Trump touts hotel as Pence heads to Utah
ASHLAND, Ohio — Donald Trump is taking a break from campaigning today to formally open his new hotel in Washington, D.C., while dispatching his running mate to play political defense in Utah — which hasn’t backed a Democrat for president in 52 years.
The odd travel schedule a dozen days before the Nov. 8 election illustrates a Republican ticket pulled in two directions while Democrat Hillary Clinton surges. Trump’s priority Wednesday is clear: His personal brand and business, while Indiana Gov. Mike Pence tries to boost the ticket where no Republican should have to.
“I don’t really believe the polls, but this looks like a tight race,” said Trump supporter Susan Donaldson, 55, who worried at a Tuesday afternoon rally in Sanford, Fla., that the GOP nominee may be spreading himself too thin. “Can he be taking time out like that?”
Trump will visit North Carolina for two campaign rallies this afternoon, after spending the morning attending a ribbon-cutting at the new $212 million hotel that bears his name at Washington’s Old Post Office Pavilion, not far from the White House.
Not all of The New Yorker’s backers shared Donaldson’s concerns about Trump.
“He’s not distracted. He’s a smart man who can do it all,” said Kathy Haight, a 69-year-old grandmother from Geneva, Fla., who attended a Trump rally Tuesday. “And he’s going to win. He can afford to take the little break if he wants.”
Pence also is stopping in swing states of Nevada and Colorado before he heads on Thursday to solidly Republican Nebraska, a state that awards some of its electoral votes by congressional district. His rally in Omaha may be aimed at shoring up support in the one district that Clinton could potentially win.
Spokesman Marc Lotter said Pence’s Utah visit is more about favorable logistics than fears the deep red state could be slipping away. Pence had already planned a Western swing that included a fundraiser in Utah, he said, adding that a rally was easy.
But Trump undoubtedly can’t count on heavily Mormon Utah, last won by a Democrat when President Lyndon B. Johnson carried the state in 1964. Many of the state’s top Republicans urged Trump to abandon the race following the release of a 2005 recording on which the billionaire bragged about sexually accosting women.
Trump spent Tuesday morning visiting another of his properties, the Doral golf course outside Miami. There, employees, many of them Hispanic women, offered testimonials about how happy they are working for him — touting Trump’s job-creating prowess.
