Remarks at a “Make America Great Again” Rally in Lewis Center, Ohio

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Wow. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ohio. I love Ohio. What a victory, what a victory. [applause]

Remember these guys saying on television over and over again, "You cannot win unless you get with the great state of Ohio." We got this great state. . . [applause]

Remember they used to say that, "Trump can't get it because it all goes through Ohio." They didn't know that we're going to win by a lot. We won by a lot. . . [applause]

We won by a lot. But I'm thrilled to be back. This is an incredible place, and--and we've done well. We've really produced. You know, last time I told you what we're going to do. Now you have the steel mills roaring again. You have people coming back into our country. You have all of these things happening . . . [applause]

It's much easier now. We have the greatest economy we've ever had. [applause]

We have the best numbers. We're setting records in every respect, so it's much easier for me to do this than it was when I was campaigning when I said this will happen. This is a much easier situation. [applause]

It's an incredible time for our country. America is respected again and America is winning again. . . [applause]

Because we are finally putting America first. [applause]

About time. Our economy is booming. Jobs are pouring back into our country. We're bringing them back. Those companies that left they want to come back. This is where the action is. [applause]

We're protecting American workers, supporting American law enforcement . . . [applause]

Including ICE. ICE, we love ICE. [applause]

CROWD: Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall. . .

We're building that wall. We're building a wall, don't worry. We've already started. We've already started. We're building that wall. We've already started. We're doing a lot of things that people don't even know about. [applause]

We're defending our Constitution. We're taking care of our great vets. [applause]

Our military will soon be stronger than it ever has been before. [applause]

And the forgotten men and women of the United States are forgotten no more. [applause]

We are the great people. We are the great people. You work hard, you pay your taxes, you do all these things and you were forgotten. They forgot about you. And you're the smartest people, you're the smartest people.

You know what they talk about? They talk about the elite, the elite. Do you ever see the elite? [booing]

They're not elite. You're the elite. You are the elite. [applause]

You're smarter than they are. You make bigger incomes. You've got everything going, you know. So let them keep calling us that. You ever hear it?

Hey, you go to the best schools. You do a tremendous job. Your own companies. You work for tremendous salaries. You do all the things that you do. You're talented with your hands, with your mind. And then you hear, "The elite has just said." The elite? [laughter]

They're more elite than me. I have better everything than they have, including this. [applause]

And I became president and they didn't, meaning you became president. [applause]

And it's driving them crazy. [applause]

We're honored to be joined this evening by many of your state's great leaders, including your next governor Mike DeWine who's terrific . . . [applause]

And your next United States Senator Jim Renacci. [applause]

Great people, they're great people. And for the Senate we have to get Jim. We just have to get him in because . . . [applause]

Senator Brown is not going to vote for our judge. We have a great judge. We love Justice Gorsuch. Now we have soon-to-be Justice Kavanaugh. We need both. [applause]

We need Jim Renacci. [applause]

CROWD: We want Jim! We want Jim! We want Jim. . .

THE PRESIDENT: So vote for Jim. We got to get Jim in there. He's a very important guy.

Also here with us tonight is Ohio Speaker of the House Ryan Smith. Ryan, thank you. [applause]

Thank you, Ryan.

Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof. Larry, thank you.

RNC Co-chair Bob Paduchik, Bob, I love Bob, I love Bob. You know, Bob Paduchick ran my campaign in Ohio. You know that, right? [applause]

And he was recommended along with five or six people and they were all recommended. And I sort of said, "I don't know." But one person said something about him that I liked. They said he never quits, he never gives up.

And Bob Paduchik, I didn't have the governor's support. I didn't have senator support. I didn't have your head of the Republican Party support other than that he's doing very well. [booing]

But Bob said, "It doesn't matter because you have the people's support," he said though. [applause]

And you remember that great night in November . . . [applause]

When they said, after hearing so much about Ohio, and it is true you have to win Ohio. And they said, "It's going to be close. He's going to be able to win maybe by two if he's lucky." That would mean it would take all night they wouldn't be able to say a thing, and they announced, "The polls are closed. Donald Trump has won the state of Ohio." [applause]

Come up here, Bob, come up.

I never--he never stops, and now he's working with Troy and he's doing good. You just said, "He's going to be winning, Bob." When he says he's going to win--I think we won by 11 points or something, Bob, right, 11? Oh, 8-1/2, well, that's . . . [laughter]

We'll take that, we'll take that. Did you have to be so accurate, Bob? [laughter]

Eight and a half points, we love Ohio. We love it. And I'll tell you what, we're going to have a tremendous victory for Troy, Troy Balderson. [applause]

And he's the one I wanted to win. They had this false report that I was supporting somebody else, and they were right. It was fake news, you're right, so.

And I was supporting somebody else, Steve Stivers, but he's in a totally different district. [laughter]

Did they apologize? Did you apologize for them to say, no, I heard today - I heard today. . . [booing and chanting]

So, no, I did. I heard that--you know, that Troy was like my second choice. I said, He's my first choice. He's always been the one I wanted to win, and it's always dangerous when you do this. You know, you get involved in the primary. He thinks--although I have done very well. They don't say--they don't say our record in the primaries. They give us a lot of false records.

