Former President Donald Trump spoke at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Ohio Saturday evening to excoriate Joe Biden for his numerous failures and tout his chosen Senate candidate for the GOP primary, J.D. Vance.
Trump’s anointing of Vance was controversial in Ohio given the Hillbilly Elegy author’s disparagement of Trump and Trump’s supporters in 2016. But Trump told the huge crowd that it was more important to keep the Senate seat being relinquished by retiring Sen. Rob Portman.
President Trump delivers remarks this evening in beautiful Delaware, Ohio! pic.twitter.com/ysVCuhfACj
— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) April 24, 2022
Related: Ohio GOP: Trump’s J.D. Vance Endorsement a Betrayal
Vance secured the nod despite his well-documented criticisms of Trump in 2016. Most recently, a former roommate of Vance’s published messages from that year in which Vance pondered whether Trump is “America’s Hitler.”
Trump acknowledged Vance’s negative comments during his speech.
“But you know what, every one of the others did also. In fact, if I went by that standard, I don’t think I would’ve ever endorsed anybody in the country,” Trump said.
When Vance began to speak after Trump’s introduction, there was a combination of cheers and boos. But the author and tech entrepreneur still has a way to go to catch former Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel, who leads the tight race 28-22.
Trump used the occasion to hammer Joe Biden and the Democrats.
“The left is horrible on foreign policy, horrible on the economy, horrible on the border and horrible on crime,” he said, NBC4 reported. “Other than that, they’re doing a wonderful job.”
Trump pushed the America First platform in his speech, noting that a Republican red wave in 2022 is necessary to reverse Ohio’s industrial decline and stop blue collar jobs from being outsourced overseas, a populist talking point that Vance has repeated.
“With a Republican Congress, we will fight for more jobs for Ohio families, fair trade for Ohio workers and more Ohio factories forging more products stamped with that beautiful phrase: ‘Made in the U.S.A.,’” he said.
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