Clinton castigates Trump for ‘dangerous’ economic plans
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican Donald Trump has swindled investors while stiffing and stepping on employees, contractors and others throughout a business career that should disqualify him as president, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton charged Tuesday.
Exactly the thing that Trump claims is his main qualification — his business background — is proof of values and practices that should trouble voters, Clinton said. Her speech blended criticism of Trump’s stated positions on the economy with warnings that the mogul is a big talker who has always been out for only himself.
“This is his one move,” Clinton said. “He makes over-the-top promises that if people stick with him, trust him, listen to him, put their faith in him, he’ll deliver for them.
“He’ll make them wildly successful. And then everything falls apart and people get hurt.”
The presumptive Democratic nominee cast the mogul as selfish, callous and glib about how he made money. She used the examples of now-defunct Trump University and Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Trump built several casinos that are now shuttered. Thousands lost jobs and Trump refused to pay tradesmen and others what they were owed, while he himself emerged “just fine,” Clinton charged.
“He put his name on buildings, his favorite thing to do,” Clinton said to laughter from an invited audience at a trade school classroom that teaches auto repair.
She quoted Trump saying that Atlantic City was a “cash cow” for him and that he figured the fallout “was the bank’s problem,” not his.
Her address, the first policy speech of the general election season, was an attempt to attack Trump on the area of his greatest appeal — his own success, swashbuckling outsider attitude and promises that other people, and the country overall, can share in his success.
Trump scores well in polls that ask which candidate would be better at handling the economy, even though he lags Clinton in national polling overall. Just as she calls Trump unqualified to be commanderin-chief because of his ideas and temperament, she is seeking to discredit his economic ideas and call his priorities into question.
Trump’s tax plan, immigration policies and other proposals would likely throw the country into recession, while his apparent willingness to default on the national debt or print more money to cover it would ruin the credit of the United States and lead to spiraling inflation, Clinton said.
“You might think that because he has spent his life as a businessman, he might be better equipped to deal with the economy,” Clinton said in a mocking tone. “Turns out he’s dangerous there too.”