Katie Arrington, South Carolina, she was behind by a lot and she's fantastic, by the way, she's fantastic. And we endorsed her, and she beat a man that likes flamenco dancers from Argentina. You know about that. [applause]

He was supposed to be vacationing on the Tallahassee Trail, but he was actually in Argentina. [laughter]

I don't know. Jim, do they have a Tallahassee Trail in Argentina? I don't think, right? No? No, right?

Jim Jordan, how great is he? [applause]

How great is he? How great is he?

Hey, come here, Jim. Come here, come here.

JIM JORDAN: Thank you. The--the--the President is a little taller than me.

CROWD: Speaker of the House! Speaker of the House! [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: And--thank you. [applause]

Think about this, in 18 months, regulations reduced, taxes lowered, Gorsuch on the court, economy growing at a record rate, unemployment at its lowest in 20 years, Kavanaugh is on deck on the court, we're out of that crazy Iran deal. The--the embassy is going to Jerusalem and the hostages have been returned from North Korea. That's what's happened under the President's leadership. Thank you very much. [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: What a great defender he's been, what courage. I'll tell you what. There's a brave tough cookie along with some of his friends. They are--they are--you know, I just look--I didn't know he was going to be here. I looked over and said, "I don't want to wrestle him. He's tough." [laughter]

I think he's like 128 in one or something crazy like that. Did you ever win in this room, Jim? Did you ever wrestle in this room? You would've won. [laughter]

Statistically, you would've won. [laughter]

Anyway, thanks, Jim, for being--I didn't know you're going to be here. That's great. Thank you, man. [applause]

So, a woman--a woman, a fantastic woman who came to me because, you know, I didn't have the head of the Republican Party on my side. I won't mention Matt's name. [laughter]

I was so nice to him, you're not go along and I talked, and I introduced him, his family, his wife, everybody was nice. And then one day, I heard he wasn't going to be with us. And I went, you know, to Paduchik. I said, "What do you think?" He said, "Your poll numbers are now going to go up."

But what happened is we decided, after I won the presidency, we decided, "Let's challenge this guy. Why should we allow that to happen?" And Jane Timken came along, and she was unyielding. She challenged him. And as you know, a lot of people were trying to push him over the line. That didn't work out too well because Jane Timken won that race, and she has been an incredible GOP State Chairman.

Thank you, Jane. Come up. [applause]

Thank you, Jane. She's been incredible actually.

Finally, it is my true honor to introduce the person that we're here for tonight.

He's really tough, he's really smart. He never stops working. That's what Paduchik told me. I said, "How is he doing?" He said, "This man, he loves the people of Ohio. He loves the people in this district. He never ever stops."

It's Ohio's 12th district, and he's going to hopefully be here for a long time. He's never going to let you down. I'll tell you, I see it, I see it. And that's why we're so angry when they said that I was supporting Steve Stivers. And I was--but again it's the wrong district, I support both of them. [laughter]

So I expected a big apology. I thought it was going to be--I won't mention the one because actually sometimes they treat me OK, but about four percent of the time. [laughter]

But I said to a group, "Well, they'll be apologizing today." I said, "Did they apologize?" I didn't see the apology, but that's OK because let me tell you, right from the beginning, Troy Balderson, he is the guy, he is the guy that's going to do things. And you're going to be very surprised.

You know, they're talking about this blue wave. [booing]

I don't think so, I don't think so. Maxine Waters is leading the charge. [booing]

Maxine, she's a real beauty, Maxine. A seriously low I.Q. person, seriously.

Maxine Waters, she's leading the charge. You know, all throughout like hundreds of--like 100 years, I guess, 125 years, whoever has the White House, that party tends to lose the midterms. I don't know why. Maybe it's complacency, maybe you all fight so hard for the presidency and, you know, you win and you're a little complacent, but I mean that was two years ago. So I just said why.

But we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We have things that have never happened before. [applause]

And look, if the Democrats get in, they're going to raise your taxes, you're going to have crime all over the place, you're going to have people pouring across the border. So why would that be a blue wave? I think it could be a red wave.

I tell you what--really, I think it should be a red wave. [applause]

But you got to get out and do it, you got to get out and vote. You got to get out because they want to take away what we've given. They want to take away--did you ever see this? I mean, you see Pelosi who, by the way, again controls Danny O'Connor, whoever the hell that is, but, you know . . . [booing]

Danny O'Connor.

And Danny O'Connor, on his resume, put stuff that wasn't true, OK? So he did that. You know, he would have thought he was Perry Mason or something. He was like a low-level person that did nothing. Danny O'Connor, that's a beauty. He's another beauty.

This is what we're fighting. They will take away your taxes. They will destroy so many things that we've given. And you know, by the way, we had Obamacare repealed and replaced except for one man who showed up at two o'clock and he voted no, he went no.

But what we've done on health care is incredible. We've kept your numbers way down, way below what they thought. We've taken away the individual mandate, which is the single worst part of Obamacare. [applause]

We've taken it away. And you know, I mean, look, hey this has been--this has been some successful period for our country. Our country has never ever been like this. Levels of enthusiasm, the likes of which nobody's ever seen, they've never seen it in the polls not for me, in the polls. [applause]

So, so we have a man that's going to fight for you. He's going to fight for Ohio and he's going to be here for a long time. He will never ever disappoint you. I found that out from the people--you know, he's just not going to disappoint you. He's really smart and he's a really hard worker.

