Donald Trump concluded his 16-month campaign for president with a message of hope to the thousands in the Rust Belt who turned out at 1 a.m. on Tuesday to see the Republican nominee deliver his final speech before the election.
“I thought New Hampshire was gonna be my last speech and I heard crooked Hillary was coming to Michigan and I said ‘let’s follow it up.’ I said there’s no place I’d rather be for my last rally than right here than Michigan, late at night,” Trump told attendees.
Trump abandoned much of his negative messaging about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in a final attempt to woo voters from the blue state to jump aboard his train when they vote later in the day. Michigan has bled blue in presidential elections since 1992.
The billionaire businessman focused on reminding attendees of the jobs the state has lost to outsourcing and promised to make the state into an economic powerhouse if elected president.
“It used to be the cars were made in Flint and you couldn’t drink the water in Mexico. Now the cars are made in Mexico and you can’t drink the damn water in Flint. What the hell!” Trump yelled at the crowd.
“After we win, I’m going to be coming back to Michigan a lot. I’m going to be coming back every time we open a new factory or a new automobile plant, and we’re going to be doing a lot of expansion. I know exactly what to do folks,” Trump said. “We are going to bring back the automobile industry to Michigan, bigger and better and stronger than before.”
Trump touted his defeating the 16 other Republican candidates in the primaries to win the nomination.
“Now we have one flawed candidate left to beat. It’s going to be the very beginning of a new adventure … it’s making America great again, we’re going to do it,” Trump vowed. “Michigan now stands at the crossroads of history. If we win Michigan, we will win this historic election and then we will be able to do all the things that we have wanted to do.”
