When President Trump came to Lebanon, Ohio, Friday night for a Make America Great Again rally, he visited a city “rising like never before,” his son, Donald Trump Jr., said in an op-ed for The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Trump Jr. said in his op-ed published before his father’s arrival in Lebanon that all anyone needs to look at if they want evidence of his father’s commitment to fulfilling campaign promises is the recent NAFTA deal with Canada and Mexico.
“Establishment politicians love making promises. President Trump is no establishment politician – that’s why he loves actually keeping his promises,” the president’s son writes.
“He promised to renegotiate NAFTA during the 2016 campaign, all the pundits and political elites laughed at him, and in just 20 months, he got the job done.”
NAFTA cost Ohio about 50,000 jobs – the sixth biggest NAFTA-related job loss in the country. Nationwide the treaty led to the elimination of nearly 800,000 jobs since 1993.
Former President Barack Obama also promised multiple times in campaign speeches to renegotiating NAFTA, which was skewed in favor of Mexico and Canada. He broke every one of those promises.
Trump Jr. reminded Ohioans that last year, the president shredded Obama-era regulations on small business and delivered historic tax cuts for middle-class families.
“By actually following through on his commitments – a radical change for a president – Donald Trump has lifted communities up across the great State of Ohio. That’s why when the president goes to Lebanon for a make America Great Again rally on Friday, he’ll be visiting a city that is rising like never before.”
He noted that in January, manufacturer Kadant Black Clawson announced plans to move its headquarters to a new location in the city and hire 62 full-time workers. And the metal-processing company Precision Strip announced a $16.2 million expansion in Warren County last month – a move that will double the size of its factory workforce by adding 16 new jobs.
In another $15 million development plan, two new restaurants and a brew pub are slated to open in downtown Lebanon, providing even more jobs and wealth for the local community.
“These economic gains did not happen by accident – President Trump’s policies have had a direct impact, creating a solid foundation for future growth and development,” Trump Jr. writes. “The state’s recovery has also been boosted by the president’s middle-class tax cuts, which have allowed employers to hire more workers and expand their operations.”
As of August, Ohio’s year-over-year job growth was slightly above 2.1 percent, outpacing the national job growth rate by nearly 0.5 percent.
“By replacing NAFTA with a fair and reciprocal trade deal, my father has eliminated a major job-killing agreement that gave an unfair advantage to foreign competitors over Ohio’s workers.”
But, Trump Jr. says he has “little hope” that the Democrats will abandon their strategy of trying to obstruct and resist everything the president tries to do.
If the Democrats win a majority in the House or Senate, he believes they will block all of the policies in place that are beginning to bring prosperity to Ohio.
“Instead of helping President Trump rebuild our economy with job-stimulating policies, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said that Republicans ‘should be ashamed’ of cutting taxes for the middle class,” Trump writes.
“If Brown and his fellow Democrats had gotten their way, the president’s wage-increasing and bonus-generating tax package would never have made it out of Congress. And Ohio’s economy would likely have continued to languish due to high taxes and heavy regulations imposed by establishment politicians in Washington like Sherrod Brown.”
As for Brown, who has been in Washington 25 years, Trump Jr. said:
“Brown has had his chance to help Ohio – now it’s time for a new direction.”
He said Brown’s opponent, Congressman Jim Renacci, a businessman, understands firsthand how to grow the economy so that even more Ohioans can get back to work and earn even higher wages.”
Unlike his Democratic opponent, he said Renacci will continue to support the president’s pro-growth economic agenda and promote Ohio’s continued prosperity.
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Anthony Accardi is a writer and reporter for The Ohio Star.