Troy Balderson, come on up. [applause]

TROY BALDERSON: Thank you, thank you everyone. It's a great honor to be here. But before we get started, how about we wish the United States Coast Guard a happy 228th birthday. [applause]

And to all the men and women who serve and have served, let's give them a roaring sound of applause. [applause]

Thank you. For a guy from Muskingum County, an area I call the Shaker Heights of Appalachia, it is truly a humble experience to be on stage with President Trump. [applause]

Mr. President, welcome back to Ohio, and we're thankful to have you here. And thank you to everyone here today. I am humbled by your support. It's been overwhelming.

In 2016, Ohio was the battleground for the presidential election. Your countless volunteer hours, your enthusiasm and most importantly, your vote helped put Donald J. Trump in the White House. [applause]

On August 7th, we need to do that again. I'm counting on all of you again. I need your volunteer hours, your enthusiasm and most importantly, I need your vote August 7th so I can go to Congress . . . [applause] . . . And represent you and fight alongside this good man, this great man, President Trump, to make America great again. [applause]

In just a short period of time since his election, President Trump has lowered taxes, brought unemployment to an all-time low, and the stock market is roaring. [applause]

I'm going to fight alongside him to continue this economic success, I promise. [applause]

To the seniors out there, including my mom and dad, and they're here today . . . [applause]. . . And the seniors across America, President Trump will protect your Social Security and Medicare, and I'll fight alongside him to make sure the benefits you were promised are there for you. [applause]

Mr. President, we don't want to go back. I'm not tired of winning. My opponent has a different idea though, dishonest Danny O'Connor wants to repeal those middle-class tax cuts. [booing]

Dishonest Danny O'Connor wants to take away your guns. [booing]

Dishonest Danny supports open borders and sanctuary cities. [booing]

Dishonest Danny O'Connor will fight against the policies that are turning our country around. [booing]

And worst of all, dishonest Danny O'Connor will vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker. [booing]

If you want someone who will fight for President Trump economic agenda that is putting America back to work, then I need your help, and I need your vote on Tuesday. I will win this election on August 7th and go to Congress to fight for Ohio and for the great people of the 12th District.

Thank you all very much. [applause]

Thank you. God bless America. Thank you, Donald Trump. [applause]

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. He means it, he means it, he means it. Thank you, Troy. Thank you, Troy.

A vote for Troy's opponent is a vote for open borders, which equals massive crime, like they don't care about it. They don't care about the crime. They don't care about your military and they don't care about your vets. [booing]

The new platform of the Democrat Party is to abolish ICE and let's not worry about crime. Oh, really? It doesn't work that way. [booing]

You know, when MS-13 sees the ICE people, when they come in MS-13 says, "We got problems, we got problem." ICE is fantastic for this country. They're brave. They got a tough job. [applause]

And we're getting these gangs like MS-13 and others, we get them the hell out of the country one by one getting them out.

A vote for Danny Boy and the Democrats is a vote to let criminals and drugs pour into our country and to let MS-13 run wild in our communities. And you know what they do once they're there? We're going to protect our law enforcement, not just ICE, all of our law enforcement. [applause]

Republicans want a maximum, and we do. We want maximum border security and respect for ICE, respect for Border Patrol, respect for all of our great law--right, right, law enforcement offices. [applause]

All of them, law enforcement offices. We've seen the horrors that happened when our laws are not enforced. For example, in the sanctuary state of California, Air Force veteran Marilyn Farris was viciously raped, murdered, and beaten to death with a hammer by an illegal alien with a long criminal history who should have never been in our country, including an arrest just a week before he killed Marilyn. This was somebody that should have never been allowed to be in our country. And we're talking about thousands of people. We're talking about thousands and thousands of people.

You can ask Jim Jordan. That's all we work on. That's what we focus on, and we're finally getting there. We're finally--we'll get there, we'll get there. [applause]

We want our country to be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not criminal aliens. [applause]

CROWD: Build a wall! Build a wall!

THE PRESIDENT: Every day, the heroes of ICE are tracking down the violent criminals, drug dealers, child predators, which is a tremendous problem, and the vicious gang members all over the place and we're throwing them in jail or throwing them the hell out of our country, one or the other. [applause]

And we just announced yesterday a record of enforcement at the border. [applause]

Not easy, it's not easy because our laws are so bad, they're so pathetic, catch and release. Visa lottery, lottery, let's pick somebody out. Oh, darling, I wonder who that might be. Oh, here he is. [laughter]

Oh, oh, he's convicted of five murders. Oh, I see. Well, let him run through our country. We are--what we're doing is crazy.

And how about chain migration? How about that? [booing]

Somebody comes in, he brings his mother, and his father, and his aunt and uncle, 15 times removed. He brings them all. I said the other day, the young man, we call him that or the young animal, I guess is better--who--who mowed down eight people, killed many people horribly. Did you ever notice they never talk about the people that lose arms and legs? They never talked about that. They talk about eight people died, but they don't say eight people died and many people lost their arms and their legs and they'll never be the same. They worked so hard. They're so incredible.

But this guy had 22 people come in with him--22 people. And he's in our justice system now. He's been there for about a year. It'll take forever. We better get smart, we better get tough and smart. Take forever court after court after court, and then they end up making deals.

If you want to have a border, if you want to stop the radical Pelosi and Waters--Maxine Waters agenda, there's only one choice in this election, that's vote for Troy Balderson. He's going to help Mark Meadows. He's going to help Vince, he's going to help Jim. [applause]

He's going to help everybody. They're going to get the job done.

