Thousands of people Wednesday gathered at the State Fairgrounds to cheer Donald Trump, the first of the three remaining Republican presidential candidates to visit Indiana. He focused his speech primarily on trade and the economy.
Trump made sure to repeatedly mention Carrier, which recently announced it was shutting down its Indianapolis facility to move production to Mexico, a move that will cost Indiana around 14 hundred jobs.
Trump says, as president, he wouldn’t allow a company to leave the U-S without consequences.
“You’re gonna pay a damn tax when you leave this country and you think you’re gonna sell product because we’re all so stupid,” said Trump. He also railed against what he calls the “broken” and “rigged” Republican nomination process.
“The only way we can beat the dishonest, rigged system is by you continuing to come out and vote," he said. "You’re gonna get your chance in a few weeks.”
The rally was occasionally interrupted by small groups of protesters, but no serious confrontations took place. When dealing with protesters, Trump mostly shouted at them to ‘get out,” though at one point had a sort of dialogue with his supporters about the protesters.
“He’s screaming, ‘Put him in jail.’ Would you want to go to jail? I don’t think so, no," he said. "I don’t want to ruin his life. He was told to do it by somebody.”
Kathleen Walsh says she’s been following the presidential race closely, watching all of Donald Trump’s speeches online. She drove from LaPorte to hear Trump speak in person. Walsh says she supports the New York businessman and reality star because she thinks he’s the only candidate who won’t be controlled by lobbyists.
“All of the politicians are controlled by the lobbyists and we just now learned that through him, that it’s a controlled government," said Walsh. "And we feel that with him, he’s a guy that’s no nonsense; he’s common sense.”
On the other side, Cheryl Laux came to protest the rally to show people that not everyone in Indiana supports Donald Trump and what she calls his hateful agenda.
“You know, like saying women need to go to jail that have abortions," Laux said. "It’s a constitutional right for women to have abortions in this country.”
In a statement, the Indiana Democratic Party slammed the Trump visit, calling him “dangerous” and “dishonest.”
