Miranda Devine: Why Trump is certain to win in 2020
If the hardworking Ohioans are anything to go by, US President Donald Trump is guaranteed to retain his presidency, writes Miranda Devine. And it’s all because of his commitment to slashing corporate tax.
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Donald Trump will win re-election in 2020. And it’s all about lower taxes and keeping promises.
The hardworking Ohioans who attended his launch last week, with Scott Morrison, at Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt’s $500 million box factory in the US town of Wapakoneta know it.
“Mr President, if it weren’t for your presidency, this would not be here today,” Pratt said, introducing Trump and Morrison on stage.
Trump’s policy of slashing corporate tax rates had made all the difference to Pratt’s decision to invest $2 billion in America.
Teacher Melinda Colvin, 45, said the factory, which will provide 300 well-paid jobs, is “huge” for her small rural hometown. “It’ll bring a lot of jobs for people that need it,” she said. “[When] taxes were so much higher there were people that had to struggle … and this will bring in jobs and help families.”
Her husband, Matt Colvin, 46, a swinging voter and school bus driver who works in a factory at weekends, said he came to seethe President because “I love what he’s doing”.
“I work seven days a week and after taxes are done I just don’t feel I get enough money to support my family,” he said.
“Trump is about cutting taxes and cutting spending and keeping more money for the people.”
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Wapakoneta is friendly territory for Trump, who won 75 per cent of the vote in the local county in 2016, and the factory opening resembled one of his rallies. Many in the crowd of 1500 were veterans, some wore MAGA hats and T-shirts which read “Come and Take My Guns — Trump 2020.”
They cheered when Trump said “this great state of Ohio is open for business”.
But, while Morrison pointed out that “unemployment had not been as low in the US since [Wapakoneta native] Neil Armstrong walked on the moon”, the town was not without problems.
Alex Romtilla, 45, a Christian counsellor from the nearby town of St Marys, said the town had rebounded from the economic hardship of the GFC but it sits at the geographic heart of Middle America’s opioid crisis.
“This is a high area with opiates and overdoses,” he said. “There’s a lot of emptiness, people who feel they don’t belong anywhere”.
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Local councilman and roofing worker Chad Dunlap, 43, knows suffering, having hit rock-bottom after his best friend took his own life at age 18. But he sees Trump taking the country “in the right direction”.
“This [factory] is amazing for Wapok,” he said.
Maurice Emery, 70, a retired logistics manager from the nearby town of Troy, thinks Trump will win again.
“He is doing a great job delivering on promises he made to American people and that’s kind of rare,” he said. “He promised he’d get the economy going again, with lower taxes and deregulation, he’s rebuilt the military which was in very bad shape. He just has to get his message out.”
It was Trump’ third visit to Ohio in less than two months, an indication of how important the heartland state will be to his re-election prospects.
Judging by the effusive praise he heaped on them, he appreciates the helping hand of a Prime Minister and billionaire from Australia.