I mean, the fact is we need more Republicans. People say we have a majority. We don't really have the majority of the Senate. Fifty-one, we have one person not voting, you know, not around to vote. I don't know he's not--he's not voting, so we have 50.

You know to get--I'll give you an example how tough it is. To get our great future Justice Kavanaugh, I think he's going to get there, too. I feel strongly about it. But to get him approved think of this, because we have one vote that won't be able to vote, unfortunately, to get Justice Kavanaugh approved, we need 100 percent of the Republican votes. Think of that. How bad is that?

How do you get a 100 percent of anything? You know, you always have somebody. I don't like Trump, I don't like our president. He destroyed my career. I only destroyed a career because they said bad things about me and you fight back and they go down the tubes and that's OK. [applause]

A couple of them, a couple of them. It's all right. I never mentioned names, I don't mention names. I've become much more diplomatic.

See, in the old days, a year ago, two years ago, I would have mentioned names. I don't do that anymore. I don't do it anymore. But think of it, we need a 100 percent, and then the Vice President--Mike Pence is a great guy--has to vote . . . [applause]. . . And has to go and raise his hand, and we--we win.

But, you know, you're not going to have that vote most likely from your senator, but it's one of those things we're going to get them in. Top at Yale, top at Yale Law School. Same thing with Justice Gorsuch, top at Harvard, number one in his class, Harvard Law School. Went to Oxford, top student. I mean, this is what we want. We want great people. We want really top-of-the-line smart people. I want people with the highest test scores. I like high test scores. Does that make sense? [applause]

I want them. I want people, so do you. So we have somebody great in Brett Kavanaugh, and I think it's working out very well. But we need 100 percent of the vote.

Now we have a couple of places where I won by 30 and 40 points, and it could very well be that they come and vote for our senators, Democrats, could very well be. We'll see what happens. But on the assumption that they don't, because they do talk, a few of them say nicer things than--about me than any Republican. A couple of them compare me to some of the greats.

I talk about Abe Lincoln, Honest Abe. No. [applause]

No, they say great things. And I tell the people, I tell the people, I say it's wonderful that they say nice things, but they're never going to give us the vote, they'll never. We need the vote. Say bad things about me, but give the vote. [laughter]

And I'm not just talking vote on justices, I'm talking votes on lots of other things, including highways, and infrastructure, and the wall and border security. [applause]

I need their vote, and we're never going to get their vote. The only way we'll get their vote, we need more Republicans, OK? We got to get more Republicans or it's going to see--you will see this country go down so fast. You know, what we've done is they even say it really has been, as you say, amazing. It's been a miracle to a lot of people, it's been a miracle because I campaigned.

And I purposely didn't mention the kind of numbers that we're achieving because I didn't want to be accused of exaggeration, right, by the fake news media. [applause]

If I would have said 4.1 percent GDP, they would have--it would have been major headlines like--and by the way, it's going a lot higher. You can mark my words what's going on. [applause]

You know, if I get the trade deficits down they never tell you this, if I get the trade deficits down, bring them down. If I bring the trade deficits down, we could pick up three and four points in GDP. Nobody says that, nobody says that. [applause]

They think we can't go any higher. We can go much higher. We have to have good trade deals. We're doing this despite horrible trade deals, the worst deals ever made in the history of our country, ever made in the history of the world. Nobody ever made deals where we give away our country to other countries. It's sheer stupidity. And now these countries, because of tariffs, and I say that's OK.

You know, President Obama, it wasn't his thing. It wasn't his thing. [booing]

Frankly, it wasn't anybody's thing for the last 30 years, it wasn't anybody's thing. It's my thing. I love it, I love it. [applause]

But we had one set of countries. European Union, look, they're excellent. They want to make a deal. They're dying to make a deal. They want to make a deal. But for years, you know, they tell President Obama, "No, no, we have no interest in meeting. We have no interest in meeting." And I guess they said, oh, that's OK, but they said that to me, too.

"Sir, we really don't want to meet. We're happy with the deal." They should be happy. They made $151 billion dollars last year, they should be very happy. I said, "I agree, you shouldn't meet. I agree you shouldn't change the deal, but you're going to have to." They said, "Well, we really don't want to meet." I said, "OK, that's OK, don't meet. But as your cars come into the United States--Mercedes, BMW, many others--we're going to tax them 20 percent and we're going to do a lot better." [applause]

And then they said, like about 12 minutes after it was announced, "You have a call." I'm not going to embarrass people's names because I like Jean-Claude, OK? [laughter]

So I won't mention his name. But he did call and he said, "We'd like to meet." [laughter]

And we have the makings of a deal, but without that there was no chance. And then I have senators coming, and others and congressmen. I don't think I'll ever hear from Troy on this. I don't think I'll ever hear. But they go--please don't tax the stuff coming into our country.

What they're doing to our country is incredible. We had an $817 billion dollar trade deficit among all countries over the last number of years. Think of it, per year, per year, $817 billion. That's a year.

Do you think they're good trade deals? Oh, wonderful deal, whoever negotiated those deals. And it's going down.

