DALLAS — It's no secret President Trump knows how to get a room full of people pumped up. Thousands of supporters filled the American Airlines Center in Dallas Thursday for his 'Keep America Great' 2020 campaign rally.
He had been scheduled to appear at the podium at 7 p.m., and even though he was nearly 45 minutes late, the crowd never lost its energy as the 45th President of the United States finally took the stage to a rendition of "God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood.
President Trump was scheduled to speak for only an hour, but he stretched it into close to 90 minutes. He addressed several topics, including the latest drama surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Turkish - Kurdish battle in northern Syria, the Ukraine whistleblower and reminded Texans he was a generous president when it came to helping the Lone Star State financially in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
"When you had a hurricane, two years ago now, they still keep calling me for money," President Trump said about Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick. He said the two have called him frequently about helping with expenses financially after Hurricane Harvey. "I've paid billions and billions of dollars to this state. They said, 'sir, thank you for being so generous on the hurricane.' They made a fortune, you made a fortune on that hurricane."
According to the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Harvey is second behind Hurricane Katrina (adjusted for inflation) as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. It caused $125 billion dollars in damage. Gov. Abbott asked for over $125 billion in federal relief and in 2017, President Trump signed H.R. 601, a bill that approved just over $15 billion, with at least $7.4 billion of it going to FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund.
President Trump also spoke highly about his economic and job growth in Texas. Earlier in the day, he had toured a new Louis Vuitton plant in Johnson County, and said the business will add extra jobs to the Dallas area and surrounding communities.
"This place is doing great and created in a very short period of time, an extra 1,000 jobs for Texas," President Trump said. "Since my election, we've created 775,000 new jobs across your state, including 70,000 Texas manufacturing jobs. Our country, once again, is living by two simple rules: buy American and hire American."
According to the latest data from the Texas Workforce Commission, Texas maintained its 3.4 percent unemployment rate set back in June of 2019 as of August 2019. The TWC stated the Texas economy is strong and its potential "continues to grow."
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke held a counter rally at the Theatre in Grand Prairie. His 'Rally Against Fear' featured community leaders, advocates and local candidates running in the U.S. Senate, House, state legislature and even county-wide elections. President Trump didn't seem phased at O'Rourke's attempt to dampen his rally spirits.
"Last week, a very dumb Democrat candidate for president, that's the end of him in this state, pledged to revoke the tax-exempt status of many churches and religious charities," President Trump said as the crowd booed at his reference to O'Rourke. "Beto in a few short weeks got rid of guns and got rid of religion. Those are not two good things in Texas to get rid of. I will never allow the federal government to be used to punish Americans for their religious beliefs."
O'Rourke was at a town hall and discussing LGBTQ rights. He was asked if religious institutions should lose their tax-exempt statuses if they are against same-sex marraige. "Yes," O'Rourke said with confidence. "There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break, for anyone or any institution, any organization in America, that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us."
The president was also critical of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he referenced as "Crazy Nancy" several times throughout the rally. This comes a day after Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer walked out of a meeting with the president concerning his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria.
"We're fighting a campaign against leftists, socialists and globalists who want to return to reckless wars, open borders, rampant crime and totally disastrous one-way trade deals," President Trump said. "The do-nothing Democrats have betrayed our country and that great betrayal is over."
About 90 minutes after he started, President Trump ended his speech with people on their feet cheering. Outside the building, supporters and protesters lined the street, and police officers worked crowd control.
An armed man was arrested near a group of protesters after police found him wearing a helmet, a vest and a backpack, they said. The man was in possession of a gun, but also had a license to carry, police said. No one was hurt and he was taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation.
The next 'Keep America Great' rally for President Trump has not yet been announced, according to his campaign website. We will keep you updated on future events affecting Texas.