Speaking to a crowd of a few hundred of his father’s supporters in the Southpointe office complex, Donald Trump Jr. pledged, “We’re going to change the direction of this country. We’re going to get it on the right track.”
Mr. Trump offered plenty of red meat for the crowd in Canonsburg. Invoking a popular campaign slogan, he said that “We’re criticized for saying ‘America First.’ … For saying ‘we want to spend your money on you.'”
But as working Americans struggled, he said, “Every ZIP code in D.C. is the richest in the country. People creating problems that only they can fix — not on our watch.”
Yet Mr. Trump also took pains to broaden his father’s appeal beyond the base, praising “the hard-working men and women, the union laborers in this country who are voting for Trump … despite what the union bosses are going to tell them.”
He noted that his father had offered a proposal to help pay for child-care costs at an appearance in Eastern Pennsylvania last night, a move Donald Trump Jr. called “the revolutionary concept of recognizing women in the work force.”
And he said his father’s education policy — which involves a $20 billion grant to support private and charter schools — was an effort to ensure “that those kids in the inner cities have the same opportunities that I was blessed my sister was blessed, and my brother was blessed to have.”
Donald Trump Jr. himself attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pa. Tuition for boarding students there is over $55,000.
Mr. Trump’s appearance in Southpointe marked the opening of a Washington County campaign office, where volunteers were being encouraged to sign up for organizing groups like “Bikers for Trump,” “Veterans for Trump,” and “Christians for Trump.”
Monica Morrill, who attended the Republican National Convention as a delegate from Somerset County, said the move reflected the fact that “southwest Pennsylvania is the most populated area for Trump in Pennsylvania.”
Mr. Trump kept his remarks in Southpointe brief, speaking for less than 15 minutes. Attendees wielded signs reading “Trump Digs Coal” — a popular message in the bituminous mining areas of Western Pennsylvania — and those with messages like “Deplorable Lives Matter.”
The latter referred to remarks Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton made at a recent fundraiser, where she characterized half of Mr. Trump’s supporters as belonging in a “basket of deplorables” because of racist attitudes.