You know, a number that they don't want to talk about, but the number 4.1 was great, but we're going to go a lot higher than that, 4.1 was great. Once the trade deals--you know if I didn't do anything with the trade deals, if I said nothing, you know, let everybody continue to take our jobs, take our wealth, let them continue, you know, I'll bet our stock market is up almost 40 percent since I won. But if I didn't do anything with trade just kept quiet, let them continue to take advantage of us, nobody says anything. I think you would have been up another 40, 50, 60 percent.

But eventually you would have had to pay the piper eventually, and we're not going to do that, we're going to do something, we're going to make our country so much richer than it's ever been. [applause]

And I don't like it when congressmen and senators come up to me--because I'm a free trader and I'm a fair trader, fair being more important, and I'm a reciprocal trader. You know what reciprocal is? If they do it, we do it, right? What's wrong with that? But I don't like it.

When a senator, who I like, and there are a number of them or when a congressperson who I like comes into the White House Oval Office, they want to see me, "Sir, we'd really like you to stop

treating these countries so bad." I said, "We have a tremendous massive deficit. We're losing a lot of money." "It doesn't matter, Sir. We believe in free trade." I said, "OK, let me ask you a question. They're charging us a 50 percent tariff. We're charging them a 20 percent tariff. Do you think that's OK?" "No, Sir, it's really not. We want free trade." I said, "What's free when they charge us so we can't charge them." What is going on here? What's going on here? [applause]

It's unbelievable, you know, it's unbelievable.

When we make a car and we send it to China, they charge us a 25 percent tax. When they make a car and send it to us, we charge them essentially nothing. It's 2.5 percent, but basically they don't pay it. So they pay--think of it, they pay 2.5 percent, meaning nothing. We pay 25 percent. And on top of it they don't want our cars, OK? That's even worse.

So what they do is they say, "No, no, we don't want your cars," but they tell General Motors, "Build the plants in China." I don't blame them. Look, I don't blame China, I don't blame any of these countries. I don't have to go through them. I've got some good relationships. Believe it or not, they all like me.

They understand. They can't believe themselves they got away with it. [applause]

They can't believe they--that they got away with, but they have and we're turning it around, we're turning it around fast, you know, sadly because I don't like this. But the Chinese market is down 27 percent in the last three or four months, 27. I don't like that because I really like President Xi and I respect China greatly. It's incredible what they've done.

But they've done it off our back. They've taken $500 billion a year for many years--$500 billion. We have really rebuilt China and we rebuilt, and it's time that we rebuild our own country now, OK? [applause]

And Troy Balderson is going to help me do that, right, Troy? Troy, yes. OK, he said yes. If he said no, I'm out of here, OK? [laughter]

He's going to help us. He's going to--believe me he'll be there. He'll be in the forefront.

We've now created 3.9 million jobs--think of that--since the election. I would have never said it because of the fakers back there. I would have never said it.

I would have never--can you imagine if I said that with the fake news? Let's say we're campaigning. Nobody ever heard me say we're going to--almost four million jobs--four million. And by the way, you have car plants moving into Michigan, moving in . . . [applause] . . . Moving into Ohio, moving into Pennsylvania, massive, massive companies. Moving into South Carolina, moving into North Carolina, they're all coming back and that means jobs. [applause]

And you know what? When I charge them, when I say, look, 20 percent, I'll keep it down to a minimum 20 percent because I'm a nice person. It totally wipes out the deficit. We go positive, we make a lot of money. And you know what they're going to do, they're not going to pay the 20

percent, they won't pay it too much. In fact, the higher I make it the better it is. You know why? They're going to come to Ohio and build a plant because that way they pay nothing, right? They pay nothing. [applause]

They're going to build their plants in this country. I went to the Wharton School of Finance, I was a very fine student. And I will tell you, one of the great schools in the world, the Wharton School of Finance, one of the hardest schools in the world to get into. I got in--let me tell you, I went there.

This is basic, so basic. We charge them a lot, we put in a 20 or 25 percent tax. We take the 151 and now we make 100, so we flipped it like $250 billion with one signature. But what's going to happen? They're coming into the United States to build their plants. Don't even think about it, OK . . . [applause]. . . Because they're not going to pay that tax. Too much.

More Americans are now employed. Here's one of the greatest--here is one of the best statistics ever. More Americans are now employed than ever recorded before in our nation's history. [applause]

Think of that. So we have more people employed working today than the United States has ever had employed or working, think of that. Is that incredible? That's like this little statement that they put out. Nobody--they don't want you to hear this stuff. This is the great thing, so these rallies are very successful. They hate when I do them although they do like the ratings, I must say. [laughter]

You know they're torn, they're torn. Do we put them on and get great ratings and let him say that like CNN is a fake or . . . [applause]. . . Or do we not put him on? They're very torn.

It's oftentimes I'm getting ready to do my--you know, the fake news with CNN and MSN--MSNBC is so corrupt. It's so disgusting. . . [booing]. . . So disgusting. I would say almost they're worse, they're almost worse, they're really a fake news group of people.

And here's the good news, the guys that we love, right, they're blowing them away in their ratings. [applause]

Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Steve Doocy, Ainsley, Brian. So many others, they're blowing up away in their ratings. Oh, excuse me, I almost forgot, I would have been in big trouble, the great Lou Dobbs, right? I ordered it.

