(AP) – President Donald Trump told supporters in Florida that he has taken on the “political machine” during his presidency and “that is why the swamp is fighting back so viciously and violently.”
Trump formally kicked off his 2020 campaign on Tuesday by complaining that “for the last 2 1/2 years we have been under siege.”
Despite that, Trump claims that he has accomplished more than any other president during his first 2 1/2 years in office.
Trump is complaining about special counsel Robert Muller’s investigation into Russian meddling in 2016, stating, “We went through the greatest witch hunt in political history.”
Trump proclaiming that his opponents have been given a “free pass” and is telling supporters: “They are really going after you. That’s what this is all about.”
Trump is returned to a familiar theme of attacking old trade deals as he tries to appeal to working-class voters in his campaign kickoff for 2020.
Trump said the U.S. is taking in billions of dollars in tariffs and that companies are leaving China as a result of the 25 percent tariffs he has imposed on $250 billion in Chinese imports. Trump is preparing to target $300 billion in Chinese imports that he hasn’t already hit with tariffs.
Trump says the U.S. helped rebuild China, and “they took us for suckers, and that includes Obama and Biden.”
Trump tells supporters he’s fighting for them. He says, “I have news for Democrats who want to return us to the bitter failures and betrayals of the past: We are not going back.”
Trump is decrying “illegal mass migration” as he tries to fire up supporters at his kickoff rally for the 2020 election.
Trump made border security a focus of his first presidential run and returned to the topic frequently on Tuesday in Florida.
Trump says millions of low-wage workers who come to the U.S. illegally compete for wages and opportunities against the most vulnerable Americans.
Trump is also claiming that schoolchildren across the country are being threatened by MS-13 gang members and blames “Democratic policies.”
He says if Democratic officials “had to send their children to those overcrowded, overburdened schools, they would not tolerate it for one minute.”
