Ivanka Trump Credits Her Father’s ‘Early and Decisive Action’ on Pandemic

CANFIELD, Ohio – Ivanka Trump urged voters to give her father, President Donald Trump, another four years in the White House here Saturday. The president’s daughter, one of his senior advisers, spoke for about 35 minutes outside Mahoning County Career & Technical Center.

Approximately 400 supporters appeared to be in attendance, although a Trump campaign spokesman put the figure closer to 1,000, based on magnetometer counts.

Despite being asked to wear masks and observe social distancing during the program, measures intended to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, most attending did not have masks on and moved chairs set up to maintain social distance closer together.

“We’ve got four more days to four more years,” said U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, who introduced the first daughter.

“If you want a future of jobs, safety, opportunity and freedom, then you have one choice in this election and that’s to vote for Donald Trump,” Ivanka Trump said.

During the program, Trump sought to highlight her father’s record on issues ranging from the country’s economic performance and his administration’s response to the pandemic to efforts relating to criminal justice and human trafficking.

Since April, the U.S. mortality rate from the coronavirus dropped by 85%, she said. She credited her father’s “early and decisive action” to restrict travel from China and later Europe for saving an estimated 2 million American lives, an early projection that had been offered based on the United States taking no actions to mitigate the pandemic, which to date has caused some 230,000 deaths.

Through Operation Warp Speed, scientists are on track to deliver a “safe and effective vaccine” by the end of the year, she said.

Addressing the economic impact of the pandemic, she said 11.4 million Americans returned to work over the past five months and the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided grants to help businesses make payroll, helped save 1.9 million Ohio jobs.

“Last quarter, it was just reported just the other day that our economy grew by an astounding 33.1%, the single largest [gross domestic product] gain in American history,” she said. “Thanks to President Trump, our economy is coming back and it’s going to come back stronger than before.”

Trump sought to contrast her father’s approach with that of the Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, who she said would “shut down the entire economy.”

In an interview this summer, Biden said that he would do so if advised by the nation’s scientists as necessary to get the virus under control.
Endless lockdown is “not a strategy,” she said.

Comparing her father’s efforts to what she called promote fair and reciprocal trade, Biden “supported every disastrous trade deal that shipped our factories and good-paying American jobs overseas,” she said. Ohio lost one in three manufacturing jobs after “the Biden-backed disaster” of the North American Free Trade Agreement and normalization of trade with China.

“In a second term, we will provide vocational education to every high school in America and school choice to every parent across our nation,” she said.

During the program, Trump highlighted representatives of City Machine Technologies, a Youngstown company that signed onto the Trump administration’s Pledge to America’s Workers initiative to train workers for current jobs and new careers. She also recognized law enforcement officers who participated in a recent operation targeting human trafficking in Ohio, resulting in170 arrests and the rescue of 45 children.

In three and a half years, President Trump signed nine pieces of legislation to combat human trafficking and online child exploitation, Trump said. “This was an issue that no politician was taking about until the president came into office,” she said.

Trump also alluded to her father’s often brash and blunt way of communicating. To some, his communications style seems “a bit unusual” and his tweets “even a bit unfiltered,” she acknowledged.

“Whether you agree with him or not, you always know where he stands – always,” she said. To those how question his style, his results “speak for themselves,” she said.

Portman, R-Ohio, called attention to what the Trump administration has done in the Mahoning Valley. General Motors’s decision to cease production at its Lordstown plant was “a punch in the gut” but the Mahoning Valley “got right back up,” he said.

With Trump’s help, Lordstown Motors Corp. has taken over the plant and GM is partnering with LG Chem to develop a battery plant to service the electric vehicle market, for a projected “2,000 good-paying jobs on that campus already, with the hope of more to come,” he said.

“We have a lot more coming,” Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill added.

The village is receiving two to three inquiries a week from interested companies. “I just hope the elections goes the right way, because we’d sure hate to see the momentum stop,” Hill said.

Additionally, Portman hailed the administration’s efforts on behalf of salaried retirees from Delphi, who have been engaged in a years-long fight over their pensions. He also warned of the potential impact a Biden administration might have on the 250,000 Ohio jobs related to the oil and gas industry.

“There’s clearly a better future for business if we continue on the path we’re on,” said Mark Lamoncha, president and CEO of Humtown Products in Columbiana. He sees “a lot of hope” for the Mahoning Valley that might be lost with a change in administration.

“Its just amazing what President Trump has done,” Nancy Moore of Youngstown said. She said many accomplishments that Ivanka Trump listed aren’t reported by the mainstream media.

Judy Shortreed of Cortland also praised Trump’s accomplishments in office despite what she sees as media resistance. “It must be with the hand of God that he’s able to make America great again,” she remarked.

“He’s doing what he said he was going to do. He was going to make decisions and enact policies that support and help the American people,” Fred Roscoe of Austintown said.

Shortly after the event ended, David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party issued a statement asserting that the country can’t afford another four years of Trump’s “broken promises,” which is why voters are making plans to cast ballots for Biden.

“You can’t spin failure with a photo op. Donald Trump promised to save Ohioans’ jobs, protect our health care and keep us safe from COVID-19,” Pepper said.

“Instead, he’s overseen a cratering economy, he’s suing to strip health coverage away from hundreds of thousands of Ohioans, and he’s surrendering to the pandemic even as cases reach a record high,” he said. “At every turn, Trump’s incompetence has endangered the health, lives and livelihoods of working families in the Mahoning Valley and across Ohio.”

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.