But you see--oh, Maria Bartiromo. [applause]

Great. I'm in trouble because I--I know I left out probably 10, but I didn't--I didn't really think I'd be doing this, but they're blowing up away. CNN is down at the bottom of the totem pole. MSNBC isn't even close to being next to these shows. So we're blowing them away and that's good because those are the people that love us. That's why we're going to win. I mean, we're going to win here. It's why--it's why I won my election, remember?

Now, three or four polls got it right, but for the most part, you know, it's suppression. They want to convince you that Trump has no chance so you don't bother voting. You go to a movie then you come home. But the problem is you never went to the movie, you went out and voted. [applause]

Beautiful, right? Right, right? You went out and voted. Darling, let's go to a movie because CNN, fake news, said Trump will not win because there is no path to 270. There is a path to 306 but not the 270. [applause]

No, I was saying the other night, remember? Pennsylvania, I was ahead by a lot. We only had two points left. It was like 9:30, it was early. And they refused to say that I won Pennsylvania. If I lost every single remaining vote, it was impossible to catch me.

I kept saying, "Well, wait a minute, there's only so many votes left and we would have to do three times that number. Why aren't they saying?" So then what happened is Wisconsin came in, and we won the state of Wisconsin, and we won the state of Michigan. And then they finally announced Pennsylvania. You know why? They couldn't stand it because they're so dishonest. These are--these are among the most dishonest human beings you will ever meet. [booing]

In the month of July alone, we added nearly 40,000 new manufacturing jobs. We've created nearly a half a million manufacturing jobs since I took office. And you remember what they used to say? Oh, there are no manufacturing jobs, they don't exist anymore. They're no good. Really? How do you make things without manufacturing jobs? I guess, they figure you'll buy it from the competitors, right? You'll buy it. We'll go out and buy it.

No, we're doing manufacturing jobs at numbers that people haven't seen before. Half a million almost, in fact, probably, by the time I leave this room, it'll be over half a million. [applause]

Our economy is soaring, and we're creating opportunity for everyone. The unemployment rate for Americans without a high school diploma--this just came out two days ago, and I figure I might as well tell you because they won't say it.

Without a diploma, high school is at the lowest level ever recorded, right. How good is that? [applause]

Economic growth last quarter hit 4.1, you all know that. You all know this, too. Remember, I used to say because they always voted Democrat, it was like automatic. The African-American unemployment rate has achieved the lowest level ever recorded in history. [applause]

I've never heard them say that. Have you ever heard them say that? I say it. That's the advantage of having something where a lot of people are listening. Oh, do they listen to those [inaudible].

And then what they do, do you ever notice on Monday morning or Sunday morning they'll take a beautiful long flowing statement and they'll cut it out just a few words in the middle. And I say, "Man, they really changed the meaning of what I was saying." These are really bad people.

The Hispanic unemployment rate is at the lowest level in history. [applause]

The Asian unemployment rate has also achieved the lowest level ever recorded. The women's unemployment rate--I am so sorry, Women, I've let you down. I've let the women down even though I won the women, I won the women, oh. [applause]

You know, when those numbers came how is it possible because I never heard I was going to win the women. I said, "I think the women like me." My wife, the First Lady, Melania said, "The women really like you." [applause]

They do like me, and I like them. But I said, "How did we win the women?" We won the women. I was a little--that was a little surprise to a lot of people, but now that you've been to the rally, look at all those pink posters. [applause]

Well, thank you. So, the women's unemployment rate is not the lowest ever recorded, it's only the lowest level in 65 years. I'm sorry. [applause]

I'm sorry 65 years. But we think by the next report we should have the lowest in history.

The veterans, do I love the veterans, unemployment rate . . . [applause]. . . Reached lowest level in nearly 20 years, almost 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps and that's since the election. [applause]

That means they're getting out, they're working, they're loving their life, they're getting jobs that pay them much more than what they can make any other way. That's some number. That's a big number--all for food stamps. And our new workforce initiative will deliver job training to more than four million Americans, and it's growing. [applause]

And even though it's 110 degrees in this crazy room . . . [applause]

If you can take it, I can take it. [applause]

In all fairness to the HVAC engineers and contractors, this room was not designed quite for this crowd. And you people are hot. [applause]

So, if anybody wants to leave, leave, there's a lot of people out that want to get in, but don't leave. Now it is--it is rather hot.

Here's the good news. You walk out, you lose about ten pounds and you say, "That was really very good. That was . . . [applause]

That beats going to a gym, right? And it's hot. So much for my brand-new beautiful suit.

Now that we have the best economy in the history of our country, this is the time to straighten out the worst trade deals ever made by any country on earth at any time.

Ohio alone lost over 200,000 manufacturing jobs since China joined the WTO. The WTO World Trade Organization a total disaster.

For decades our politicians allowed other countries to steal our jobs, plunder our wealth and loot our economy. That's what they did. I don't think for the most part they did it consciously, they just didn't know what the hell they were doing. They had no idea. And then you have the globalists who think that is wonderful when they close up a plant in Ohio, move the plant to Mexico or some other place, lose all of your jobs. They make the product in Mexico or some other country, send it back into our country tax-free--those days are ending--tax-free. [applause]

Right? No good, no. We don't like that. We want our people.

