Last week at an Ohio Chamber of Commerce conference, Trump allies struck a conciliatory tone at odds with the president-elect’s increasingly hostile rhetoric. Donald Trump has promised mass deportations, mobilizing the police and even the armed forces against a perceived “enemy within” and becoming a sort of avatar of “retribution” on behalf of his supporters.
But hearing Senator-elect Bernie Moreno and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy say the incoming Trump administration will be an open hand rather than a clenched fist. Their message? “Give him a chance” instead of woe to the defeated.
“I am sure he will be eager to use the knowledge he gained in his first term to go even further than anyone imagined in his second term, even in uniting the nation,” Ramaswamy said of Trump.
In the next breath, he added a caveat: “Maybe not with words, but with cheap words — that doesn’t really connect people. But action does. Success is united.”
Moreno delivered a similar “tired of winning” message and pledged to put his office in places that didn’t vote for him.
But even if both men have chosen a softer tone, this change in tone seems to be the extent of the changes they are looking for. There was little indication that they believed Trump would moderate the policy priorities he identified.
Mandate
Following the ouster of three-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and in lightweight of the Republican Party’s gains across the country, Moreno argued that his party had a “mandate to lead.” But he was also careful.
“Look, I didn’t win the vote in Franklin County,” he said. “I didn’t win the vote in Cuyahoga County, Hamilton County, Lucas County, Summit County, Athens County, or Montgomery County – not that I’m keeping track.”
“But that means it’s my fault,” Moreno added. “I consider it my failure. I have failed to explain to the people of these counties why I best represent them, and I will fix that over the next six years.”
He claimed you won’t find a more pro-immigration Republican than him, “but I’m not pro-invasion.” Moreno said he wanted a system that prioritizes people who contribute to the economy rather than depressing wages, and suggested the country could even boost the number of visas and transient work permits. But he said there should be “zero tolerance” for illegal immigrants.
Moreno said he would work to “lower the cost of everything.” The provision, he says, is a “massive cut” in federal spending and an boost in energy production.
“For those of you who care about the planet like I do, building coal mines, coal-fired power plants, and natural gas here is better for the planet because we do it safer, cleaner, and much more efficiently than anywhere else on Earth,” Moreno argued. He added that although there is a place for solar and wind energy, without subsidies they would not be profitable sources.
The United States is already the world’s largest producer oil AND natural gasand the fourth largest producer coal – that everyone uses federal grants.
Moreno argued that we need an “auto manufacturing renaissance” in the United States and that the way to do it is to eliminate subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles or mandates on electric vehicle production or fuel efficiency.
While he has expressed skepticism about government intervention in energy and auto production, he doesn’t want federal officials to back down, there’s an Intel project in Licking County. Trump criticized the provisions of the CHIPS Act that helped speed up the bill, and Moreno admitted that “I may not like the exact way this bill is structured.” Moreno explained that he would feel more comfortable receiving tax incentives rather than subsidies.
Still, he argued, “the federal government made promises to Intel that it didn’t keep. The federal government said it would give them billions of dollars in exchange for their investment. “Not a cent of federal money has flowed to Intel.”
“We cannot lose this project,” Moreno said, adding that “too many businesses in central Ohio rely on this project to operate.”
He stressed the national security implications of moving semiconductor production onshore and said he would personally press the Commerce secretary to ensure money flows if necessary.
I’m rooting for them
Ramaswamy founded a biotech startup before gaining notoriety in conservative circles as an author criticizing “woke” politics. He has launched a long-term presidential campaign that has seen his star rise even higher, and he is now viewed as a potential candidate for a position in the Trump administration or a future candidate for statewide office in Ohio.
He told the crowd he was “rooting” for Democrats to move away from the cultural issues he is criticized against and argued the country would be stronger for it because both sides were “pressing the other to be the best version of themselves.” He advocated restoring a political discourse in which “as Americans we can disagree like hell with each other and still come together around the table.”
“And if you give them a chance,” he said, “even if you’re on the left, I’m sure that’s the America that I think Donald Trump and our fellow Ohioan and good friend J.D. Vance are going to work hard for, to be reborn at the top and set an example for this country.”
But if Democrats don’t do it, he warned, they could end up in the “trash bin of history.”
Ramaswamy eagerly defended one of Trump’s biggest policy promises.
“If we were to face the largest influx of illegal immigrants into this country in American history, it goes without saying that we should be facing the largest mass deportation in American history,” he insisted. “It’s not xenophobic, it’s not racist. This is what it means to stand for the rule of law in the United States of America.”
He criticized independent federal agencies as a “fourth estate.” In fact, agencies are generally part of the executive branch of the government, with top staff selected by the president. Their authority in a specific area, such as employment (National Labor Relations Board), commerce (Federal Trade Commission), or communications (Federal Communications Commission), is delegated to them by an act of Congress.
Ramaswamy, however, argued that two recent Supreme Court rulings deliver a “double whammy” that could severely limit their ability to act.
“This is a century-old sin in the United States of America,” he said, “which we now have a historic and generational opportunity to correct.”
Follow the OCJ reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
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