Live from Trumpland: Betsy Woodruff: Trump Tells Virginia Town It’s Failing, Cites the Wrong Place:
Loudoun is the richest county in America... replete with defense contractors, engineers, and rocket scientists. And it’s recession-proof...
But Trump seems to think it’s part of the Rust Belt. Toward the end of his speech—to an atypically preppy, professional, clean-cut audience—the candidate bashed the county economy. “You’re doing lousy over here, by the way, I hate to tell you,” he said. That is empirically false. He then listed a number of factory closures, including Ball Corp., which was five hours away in Bristol, as far from Loudoun as you can get without leaving the state. And he mentioned the closure of a Smithfield Foods Inc. “Anybody used to work for Smithfield?” he asked the crowd. It’s almost certain none of them did. The Smithfield plant that closed was in Hampton Roads, Virginia—three hours from Ashburn, in the southeast corner of the state....
He went back to naming factories. “Stanley Furniture closed its plant,” he continued. Stanley Furniture did indeed recently close a plant, in 2014. That plant was in North Carolina. He also mentioned the closure of a plant owned by Invista, a Koch Industries company that produces fabric and carpeting. That plant was two hours from Ashburn, and it closed eight years ago. Then Trump discussed job losses in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ohio....
Know what is an issue in Loudoun, besides defense spending? Protecting the rights of immigrants and other minorities. The population of voters like Rahimyar—young, well-educated members of ethnic or religious minorities—has grown rapidly in Northern Virginia over the past two decades. In fact, the two demographic groups that Trump has done the most to isolate are also among the fastest growing in Loudoun: Hispanics and Muslims....
Muslims living in Loudoun County won’t be hard to find. One woman who protested with Rahimyar outside his Briar Woods High School event was 18-year-old Azeeza Hasan, the valedictorian of the high school’s class of 2016. “I feel like it’s important to show Trump what the make-up of this Briar Woods community and alumni—what they really are, how diverse it is,” she told WUSA9 reporter Peggy Fox. “I think it’s just important to have Mr. Trump know we are here,” she added.
