Trump visits Ohio, chooses labor chief

President-elect Donald Trump, with Michael Flynn, nominee for national security adviser (left), and Ohio State University Police Chief Craig Stone, arrives to speak with reporters Thursday after visiting with people affected by the recent knife attack at the Columbus campus.
President-elect Donald Trump, with Michael Flynn, nominee for national security adviser (left), and Ohio State University Police Chief Craig Stone, arrives to speak with reporters Thursday after visiting with people affected by the recent knife attack at the Columbus campus.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- President-elect Donald Trump flew to Ohio on Thursday to meet with people who were slashed by a university student in a knife attack last month. Then he was off to Iowa for the latest stop on his victory tour to states that helped him win the presidency.

"The script is not yet written. We do not know what the page will read tomorrow. But for the first time in a long time we know the pages will be authored by each and every one of you," said Trump, who mixed in promises to heal a divided nation with boasts about the size of his victories, from the early primaries to last month's defeat of Hillary Clinton.

Trump also invited Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad onstage and praised his pick to be the next ambassador to China, saying Branstad "knew how to get things done" and would improve "one of the most important relationships we have."

In the middle of it all, Trump also made his latest Cabinet announcement, picking fast-food executive Andrew Puzder to lead the Labor Department. Puzder heads CKE Restaurants Holdings, the parent of Carl's Jr., Hardee's and other chains. The Californian was one of Trump's earliest campaign financiers, and his selection adds yet another wealthy business executive and elite donor to his administration-in-the-making.

[TRUMP: Timeline of president-elect’s career + list of appointments so far]

Trump flew to Columbus to meet with several people who were slashed by Ohio State University student Abdul Razak Ali Artan. Artan, 18, first rammed a campus crowd with his car before getting out with a knife and stabbing students before being fatally shot by police. The president-elect spent about 30 minutes with some of the victims and their families.

"These are great people, amazing people," said Trump, who also paid tribute to the first responders who tended to the victims and shot the attacker. "The families have come through this so well."

Trump met with the families privately, and aides did not immediately provide an accounting of what was discussed. But, in his brief statement to reporters, he he avoided the inflammatory rhetoric that has marked his response to other attacks.

Later in Iowa, he did not mention the attacker but declared: "This horrific assault is just one more tragic reminder that immigration security is national security. A Trump administration will always put the safety and security of American people first."

After the Ohio attack, Trump had tweeted that Artan, a legal Somali immigrant, should not have been in the country. And last week, in Cincinnati, Trump said lax immigration policies enacted by "stupid politicians" led to the "violent atrocity."

On his newest Cabinet selection, Trump said in a statement that as labor secretary Puzder will "save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages."

Some business groups applauded Puzder's selection Thursday, saying that the fast-food executive understands the challenges faced by retailers and restaurants. "Andrew Puzder is someone with the real-world experience to understand workforce issues and how jobs are created," said David French, senior vice president for government relations for the National Retail Federation, which opposes the new overtime rule.

But Trump's choice drew the ire of workers' rights organizations and labor unions.

Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employees International Union said: "Throughout his career, Andrew Puzder has shown he does not believe in the dignity of all work and has used his position to line his own pockets at the expense of workers."

Some Democrats were critical of Trump's pick, saying his approach may harm low-wage workers. "The Labor Secretary should be someone who wakes up every day thinking about how they can raise American wages and fight for American workers," Sen. Charles Schumer said in a statement. "Mr. Puzder's career has shown exactly the opposite."

Puzder has spent his career in the private sector and has opposed efforts to expand eligibility for overtime pay, while arguing that large minimum-wage increases hurt small businesses and lead to job losses among low-skilled workers.

In a Forbes op-ed that ran after the Labor Department finalized the overtime rule in May, Puzder wrote that the rule would "add to the extensive regulatory maze the Obama Administration has imposed on employers," and that the rule would lead to fewer hours and reduced opportunities for workers.

He strongly supports repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which he maintains has helped create a "restaurant recession" because rising premiums have left middle- and working-class people with less money to spend dining out.

Trump On The Go

Today, the president-elect is to make an appearance in Louisiana to boost the Republican Senate candidate ahead of that state's runoff before hosting a rally in Michigan.

His busy week has included unveiling a number of new Cabinet choices.

He has selected retired Marine Gen. John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security, according to people close to the transition; he officially picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate-change denier whose policies have helped fossil-fuel companies, as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and he named the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon, to head the Small Business Administration.

He also may have breathed new life into the candidacy of a secretary of state contender. Trump said he planned to name his choice for the key Cabinet post next week and insisted that former rival Mitt Romney still had a chance. Three sources close to the selection process said late Wednesday that Romney's stock was on the rise again after a period in which the New York businessman had cooled on the candidacy of the former Massachusetts governor.

The choice of Pruitt, whose selection demoralized some environmentalists and Democrats, came not long after Trump met with former Vice President Al Gore, who is an environmental activist, and said he had "an open mind" about honoring the Paris climate accords.

As Trump is considering his selections, he was feuding with a union.

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999 in Indiana, has been critical of Trump's declaration that he saved more than 1,000 jobs from leaving a Carrier plant in Indianapolis, calling that number inflated.

Trump went after Jones on Twitter, saying the union leader had done "a terrible job" representing workers and should "spend more time working-less time talking."

Jones called Trump's reaction "amusing" and said he wasn't backing off "one iota."

"Give the guy credit -- he's got some spunk," Jones said. "Am I upset, worried, scared or anything? No. Does it faze me? No."

Trump was defending a deal that he and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, celebrated during a Dec. 1 visit to Carrier's Indianapolis factory.

Jones said the number of Carrier jobs actually saved is about 800, while about 550 jobs still will be lost from the factory to Mexico.

The union leader said he sat in the third row of the crowd as Trump announced the deal last week and was "disgusted" by his use of the 1,100 jobs figure that included some 250 headquarters and engineering staff positions that the company always had said would remain in Indianapolis.

Jones said that gave false hope to employees, even though "I am very grateful, and I've said it numerous times, for him getting involved and saving 800 people's livelihood."

Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire, Julie Pace, Julie Bykowicz, Lolita Baldor and Tom Davies of The Associated Press; by Noam Scheiber and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times; and by Jonnelle Marte of The Washington Post.

A Section on 12/09/2016

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