COLUMBUS — A combative Donald Trump promised to make Ohio “a manufacturing behemoth” during a town hall meeting here Monday but stayed away from the controversy that erupted between him and the parents of a Muslim Army captain who was killed in the Iraq war.
Mr. Trump spoke to about 1,000 people inside a curtained-off area of the Columbus Convention Center after complaining that a politically motivated fire marshal had refused to allow any more of his followers inside the area.
“They’ve been turned away for political reasons. They said in this massive building you could have 1,000 people. That’s nonsense,” Mr. Trump said.
Assistant Columbus Fire Chief Jim Cannell said a meeting was held Friday with the fire marshal’s office and Mr. Trump’s representatives to plan the event for 1,000 people.
“This particular event was set up for 1,000 people. It was agreed on Friday. Everybody understood that. It’s our job to assure there’s only 1,000 people here,” Chief Cannell said.
He said the number allowed in could not have been expanded at the last minute, even though the room clearly had a lot of empty space. Asked if politics had a role, Chief Cannell said, “absolutely not.”
Steve Martin, a battalion chief and public information officer for the Columbus fire division, said the Trump organization wanted more room but understood on Friday that the only unleased available space could hold up to 1,000 people, and accepted that.
Mr. Trump reminisced about his decision to run for president and his primary victories in Kentucky and West Virginia. He said that with two more days of time to campaign, he would have won Ohio’s March 15 primary. That primary was won by Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
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“Hillary Clinton’s disastrous trade policies are responsible for the manufacturing job losses in Ohio,” Mr. Trump said. The North American Free Trade Agreement was signed into law by her husband, President Bill Clinton. Mrs. Clinton, a former U.S. senator and U.S. secretary of state, has spoken positively about NAFTA in the past.
“They call it the Rust Belt for a reason, because everything’s rusting and rotting. They lost their jobs,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump said he has a friend who builds factories who claims that Mexico is the “eighth wonder of the world” for the number and size of factories being built there.
“That’s what I do. I take bad deals and make ’em great. NAFTA’s a bad, bad, bad deal,” Mr. Trump said.
“The people of Ohio are special people, and they’re smart people, and they know what’s happening to them. We are going to turn this state into a manufacturing behemoth,” Mr. Trump said.
He complained repeatedly about what he called the “dishonest media,” labeling CNN, the Cable News Network, “the Clinton News Network.”
He said some people are advising him to give up Twitter, but he said TV news stations all over the country break into their programming when he tweets.
“So when they write falsely, I put out a tweet. And you see it all over television — ‘we have breaking news.’ And I may be tweeting from bed,” Mr. Trump said, mimicking himself tapping on his smart phone. “But if we put out a long, perfectly structured news release like we did yesterday nobody pays attention to it.”
The Trump campaign on Sunday issued a lengthy, detailed release arguing that energy prices would go up and jobs would go down in Ohio under Mrs. Clinton’s energy plan.
He also mocked Mrs. Clinton by talking in a monotone voice and running out of breath.
Mr. Trump defended his knowledge of Russia, which was called into question after a weekend interview when he appeared to be unaware that Russia had occupied part of Ukraine when it took over Crimea two years ago.
The presidential candidate said he was speaking about the future and was aware that Crimea was lost, pointing out that it happened under President Obama.
“Want to have World War III and get it back? That was on Obama’s watch,” he said. He said the United States would be better off having a good relationship with Russia, saying the United States, Russia, and NATO could together defeat ISIS.
Comparing conventions, he said the Republican convention in Cleveland was much better than the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, and preferred seeing his children and his wife speak to all of the celebrities who took the stage for Mrs. Clinton.
Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga, who is backing Mrs. Clinton, issued a statement that Mr. Trump’s presidency “would be an unmitigated disaster for the working people of Ohio.”
He said Mr. Trump has a known history of exploiting foreign labor to maximize his own profits.
Mr. Burga added that Mr. Trump’s “ambivalence on the 2009 auto rescue” is “disconcerting” and ignores that the bailout “preserved thousands of Ohio jobs and set up a comeback for this industry, which had its strongest year ever in 2015.”
After speaking for about 45 minutes, off-the-cuff, Mr. Trump took several questions.
Mr. Trump promised to be good to the nation’s veterans, while avoiding any reference to the dispute between him and Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Muslim immigrant parents of an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004 protecting troops from a suicide bomber.
The campaign of U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), who is up for re-election, issued a statement Sunday expressing disapproval of Mr. Trump’s remarks about the Khans.
“Rob does not agree with Donald Trump’s remarks and believes that Captain Khan was an American hero who gave his life for his country,” said campaign spokesman Michawn Rich. “As he has said previously many times, Rob does not agree with the idea of banning people from entering the country based on their religion.”
The campaign of his opponent, Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland, renewed its call for Mr. Portman to retract his endorsement of Mr. Trump.
“As long as Senator Portman is continuing to support Donald Trump for president his words are feeble, empty, and meaningless,” spokesman David Bergstein said.
Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.
First Published August 2, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
