my union brothers are voting for Trump.”
Smith — white, working-class, 58 years old and nostalgic for better days — is a demographic that Trump hopes to capture to take critical swing counties like Stark.
Smith sat with fellow blue-collar workers who, like him, will be ignoring the advice of their unions.
Jason Greschaw, admittedly out of place at a political rally, walked over to say hello. A fellow factory worker and union member, Greschaw splits slivers of copper, aluminum and brass into smaller slivers at A.J. Oster Foils of Alliance.
Greschaw received a letter in the mail in 2010 announcing that when he retires — in another eight years, he hopes — a third of his pension will not be there.
He’s looking for help, from anyone. “Even if Trump isn’t our best option,” Greschaw said, “I have nothing to lose.”
Bloomberg News contributed to this report. Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.