Business

Trump vows to jump-start US economy

by Ben Kamisar and Jonathan Swan - 08/08/16 1:50 PM ET

Donald Trump laid out a tax-slashing agenda and blamed rival Hillary Clinton for America’s economic woes in a highly touted address Monday at the Detroit Economic Club.

“Americanism, not globalism, will be our new credo,” Trump declared.

“I want to jump-start America,” the GOP presidential nominee added, in another line that brought applause.

{mosads}Trump used the speech’s setting to savage Clinton for supporting trade deals that he claimed resulted in the collapse of the city’s famed automobile industry.

“Detroit is the living, breathing example of my opponent’s failed economic agenda,” he said. “Every policy that has failed this city and so many others is a policy supported by Hillary Clinton.”

Trump was interrupted at least 14 times by protesters, who, at regular intervals, tried to tempt the GOP nominee to depart from his TelePrompter notes and lash out at them in ways that would surely create more unwanted distractions for his campaign.

But Trump stayed calm. He smiled, said, “Thank you, thank you,” and let his audience drown out the protesters with boos.

“It’s all very well planned out,” he said, sarcastically, of the interruptions that cropped up every few minutes.

All the while the billionaire stuck largely to script: delivering largely orthodox Republican messages of tax and regulation slashing, peppered with some distinctly Trumpian flourishes of tearing apart trade deals and the very concept of globalism.

“A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for TPP — and it’s also a vote for NAFTA,” Trump said.

“This is a strike at the heart of Michigan, and our nation as a whole,” he added, citing statistics he attributed to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which he said showed that before NAFTA went into effect, there were 285,000 auto workers in Michigan, compared with only 160,000 today.

“Detroit is still waiting for Hillary Clinton’s apology,” Trump said.

“I expect Detroit will get that apology right around the same time Hillary Clinton turns over the 33,000 emails she deleted,” referencing her scandal at the Department of State.

Clinton’s campaign panned the speech in statements Monday afternoon, including a list of “debunked lies.” The campaign accused Trump of mischaracterizing Clinton’s comments about a tax increase, how many loopholes his plan would close, and the real unemployment rate.

The Clinton team also questioned Trump’s linking Democratic policies to the economic downturn in Detroit, noting that Republicans control the Michigan state legislature and the governor’s mansion.

Trump’s speech comes at a critical moment for his campaign.

Polls show him falling behind Clinton after a disastrous week that included a prolonged fight with the family of a decorated Muslim American killed in Iraq.

Trump at times seemed to be seeking to reassure the GOP on Monday, both with his rhetoric and the substance of his speech.

Republicans see Michigan as a potential swing state in the general election thanks to Trump’s appeal with blue-collar white workers.

Clinton, whom polls show is ahead in Michigan, regularly touts President Obama’s decision to bail out the auto industry in 2009, a move supported by the industry and pegged as what saved the sector from bankruptcy.

Trump had initially supported that decision but has criticized it more recently on the campaign trail. But he didn’t specifically mention the bailout during his speech Monday.

While the Trump campaign’s tough talk on trade deals and free trade, echoed in his plan, isn’t in line with conservative orthodoxy, the tax proposals he outlined Monday sat largely in line with his party.

He pledged to eliminate the estate tax and add a new tax deduction for childcare. As for tax rates, Trump said he will adopt House Republicans’ rates of zero, 12, 25, and 33 percent.

Trump framed his plan as a shot in the arm for American business as he chided Clinton for promoting policies that kept jobs overseas.

His plan would allow business to write off investments immediately instead of waiting until the end of the year, cut regulations “massively” and lower the business tax rate to 15 percent. That, he said, will “cause trillions in new dollars and wealth to come pouring into our country — and into cities like Detroit.”

“No one will gain more from these proposals than low- and middle-income Americans,” Trump added.

The businessman hammered his theme of “America First” through relentless repetition, casting himself as the defender of American prosperity and Clinton the advocate of globalist policies that he alleged favored other countries, leaving American workers in their dust.

The GOP nominee repeated the words “America” or “American” no fewer than 14 times in the final 18 sentences of his speech.

“We will put new American metal into the spine of this nation,” he said.

“It will be American hands that rebuild this country, and it will be American energy — mined from American sources — that powers this country.

“Our country will reach amazing new heights.”

Trump had previously announced a tax plan in September but the plan prompted significant criticism for adding to the deficit by about $10 trillion, according to one estimate from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

But the campaign had repeatedly denied Trump would make any changes to that plan until now.

He’s had trouble separating himself from Clinton on economic issues, the hallmark of his campaign as a real estate magnate turned Republican nominee. Despite leading Clinton in a handful of polls from earlier in the campaign, he’s lost ground.

Each of the past two ABC News/Washington Post polls, including one released Sunday, found the two candidates tied on who voters trust more to handle the economy.

The shift back into the comforting arms of a scripted policy speech — a tried-and-true Trump strategy after controversy — hopes to bolster his standing with voters and reset the narrative after a disastrous campaign stretch.

He drew the ire of Republicans for criticizing the family of a fallen Muslim American soldier and compounded the party’s anger by initially refusing to back Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and 2008 GOP nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.) in their bids for reelection. Trump eventually reversed course and endorsed both.

This story was updated at 4:09 p.m.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton John McCain Paul Ryan