President Donald Trump agreed today in Ohio with a label of traitors for congressional Democrats who sat stonefaced as he recited economic milestones during his State of the Union address last week.
“They were like death, and un-American, un-American," Trump said during a visit to a Cincinnati-area company.
"Somebody said treasonous. Yeah, I guess, why not. Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much. You look at this and it’s really very, very sad.”
He said the Democrats' lack of reaction to portions of the speech where he referred to historically low unemployment rates among blacks and Hispanics “means they would rather see Trump do badly, OK, than our country do well.”
“I got good marks,” he said of his talk. But he said he had to stop looking at the stoic Democratic side of the House chambers because of the “bad energy” from that side of the aisle.
Trump sarcastically praised House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as the Republicans' "secret weapon" because she and Senate Democratic leader have moved so far to the left. He also included Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in his criticism.
Trump flew to Cincinnati so he could tout the GOP tax plan passed just before Christmas. He visited Sheffer Corp. in suburban Blue Ash, which makes industrial cylinders and handed out $1,000 bonuses to its workers.
“Your paychecks are going way up, your taxes are going way down,” he said during the third visit to Ohio of his presidency.
Trump called up a few Sheffer workers one by one and asked them what they would be doing with the money from the bonus and tax cut. One said he would look for a bigger house. Another said she would have more money to send her children to college.
One of those on board Air Force One for the trip to the Queen City was U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, who is seeking the GOP Senate nomination to take on Brown. At the end of his 50-minute speech, Trump said, "Jim get in there and fight. We need you. We need you."
During the flight to Cincinnati, a Trump spokesman was asked about the possibility of an endorsement of the Wadsworth Republican.
“Well, this isn’t a political event," said Raj Shah. "The president’s there to talk about the tax cut bill that Congressman Renacci and many other Republicans in the House and Senate voted for.”
Sen. Rob Portman, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and Secretary of State Jon Husted also were to attend the president's gathering. Taylor is running for governor against Attorney General Mike DeWine, Husted's running mate.
It's the same locale where Portman touted the tax cut last month. Sheffer gave workers a $1,000 bonus, which Portman said was a result of the GOP tax revamp.
Before the event, the White House said, "Families in Ohio will see a tax cut of more than $8 billion — in just this year alone. Since the passage of the president’s tax cuts, over 300 companies have announced new jobs and enormous investments in their workers though bonuses, wage boosts and increases in retirement benefits."
Shah said, “The unemployment rate in Ohio has fallen from. 5.1 percent to 4.7 percent under this president. The Ohio economy had created over 35,000 jobs in the last 12 months and one in five of those jobs has been in the manufacturing sector."
While those numbers are fairly accurate, what's not said is that Ohio continues to lag the nation in job creation — and that the 35,000 number for a full year is one of the worst since the end of the Great Recession.
Among the heads of companies — each of which gave their employees a $1,000 bonus — who met with Trump: Jeff Norris of Sheffer Corp., Greg Carmichael of Fifth Third Bancorp, Christopher Irion of e-Cycle, and Matt Schron of Jergens Inc.
In his first public event since a GOP House memo was released on the probe of his campaign dealings with Russia, Trump did not address a controversial three and-a-half page document that the president said exonerated him. House Democrats are trying today to get their own memo released, which Trump must approve.
During the flight, Shah was asked about the president's take on the Democratic memo.
“As we’ve said that memo appears to be up for a vote later today in the House Intelligence Committee. If that memo is voted out and it comes to the White House we will consider it on the sale terms we considered the Nunes memo. Which is, to allow for a legal review, national security review led by the White House Counsel’s Office, and then within five days the president will make a decision about declassifying it," Shah said.
“I’m not gonna characterize his feeling," he also said. "We will be considering it just as we did the (GOP committee Chairman Devin) Nunes memo.”
While the president is touring the factory, First Lady Melania Trump took part in a briefing on opioids and a meet-and-greet with patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The first lady listened to Cincinnati Children's Hospital doctors discuss the problems of neonatal abstinence syndrome in a hospital conference room. She sat between Jane Portman, the senator's wife, and White House adviser Kelly Anne Conway and Michael Fisher, the hospital's chief executive officer.
The presidential visit also attracted protestors who contended the tax plan actually will result in layoffs and companies spending their tax savings to reward their investors through stock buybacks and dividends, with few companies using their corporate tax windfalls to boost workers’ wages. They also pointed that the tax cuts for individuals expire in 2025, while the corporate tax cuts are permanent.
Trump visited Youngstown and Cincinnati since he became president a little more than a year ago.
drowland@dispatch.com
@darreldrowland