Before several thousand backers at the Duplin County Events Center late Tuesday afternoon, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pledged, if elected, to remove from Washington the influence of “the global special interests seeking to run our lives,” for whom Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is “the vessel.”
The address was Trump’s second in North Carolina that day. Earlier, he spoke to a rally at High Point University that focused on fighting terrorism.
Clinton, who made an appearance in Greensboro last week, postponed a scheduled Tuesday visit to Chapel Hill. The campaign cited nothing other than a “change in schedule” for the delay.
Crowds lined up hours before the Duplin County event to see the New York businessman, who spoke for about 45 minutes.
Trump also hit a series of familiar themes in his talk, attacking “disastrous trade deals,” illegal immigration, and breaking up “donor monopolies … of special interests and corporate media groups.”
He also accused Clinton of being a copycat with her calls earlier this week for “tough vetting” before allowing immigrants in the country.
“Hillary is all of sudden going to get tough,” he said. “The [Sept. 26 presidential] debate comes and she’ll say, ‘I want strong borders.’ I believe she meant the term extreme vetting. Where did you hear extreme vetting before? Only from me, because I made up the term.”
ABC News noted that Monday may have marked the first time Clinton has used the term “tough” to describe the vetting processes she would insist upon before admitting immigrants.
“I’m not running to be president of the world,” Trump said. “I’m running to be president of the United States.”
He also repeated a pledge “to rebuild our inner cities because our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they’ve ever been in before, ever, ever, ever.”
Beverly Naylor of Sampson County arrived more than three hours before Trump took the stage at 5 p.m. She told Carolina Journal she preferred Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “I really can’t think of anything I don’t like about him, but I can name hundreds of things I don’t like about her. I think she tells lies with the straightest face I have ever seen in my life,” she said.
Andy Darden, a Sampson County livestock and poultry farmer, was another early arrival. “[Trump] is very straightforward. He tells it like it is. He is not politically correct and I think this country is tired of a bench of politicians,” Darden said, adding he was not surprised at the large numbers who were willing to wait several hours to enter the arena. “I expect this area to show a lot of support for Mr. Trump,” he said.