By Kenneth Tran
Granite State News Collaborative
A crowd seated with social distancing in mind wait to hear from Eric Trump, who came to Manchester on his father’s behalf. The event was held at the Doubletree Hilton in Manchester on Oct. 19, 2020. Photo/Kenneth Tran
MANCHESTER, NH – President Donald Trump’s campaign team is continuing to send campaign surrogates to New Hampshire as the election draws closer. One of his sons, Eric Trump, is the latest surrogate from the campaign to arrive in hopes of flipping the state red after a narrow defeat in 2016.
Trump arrived at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel to stump for his father to a full venue — albeit smaller than usual due to socially distanced seating — and a highly enthusiastic crowd, donning MAGA hats and holding Trump/Pence signs. A portion of the event-goers could not be inside due to limited seating.
New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chairman Stephan Stepanek introduced Trump at the lectern to mass applause.
Trump’s campaign stop echoed plenty of Trump’s campaign rhetoric.
Trump wasted no time attacking former Vice President Biden, saying Biden “locked himself in the basement for the next four days” referring to Biden preparing for the last presidential debate on Thursday.
There was little mention of what the Trump administration has done, but rather, what a Biden administration could do. Trump told the crowd “They [Biden and Democrats] want to increase your taxes by $4 trillion dollars.” Biden’s proposed tax plan would not affect the majority of Americans, only hiking taxes on the highest-income households.
A crowd seated with social distancing in mind wait to hear from Eric Trump, who came to Manchester on his father’s behalf. The event was held at the Doubletree Hilton in Manchester on Oct. 19, 2020. Photo/Kenneth Tran
The only notable positive the younger Trump brought up was the economy. The Trump campaign’s biggest argument for re-election is that the economy has been doing well with Donald Trump in office. “Look what my father did, greatest economy of all time, lowest unemployment ever, lowest African-American unemployment ever -”, Trump said, interrupted by loud applause from the crowd.
Besides a few other positive talking points such as increased military spending and the Right-to-Try law, the event painted the Trump family as America’s saviors. Referring to the 2016 election, Trump told the crowd that “God is on our side. You better believe he had his hands in that election process.” Trump assured the crowd, “God is absolutely there and we need to return faith to this society . . . I promise you, there is no family that is going to work harder.”
Less than an hour in, Eric Trump made his exit, saying “We love this country, we love the red white and blue.” The venue responded enthusiastically, with cheers and a “We love Trump” chant.
Eric Trump’s visit is one of many of the Trump campaign’s scheduled events in New Hampshire with the election two weeks away. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to visit Portsmouth on Wednesday afternoon.
Kenneth Tran is an Election SOS fellow. These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.