Trump’s Closing Arguments: Why You Should Vote For Me

Republican presidential nominee Donald J Trump made his closing arguments for being elected President of the United States on USA Today.

After a brief reference to his 17-month-long journey campaigning across the country, Trump started his op-ed with a reference to Obamacare.

Opposition to Obamacare has been a significant feature of Trump’s campaign. He has repeatedly expressed his resolve to repeal the law if he is voted to power.

Next, Trump referred to existing trade deals. He said he will renegotiate the NAFTA and China deals, which he says have “killed American jobs and crushed American incomes...and deindustrialized the United States.”

Trump then expressed his goal to drain the “swamp of corruption” in Washington. He said political insiders have been repeatedly allowed to break the law and not held accountable, and also that government officials have repeatedly pushed special interests higher over national interests.

Trump continued by saying Hillary Clinton being elected “would trigger an unprecedented constitutional crisis.” He said the FBI criminal investigation into Clinton’s emails would go on for a long time, “grinding our government to halt.”

However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave Clinton the clean chit in the early hours of 7 November (IST). The agency stood by its earlier decision that no criminality is involved in the case. Trump’s op-ed had, however, been published before FBI’s revelation.

Trump then wrote about bringing in a new beginning for America by cutting “our ties with the failed politicians of the past.” Significantly, he brought up his “Contract with the American Voter”, his 100-day action plan to clean up corruption and bring change to Washington.

Trump unveiled his “contract” to the American public in Gettysburg in the third week of October.

Trump’s official website says that if he gets elected, his “administration will pursue six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC.”

1. Propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress
2. A hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety and public health)
3. A requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated
4. A five-year ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service
5. A lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government
6. A complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections

In addition, as part of his “contract”, Trump has said he would from Day One of being elected announce his intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal, announce withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, call for China to be labelled a currency manipulator, cancel payments to international climate change programmes, begin deporting illegal immigrants and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back, among other things. From the look of it, the “contract” is quite radical.

Back to the op-ed. Trump then compared his tough stance on immigration to Clinton’s liberal position.

In closing, Trump wrote:

He vowed to take the US “government back from the special interests”, closing his argument with his campaign tagline, “Make America Great Again.”

These are essentially the core set of arguments that Trump has put forth before the American public. Now it’s up to them to decide if he should receive the mandate to act on his “contract.”

(You can read his op-ed in entirety on USA Today.)