Trump slams prospect of N. Carolina redistricting

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Donald Trump said Friday that the prospect of North Carolina drawing new congressional districts just weeks before the November midterm elections is “unfair.”

A panel of federal judges this week struck down the state’s congressional map, saying Republican state legislators went too far in using political data to preserve Gop-held seats. The judges raised the possibility of drawing new districts by mid-september so they can be used in the Nov. 6 elections, or at least before the new Congress is seated in January.

Trump addressed the redistricting issue during a fundraising appearance in Charlotte for a pair of GOP congressional candidates.

Before arriving at the country club fundraiser for GOP House candidates Rep. Ted Budd and Mark Harris, Trump held a separate event where he signed an executive order directing the Labor and Treasury departments to help small businesses band together to offer retirement plans to their workers.

Trump asked the departments to take steps to eliminate regulatory hurdles that he said keep small businesses from sharing costs so they can offer what are called association retirement plans. He said administrative costs and other barriers discourage small businesses from making retirement plans available to their employees.

“They’ll be banding together. They’ll have such strength,” Trump said. “They’ll be able to negotiate incredible deals.”

Most Americans use plans offered by their employers to save for retirement. But about one-third of private-sector workers, and just under a quarter of full-time workers in the private sector, lack access to workplace retirement plans, James Sherk, assistant to the president for domestic policy, said Thursday.