MONESSEN, Pa. — Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump bashed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for promoting a globalist trade policy he said hurts American workers before a small crowd in Western Pennsylvania.
Backed up by bales of aluminum, Trump lamented the “betrayal” of the American worker, particularly those hit hard throughout Western Pennsylvania. He spoke specifically of those who spent their lives in the steel mills, which are largely a thing of the past.
“The legacy of Pennsylvania steelworkers’ lives is the bridges, railways and skyscrapers that make up our great American landscape. But our workers’ loyalty was repaid with betrayal,” Trump said, according to prepared remarks.
“Our politicians have aggressively pursued a policy of globalization — moving our jobs, our wealth and our factories to Mexico and overseas,” he continued. “Globalization has made the financial elite who donate to politicians very wealthy. But it has left millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.
“Our politicians took away from the people their means of making a living and supporting their families. Skilled craftsmen and tradespeople and factory workers have seen the jobs they loved shipped thousands of miles away,” Trump said. “Many Pennsylvania towns once thriving and humming are now in a state of despair. This wave of globalization has wiped out our middle class.”
This was Trump’s first event stateside since his three-day trip to Scotland, where he celebrated the decision by voters to leave the European Union. Trump backed that up in the speech, calling out Clinton and President Obama for their support of the calls to remain in the union and standing “with the elites.”
“I want you to imagine how much better our future can be if we declare independence from the elites who’ve led us to one financial and foreign policy disaster after another,” Trump said. “Our friends in Britain recently voted to take back control of their economy, politics and borders.
“I was on the right side of that issue, as you know, with the people … while Hillary, as always, stood with the elites, and both she and President Obama predicted that one, and many others, totally wrong. Now it’s time for the American people to take back their future.
“That’s the choice we face,” he added. “We can either give in to Hillary Clinton’s campaign of fear, or we can choose to believe again In America.”
Hillary Clinton was front-and-center in the presumptive nominee’s mind as Trump leveled criticism after criticism against her for her support of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and various other trade deals, including her initial support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Specifcally, while rattling off a string of seven actions he would make as president to bring back jobs, Trump threatened to pull out of NAFTA and to withdraw from TPP, all while using Clinton as a foil.
“She has it completely backwards,” Trump said. “Hillary Clinton unleashed a trade war against the American worker when she supported one terrible deal after another – from NAFTA to China to South Korea,” Trump said before wandering off script. “It doesn’t matter. No matter where she went, the American worker was hurt and you will be hurt worse than ever before if she becomes president of the United States.”
The trip to Western Pennsylvania is Trump’s second in less than three weeks, having stopped by Pittsburgh International Airport earlier in June as he looks to make the state a cornerstone of a potential electoral victory against Clinton, with particular emphasis on the region itself. Sen. Rick Santorum, who endorsed Trump in late May, was in attendance and thought he hit all the right notes, especially considering the locale of his address.
“There are a lot of Democrats in the room today. And there will be a lot of Democrats who will hear this message all throughout the northeast. Not just Pennsylvania, but the northeast,” Santorum said. “They’ll say hey, this is a different kettle of fish.”
“His criticism and critique of Hillary Clinton was right on,” Santorum said. “She’s a globalist. She’s profited enormously [and] the people that support her are all in that boat. It’s all the same people who lined up against the Brexit, and it’s the same group here in America, and they’re all supporting Hillary Clinton and a lot of the workers, both Democrats and Republicans, are going to like what they hear today.”
Trump is set to hold a rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio Tuesday night, before traveling to Bangor, Maine for another campaign stop on Wednesday.