Did you see a certain gentleman the other day said, "Donald Trump doesn't take care of foreign workers." I said, "He's right." [booing]

That was Charles Koch, Charles Koch who's actually a nice guy. They're members of my clubs, David and Charles Koch. But he said, "Donald Trump doesn't take care of foreign workers." I said, "Hey, he's right." I mean, [inaudible]. I don't want to get into an argument, he's right. I want to take care of the American workers. I want to be America first, OK? [applause]

But America's economic surrender ended the day that I took office, folks. Now after years of rebuilding foreign countries, we are finally rebuilding our country. [applause]

The great patriot from Ohio--and he was indeed and he was actually a great president, certainly from an economic standpoint. He was a great president. He was assassinated. People don't realize William McKinley from Ohio was a great president. [applause]

He understood the crucial importance of tariffs in maintaining a very strong country. And people that followed him went down as great presidents because one, in particular, as you know, because he was given an economic behemoth that was created by McKinley. McKinley said, "We ought to take care of our own nation and her industries first. We have to take care of our nation first."

And we can help other people, we want to help other people. But we don't want to help other people that are rich and not have them reimburse us. It's so foolish. We're taking care of their military. We're taking care of their--we're taking care of everything.

You know, a lot of these deals were made many years ago when they were weak and struggling, and then we never changed them. We never changed them. They're still the same old deal. But we're changing them now . . . [applause]. . . Changing them now. And Troy Balderson is going to be helping so much.

Thanks to our pro-American economic policies, Americans Steel--one of the things I'm most proud of--American Steel is making one of the biggest comebacks that anybody has ever seen for any industry. [applause]

Nucor, big great steel company, you know, the steel mills were all closing, they're all closing up. Nucor has announced an $85 million dollar upgrade in Marion. [applause]

Charter Steel announced a new $150 million dollar steel mill in Cuyahoga Heights. [applause]

JSW Steel is restarting the furnace and investing $500 million dollars in Mingo Junction, and Cleveland-Cliffs announced a new $700 million plant in Toledo. [applause]

United States Steel is building or renovating or improving over seven new plants. They never thought they'd see a day when this happened. And this all happened within a very short period of time because we've stopped the

dumping. If they want to dump, you know what, that's fine, but they have to pay a 25 percent tax. It's amazing what impact that has on people that want to rip off and destroy our industries.

Thank you very much, I appreciate that. We've also taken historic action to protect our amazing farmers. I reached a historic agreement with the European Union. We talked about them before to reduce barriers to American-grown products and vastly increase the purchases of Ohio's number one crop, American soybeans.

And by the way, do you see the prices? They're starting to go up. [applause]

Soybeans prices are starting to go up. And we're standing up to China--we'll get along with China, but we're standing up because it's just been unfair. We've authorized up to $12 billion to help American farmers during this period of time where China is targeting the American farmer because China is smart and they know the American farmers love Donald Trump. And they say, "What can we do to stop Donald Trump because finally, he's the guy. He got it right. He's bringing the wealth back to the United States." And China doesn't like it, so they're spending a fortune on public relations and ads.

Do you ever see these ads? Look at who's paying from, and other countries and by the way, other countries.

And speaking of John, it's just come out that the Democratic leader and the leader of the Russian investigation . . . [booing]. . . Dianne Feinstein had a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years, and she's leading the Russian investigation if that's what you call it. How about leading--no, no, she's leading the Russian witch-hunt, a Democrat-inspired witch-hunt. That's something. Isn't that something?

Dianne Feinstein had a Chinese spy. How come China never spies on us? Can I tell you what? There are those that say, "Boy, they're brutal. You should ask the people. Ask what's going on." And not only China, it's a lot of people and we got to stop it. We got to stop meddling. We got to stop everybody from attacking us, but there are a lot.

Russia is there. China is there. Hey, we're doing well with North Korea, but they're probably there. We got to stop everybody. We got to stop. But think of that, and I like Dianne Feinstein. I have to tell you, but I don't like the fact that she had a Chinese spy driving her, and she didn't know it.

And then she says to me, "Well, what did you know about this?" And I mean, give me a break. Come on, folks. [laughter]

Every day--and by the way, with China not doing so well, it's only gotten worse. I guarantee you. If there's any meddling or if there's any problems, I guarantee it's going to happen really big now because we are taking our wealth back, we're taking our jobs back, we're opening up markets. [applause]

Every day we're setting new records and we're keeping our promise. We have eliminated a record number of job-killing regulation. We have--and that is so true.

And Ohio is going to like this. We have ended the war on clean coal. Our miners are back to work, clean coal. [applause]

Republicans passed the biggest tax cuts in reform in American history. We've saved our family farms from the estate tax, also known as the death tax. And also we've saved small businesses, small farms. Small businesses won't be paying the death tax anymore. [applause]

As I said, we've repealed the core of Obamacare. The individual mandate is now gone. That's where you pay a tremendous amount of money for the privilege of not having to pay to buy terrible, horrible health care that's way overpriced. We have given you a lot of health care plans that you can choose from through associating health

plans. We're giving businesses the greatest ability that they've ever had to join forces to buy much better health insurance for much less money including across state lines. [applause]

And we've just added and introduced a brand new rule to offer renewable plans that could save patients 50 percent or more compared to Obamacare--Obamacare. That was a beauty, Obamacare. It was repealed and replaced, remember, other than one vote.

And you know what else we did, which is I think really great, it's really something. When you're really sick, it's called right to try. How many times you know somebody. . . [applause] . . . And you're reading about this potential cure but it'll be 10 more years of experiments in food and drug, and we have right to try now. People sign a disclaimer, they sign an agreement for no liability. And instead of traveling, if they have the money, most people don't have the money, but I know people they've traveled all over the world to try and solve a health problem. Right to try, it's passed. It was really tough. You wouldn't think it will be tough.

