Donald Trump told Minnesotans at a rally Sunday that this is “our last chance,” as he described a state hit hard by trade deals and refugee resettlement.
Minnesota is a historically Democrat state, and Clinton has had a solid lead in the most recent polls of the state. Trump, however, said at his rally at an airport hanger that he feels “good about Minnesota.”
Two main focuses of his platform — stopping refugees from coming into the U.S. and renegotiating trade deals — could find a receptive audience in the midwestern state.
“Minnesota ranks forth nationwide for the highest share of jobs lost due to our trade deficit with China,” Trump said at the rally. He added, “and then you’re going to vote for the people who did that to you? I don’t think so.”
Trump then started naming off jobs lost in specific cities in Minnesota. He said, for example, “IBM laid off 500 workers in Minneapolis and moved their jobs to India and various other countries. A Trump administration will stop the jobs from leaving America,” the Republican nominee said.
Trump plans on accomplishing this by implementing a 35 percent tax on companies that ship products into the United States after leaving the country.
Trump then alluded to the influx of Somali refugees into Minnesota.
“Oh Minnesota, Oh Minnesota, you know what’s going on, you know what I’m talking about. Be politically correct, just nod, just quietly nod,” Trump said. “Hillary wants a 550 percent increase of Syrian refugees pouring into our country, and she wants virtually unlimited immigration and refugee admission from the most dangerous regions of the world to come into our country and to come into Minnesota and you know it better than anyone.”
There was recently a stabbing attack by a Somali ISIS sympathizer in St.Cloud, Minnesota, and there have been several ISIS-related arrests of Somalis in Minneapolis. Minneapolis is home to the nation’s largest Somali population, about 30,000.
“If you want people to just pour into Minnesota, just vote for Hillary Clinton,” Trump said. He summed up his argument to the Minnesotans by saying, “what the hell do you want to put these same people back into office for?”
The Republican nominee told them Clinton is the “candidate of yesterday.”
“I’m asking you to dream big,” Trump said in the closing of his speech.
Correction: The stabbing attack was in St.Cloud not St. Paul.