Donald Trump Jr. says dad’s campaign is ‘a movement’

Donald Trump Jr. said Monday afternoon “the enthusiasm is there and the enthusiasm is real” for his father’s presidential campaign, and the Nov. 8 election will “send Washington a message.”

Ohio was one of two swing states the Trump campaign visited Monday. While the candidate was in Florida, Trump Jr. stumped in Ohio asking people to not only vote but to also vote early.

Butler County elections officials say there have been more than 37,000 in-person and vote-by-mail ballots cast in this election as of Monday. State election officials say as of this past Friday, more than 350,300 in-person and vote-by-mail ballots have been cast.

The Brick Street Bar on High Street in Oxford had several hundred people attend the intimate gathering, which was mostly college students. There was no official count, but the nearly filled bar’s capacity is just more than 1,000.

“There’s something special because it’s no longer a campaign, it’s actually a movement,” Trump Jr. told the crowd. “It’s because of that enthusiasm I see rooms like this. It’s because of those people who are coming out of the woodwork who’ve been so disaffected by politics on both sides for so long, that’s why we’re going to do this and we’re going to send Washington a message that enough is enough.”

Monday’s rally included “lock her up” chants, a reference to Trump saying his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, should be in jail.

There was no disruption inside, except for one unidentified rally attendee who yelled, “pay your taxes,” a reference to the elder Trump’s admission to writing off nearly $1 billion loss and not paying federal taxes for at least one tax year.

While there were die-hard Trump supporters, there were also those who said their vote for Trump was more of a vote against Clinton, including 22-year-old Anna Love, a Miami University senior. She would have preferred another candidate — saying she “wasn’t exactly pleased” with either party’s candidate — so for her it comes down to the issues. Trump wins that race for the international studies student.

She called Trump’s “downfalls” his “very crass stance against women,” and compared it to Clinton and her issues with her emails and the revelations that have emerged via Wikileaks.

“I compare those two and I can see that there’s no comparison,” she said.

After the Trump rally, a few dozen college students marched the half-mile from the Brick Street Bar to the Armstrong Student Center on the university’s campus yelling anti-Trump chants and “love trumps hate.”

Students with the rally wanted to make sure people knew Trump Jr.’s appearance in Oxford wasn’t supported by everyone.

Kimberly Agyekum, a 21-year-old Miami student majoring in psychology, said she doesn't appreciate Trump's past statements she and others view as racist, sexist and xenophobic. He's denied those accusations, and plans to sue the women who've claimed the candidate had sexually assaulted them.

“I think the main issue with why he’s running is the rhetoric he brings upon all of us,” she said of Trump.

Butler County Democratic Chair Jocelyn Bucaro said Trump Jr.’s visit “won’t hide the fact that Donald Trump is tearing Americans apart with his divisive rhetoric and dangerous ideas.”

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