Special for The Western Carolina Journalist
Donald Trump capped a long day of campaigning on Wednesday with a rally in Kinston, NC.
The stop came on the heels of an appearance at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. and a campaign stop in Charlotte.
Trump’s speech took place on the Kinston Jetport tarmac, and featured a speech centered primarily on jobs and the loss of jobs to international trade deals.
The issue of lost jobs is not a new one to Kinston. The city, once a major destination location in Eastern North Carolina, is still trying to recover from a mass exodus of industrial jobs to China, Mexico and other countries.
The speech centered heavily on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which, if elected, Trump promised to either renegotiate or outright repeal.
“Folks we are going to turn it around. It’s going to be so much fun,” he said.
If a company couldn’t be forced to return production to the states, Trump said he supported imposing tariffs on goods being imported to the country by U.S. companies
While his main message was one of job loss and future job creation, Trump also took time to take shots at his opponent in the Nov. 8 election, Hillary Clinton.
Focusing on the information from the recently released Podesta emails, WikiLeaks and her deleted 30,000 emails, Trump again called Clinton “crooked,’ and promised to incarcerate her if he is elected.
He also reiterated his claim that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, encouraged by the announcement that premiums will soon be increasing by double-digit margins.
If Trump is to win the presidency in two weeks, North Carolina is going to be a key state for him to win.
Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton, on a bus tour of Eastern North Carolina, made an unannounced stop in Kinston, telling supporters that if his wife can win the state, she will be the next president. (See the story )
He also warned that the outcome of this election will hinge largely on voter turnout, a sentiment Trump echoed Wednesday by encouraging supporters to go out and vote early for him.
Before Trump’s speech, FiveThirtyEight.com, a website that aggregates polls to predict the outcome of the election, had Trump with only 32 percent of the N.C. vote, well behind Clinton.
During his speech, Trump said he didn’t let polls discourage him, and encouraged his supporters not to listen to media or poll results, citing high voter turnout in his favor in Florida.
Dustin George is a Western Carolina University alum and a reporter at The Free Press in Kinston. Email him at Dustin.George@outlook.com or follow him on Twitter @DustinGeorgeKFP.