But the health care companies had a problem, the pharmaceutical companies had a problem. Our country, because everybody is worried everybody would be sued, I said, "You'll sign an agreement where nobody, you know, you do it. You don't sue people. You--they want to get better, they want to have a right to try." We approve that, and that's a big thing. It was a very hard thing. They've been trying to get it for 40 years. [applause]

I signed it into law three months ago--right to try. So if they have something that you read about that looks really promising, you don't have to wait 12 years. You know one of the reasons you couldn't use it because they said, "Well, we don't want to use it because maybe it's going to hurt somebody." Well, the people are going to die. They want to try it. It might not work and it might work.

It's also a great test medically, it's a great test. So right to try, we have it. I'm so proud of that one. [applause]

To restore our security we increased defense spending to $700 billion this year and $716 billion next year. We're doing things that we've never done before. [applause]

And we also had approved $6 billion for opioid. We're fighting opioid. It's down 20 percent. It's a tough fight. [applause]

$6 billion we got approved. Thanks to our 2$ billion investment in new armored vehicle, workers at the legendary tank plant in Lima, Ohio, are now back on the job, churning out M1 Abrams tanks. Do you like that, Abrams tanks? [applause]

They're churning them out. You know the great thing about what we're doing with $700 billion and $716 billion, we also--it's far less important in this case because there's nothing we have to protect. There's nothing so important as our military. But we're also providing massive numbers of jobs because we build all of that equipment in the United States. [applause]

That's the one case where the jobs just aren't as important, right? But we're doing good all here. And I'm very proud to report that we have given our service-members their largest pay raise in over a decade. [applause]

And I've also directed the Pentagon to begin the process of creating the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces called the Space Force--Space, very important. [applause]

That's going to be great. Look, so much is happening now in space. I mean, you have great defense. I'm not just talking about Mars and the Moon, I'm talking about tremendous defense capability, offensive capability. It's in space, so we're going to do the Space Force. [applause]

We passed the landmark V.A. accountability law that everybody said you couldn't get passed. Forty years they've been trying to do it. Now if a bad government worker abuses a great veteran, we turn to them and we say, "You're fired. Get the hell out of here." [applause]

You're fired. We also passed Veterans Choice, so if our veterans can't get care from the V.A. in a timely manner they have the right to go and see immediately a private doctor get taken care of. [applause]

They've been working on that one for 45 years, we got it passed. I'm good at getting things passed. My whole life--oh, and we're going to get the wall passed. Don't worry about that, don't worry about that. [applause]

The obstructionist--the Democrats are obstructionist. The only thing they do well, they're lousy politicians, they have horrible stupid policies. You know, let's get rid of law enforcement, let's get rid of our military, let's not take care of our vets--all of these things, let's not build a wall. They are haters. They have tremendous hatred, they have tremendous hatred, but they'll do anything they can to--really to obstruct or resist.

You know, their word is resist--resist. I used to see that word. I said, "Why are they doing that?" If it's good for the country, why are they resisting? But they want to resist.

I withdrew the United States from the horrible Iran nuclear deal, and so many things have happened since then. [applause]

I also recognized the capital of Israel, and five months later we opened the American Embassy into it. [applause]

Instead of apologizing for America, we are standing up for America. We are standing up for the heroes who protect our country. [applause]

And we are proudly standing up for our national anthem. Thank you. [applause]

CROWD: USA! USA! USA. . .

THE PRESIDENT: But to continue our incredible success, we must elect more Republicans and we must elect Troy Balderson. We have to elect Troy. [applause]

So get your friends, get your neighbors, get your family and get out and vote for Troy on Tuesday. Loyal citizens, great people like you helped build this country, and together we are taking back this country. We are returning power to where it belongs--to the American people. [applause]

From Columbus to the Queen City, Cincinnati, where I worked for long time, I love Swifton Village--Swifton Village, a good place, the Queen City. From Dublin to Cleveland, and from Toledo to Mansfield, Ohio has always been the home of red-blooded American patriots, strong people, smart people, real workers, people that I love. [applause]

This state is the home of the proud and we are--we're the home of the proud. We're the home of families and farmers, and miners, and manufacturers, and aviators, and astronauts. Ohio is the home of everything--everything good. [applause]

Ohio is where the Wright Brothers invented the airplane and where Annie Oakley got her gun. [applause]

And Ohio is the state that gives us American legends and American heroes like Thomas Edison, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn. [applause]

We stand on the shoulders of generations of American patriots who knew how to work, knew how to fight and knew how to win. You know how to win. Just like them we're going to keep on working, we're going to keep on fighting, and we are going to keep on winning. We're going to win so much you're going to get so tired of winning, just so tired. [applause]

You see what's happening. No, we'll keep it going for a long time. We will never give up, we will never give in, and we will never back down. We will never ever stop fighting for our families, our freedom or our great American flag, right? [applause]

Because we are Americans and our hearts bleed red, white and blue. We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God. [applause]

And together as a nation, we will make America wealthy again. [applause]

We will make America strong again. [applause]

We will make America safe again. [applause]

And we will make America great again. Thank you, Ohio, thank you. [applause]