Trump holds private event in Columbus for millennials

The Hayes ballroom was filled with young men and women decked out in school colors and Trump-themed gear (some memorable t-shirts include “Hillary for Prison 2016” and “The ‘H’ in Benghazi is silent”) Thursday afternoon for a private event held by the Republican presidential candidate to emphasize the importance of voting in the upcoming election. Millennials greeted the hopeful President with a standing ovation upon hearing he will protect their First Amendment rights. They even chanted “USA! USA! USA!” in response to this. This type of response is most often seen when Trump’s campaign is managing the stage and event space.

The majority of attendees were Trump supporters, like James, 35, who said, “I’m voting for Trump because we are in the middle of a crisis in the world. There are people infiltrating Western society; it’s foolish to look at Europe’s immigration policies and think we can do the same thing. If we fall, the whole world will fall.”

Yet there was the occasional outlier, like Brennan, 26, who came to see Trump speak because it was a “once in a lifetime historical moment.”

Whether a supporter or not, Trump’s talking points were clear from the moment he stepped behind the podium. He started by refuting multiple headlines from the media, stating that he never “invaded Clinton’s space” during Monday night’s debate – she was the one who walked in front of his podium – and that the “failing [according to Trump] New York Times (who published an article accusing him of sexual harassment Wednesday) is inventing false lies without any evidence, no witnesses, no nothing. I never met these people; I don’t even know who they are. They are made up stories filed right before the election. It’s a disgrace.”

This led Trump into talking about his opponent, “Crooked Hillary,” whose “greatest weapon” is the media. According to Trump, “She has nothing else. The Wikileaks emails show that the Clintons and the corporate media are one and the same; they collaborate and conspire together.”

He, of course, brought up the Clinton’s deletion of 33,000 emails after a subpoena from the Congress, her ignorance of security requests in Benghazi which lead to the death of four Americans, her involvement with getting a rapist of a twelve-year-old “off the hook,” as Trump puts it, and her pledge to open borders.

Then, Trump transitioned into his positions on political affairs that are near and dear to millennials’ hearts such as lowering tuition by weakening federal regulation, a student loan program that would cap the amount of income being put towards college debt and diminish the debt after 15 years of payment, and protecting freedom of speech on campus.

He ended his speech by focusing on his economic plan of “big league” tax cuts and creating “not good, but great” jobs for graduating college students through reforms, supporting start-ups, and “rededication to the constitutional rule of law.”

But of course, he didn’t leave without reiterating his famous line just one more time: “Together, we will make America great again.”