Former President Donald Trump speaks at a manufacturing facility in Mint Hill, NC (Photo: Screengrab from Trump YouTube page)
Former President Donald Trump aimed to appeal to working class voters during a visit to a Charlotte-area manufacturing plant on Wednesday.
He spoke for over an hour at the Mosack Group facility in Mint Hill. It’s his second trip to the Tar Heel State this week, after a rally in Wilmington on Saturday.
Vice President Kamala Harris will provide the latest detailed explanation of her proposed economic plan at a speech Wednesday afternoon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Among other things, the plan would cut taxes on the middle class, create 25 million new small businesses during her first term in office, and protect and grow manufacturing employment.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff touched on similar themes Wednesday during a visit to Wilmington where he touted the Vice President’s plans to build an “opportunity economy.”
In his speech, Trump referred to North Carolina as the “furniture capital of the world” and claimed he’s had personal experience with the “incredible craftsmanship” in the state.
During his term in office, Trump approved the replacement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
He reflected on this action as well as his work in implementing tariffs on foreign imports. Trump said he was determined to keep manufacturing jobs in states like North Carolina rather than relying on products made in other countries.
“No one in Washington ever cared until me,” he said. “When I got there, you were in bad shape, but I saved the rest of the industry from total obliteration.”
Trump opened his speech by thanking Democrats for increasing funding to the Secret Service. Lawmakers in Washington voted earlier this week to boost the agency’s funding, following two assassination attempts on the Republican presidential nominee.
The former president won North Carolina in both of the past two presidential elections. It’s the only one of seven battleground states to vote for Trump in 2020.
He’s focusing on the state again this cycle and encouraging his supporters to turn out in large numbers.
“We want a landslide that’s too big to rig,” Trump said in evident reference to his past false claims about the 2020 election. The remark elicited cheers from the audience. “Too big to rig.”
Wednesday’s event marks Trump’s eighth visit to North Carolina this year. The state has seen a steady parade of visits by candidates and surrogates for both tickets.
His running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, spoke in Charlotte on Monday and Raleigh last week.
“We win North Carolina, we’re going all the way,” Trump said. “We’re leading in North Carolina by nice numbers.”
The latest polls have found North Carolina’s presidential race to be a virtual dead heat.
A survey released Tuesday by Elon University found Harris leading by one percent in North Carolina, well within the poll’s margin of error.
Just as with Saturday’s Wilmington rally, Trump made no mention of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. The Republican gubernatorial nominee is facing scrutiny after a CNN report detailed lewd and offensive comments that it said he made on a porn website in the years prior to the start of his political career.
The same polls that have found the presidential race to be neck-and-neck report that Robinson trails Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein by double digits in the gubernatorial race. It’s unclear whether or how “reverse coattails” — a phenomenon in which down-ballot races affect the top of the ticket — could play out in the presidential contest for North Carolina.
Prior to Wednesday’s event, the Harris-Walz campaign organized a virtual press conference calling out Trump’s economic policies and their impacts on North Carolina.
“Donald Trump only cares about the middle class when it’s election time,” former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said.