It has been described as a “thank you tour”, a victory lap and even the launch of his re-election campaign for 2020.
Donald Trump was set on Thursday to return to the American midwest, the region that did most to hand him a stunning upset over Hillary Clinton in last month’s election.
The president-elect was travelling to Indiana, where he anticipated a hero’s welcome for brokering an agreement to save 1,000 jobs that had been bound for Mexico, then holding a rally in Ohio, a critical battleground state he won on 8 November.
Such a tour is highly unorthodox for a president-elect but in keeping with Trump’s showman style. His “make America great again” rallies were notoriously raucous affairs, with crowds chanting “Lock her up!” in reference to Clinton, and were seen as feeding his personal need for adulation.
The brash billionaire made salvaging jobs for blue-collar workers in the midwest a central plank of his campaign. He turned his wrath particularly on Carrier, a heating and air conditioning company which in February said that it would shut its plant and send 2,100 jobs to Mexico. A video of angry workers being informed about the decision quickly went viral.
Trump appeared to have scored an early PR coup, even before taking office, when Carrier announced on Wednesday that some, though not all, of the jobs had been saved. More than 1,000 would remain, it said, and the company would continue to make gas furnaces in Indianapolis, as well as retain engineering and headquarters staff in the city.
The announcement was “possible because the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasised to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive US business climate”, it said. “The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration.”
The decision was seized on and trumpeted by the president-elect’s supporters. Sean Hannity, a Fox News presenter, tweeted: “1000 jobs saved today! Awesome start! ... 1000 Families will have a better Christmas & future because @realDonaldTrump cared enough to fight for them.”
Trump was due to visit the Carrier plant in Indianapolis and meet union leaders there on Thursday, accompanied by his vice-president-elect Mike Pence, currently the governor of Indiana, who also helped to broker the deal.
Details of the agreement remain vague and there has been speculation over Carrier’s motives, ranging from federal tax incentives to the company being threatened with the loss of defence contracts to pressure at state level by Pence. The Wall Street Journal reported Indiana officials gave Carrier’s parent company $7m worth of tax breaks to keep the jobs.
The White House gave the decision a welcome laced with scepticism. “Ultimately we’d have to rely on the executives at Carrier to explain why they made the decisions that they did,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Thursday. “If you’re a worker or if you live in one of the 1,000 families where that pay cheque is being collected then obviously that’s welcome news. I’m not criticising it at all.
“I think what I’m trying to highlight is as you evaluate the strategy that’s being put forward by the president-elect, it’s worth drawing a comparison to what was done in the last eight years under President Obama.”
Obama’s strategy saved more than a million jobs in the manufacturing sector and created another 804,000, Earnest added. “Mr Trump would have to make 804 more announcements just like that to equal the standard of jobs in the manufacturing sector that were created in this country under President Obama’s watch. This is good news but the incoming president has a high bar to meet when it comes to putting in place the kinds of economic policies that will benefit American workers.”
Asked if he was being unduly critical, Earnest replied: “I think if anything I’m suggesting that the success of the incoming administration in protecting those manufacturing jobs is something they’re going to have to aggressively ramp up if they want to meet the standard set by the Obama administration.
“Just a little rough math would indicate that if President Trump is fortunate enough to serve two terms in office for eight years, he’s probably going to have to average two of these announcements a week, every week of his eight-year presidency in order to meet the same standard. So the bar’s high.”
During the campaign Trump threatened to impose sharp tariffs on any company that shifted its factories to Mexico. His advisers have since promoted lower corporate tax rates as a means of keeping jobs in the US.
But conservative critics expressed concern about interference in the free market, while those on the left worried that other companies might now threaten to send jobs overseas in the hope of getting a tax cut.
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic primary election to Clinton but won in Indiana, wrote in the Washington Post: “Trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives.
“Even corporations that weren’t thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be reevaluating their stance this morning. And who would pay for the high cost for tax cuts that go to the richest businessmen in America? The working class of America.”
Anthony Scaramucci, an entrepreneur and member of the Trump transition team’s executive committee, told reporters on Wednesday: “I’m hoping that every CEO in America is getting that beacon signal from the new Trump administration that we’re open for business here in the United States, and we’ve got to get American people back working in American jobs.”
From Indiana, Trump and Pence were to travel to a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. Trump was the first Republican nominee for president to win the state since 2004. The evening event at a downtown sports arena which can host a crowd of more than 17,000 was expected to be similar to those that drew energised crowds of thousands during the campaign.
Trump is also expected to hold rallies in battleground states including Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and Michigan in the coming weeks, though details have yet to be announced.
The transition team has dubbed it a “thank you tour” while US media have generally referred to it as a “victory lap”. A headline in the Washington Post even called it “the unofficial kickoff of his 2020 reelection campaign”, suggesting that in the age of permanent campaigning, Trump will spend the next four years trying to shore up the support in the midwest that was so crucial to his success.
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