LIMA — When asked what he liked about Donald Trump Jr., 9-year-old Pablo Ertel provided a pretty good summary of the speech Trump Jr. delivered to an excited crowd Wednesday at the UNOH Event Center.
“Because Joe Biden has dementia and hides in his basement. Trump stands for the police, and the country will fall apart if we don’t elect him,” Ertel said.
Earlier in the day, Ertel had been invited to jump on stage with the president’s son after sitting in the audience wearing a plastic Halloween mask of President Donald Trump.
“By the way, that kid is awesome,” Trump Jr. said, stopping his speech to point out Ertel. “He’s slightly smaller than my dad. Not as many cheeseburgers, but that’s okay, I see it as a reward. The kid has more sense than Joe Biden. It’s amazing. Well, it’s good to see some young conservatives, but that’s what I get to see around here, guys.”
Trump Jr.’s appearance in Lima — his second in three years — comes just as the political season ramps up, and his brand of conservative political humor and alarmist rhetoric often got the crowd cheering as he moved through his talking points, slamming liberal policies and politicians while playing up his father’s accomplishments in office.
Large portion’s of Trump Jr.’s speech, however, focused primarily on dismantling Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Throughout the rally, Trump Jr. painted the candidate as a false figurehead of a secret Marxist movement working to ruin America by manipulating the mainstream media, questioned Biden’s connections with “Middle America” and highlighted two brain surgeries that candidate had 30 years ago.
Members of the crowd could be heard shouting in agreement throughout the hour-long speech.
“For 50 years, he’s pushed these policies. Under Joe Biden, our only export was your American dream. And they exported it a lot,” Trump Jr. said.
“He’s camouflage for the radical left and their ideals. Guess what? You’re not moderate Joe from Scranton.”
“Joe Biden has single-handedly killed more American blue-collar jobs than any politician alive.”
“This is not your parent’s Democratic Party anymore. This is a Marxist party using Joe Biden’s camouflage to become mainstream.”
“Go to Joe Biden’s website. Right? The Biden Sanders — yes, as in Bernie Sanders — joint unity platform, where you, the American taxpayers, have the privilege of getting a $4 trillion tax raise, to destroy your businesses, destroy your income, to fund free health care, free education and free lawyers for illegal immigrants.”
According to the Tax Policy Center, Biden’s plan would roll back corporate tax cuts initiated by Trump’s Tax Cut and Jobs Acts of 2017, which helped pushed the nation’s GDP to 3.1% in 2018. Under Biden’s proposed plan, the federal government would pull in $4 trillion by increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, raise the top tax rate for the highest individual earners to 39.6%, create a 12.4% Social Security payroll tax for those earning more than $400,000 and tax capital gains as much as income tax.
A Tax Policy Center analysis estimate that 90% of new taxes would be paid by the top 20% of earners, although an increase in corporate taxes could also mean some increases on the prices of goods. As for where those new dollars would go, Biden is proposing increased investment into programs largely benefiting the middle class.
Outside of Biden, Trump Jr. also dinged a number of big names on the national political stage, taking shots at Andrew Cuomo, Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hunter Biden and both Bill and Hillary Clinton, who he called “the biggest Karen in the world.”
Another favorite target was the mainstream media.
“At this point, now you see the fake news come out, you don’t even listen to it anymore, which is good. They’ve shot themselves in the foot. But it’s sad that that is what we’re up against,” Trump Jr. said.
“Honestly, we’re in a battle for the heart and for the soul of our country,” he said. “When you see what’s going on for the last few months, when you see it takes four months for the Democrats to denounce violence, looting and rioting, but they’re more than happy to shut you out of your businesses, your kids out of their schools and you out of your churches.”
As for the 9-year-old Ertel, he was grinning ear to ear after the high-energy encounter.
When asked if he was a Trump Jr. fan, he answered simply.
“Now I am.”
Donald Trump Jr. is just one of the Trump family making their rounds in the last two months before the election to rally Trump’s base. After Trump Jr. spoke in Lima, he headed to Duluth, Minnesota. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence is holding a rally in Pennsylvania and Eric Trump is in Florida then North Carolina. On Thursday, Eric Trump will be in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump Jr. will be in North Carolina, Lara Trump will be in Minneapolis and Donald Trump will be in Michigan.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
