{"id":619904,"date":"2026-10-04T01:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T01:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619904\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T01:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T01:18:12","slug":"a-gut-punch-in-ohio-days-before-trump-rally-1000-laid-off-at-factory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619904\/","title":{"rendered":"A gut punch in Ohio: Days before Trump rally, 1000 laid off at factory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sipping tea from beer mugs with his coworkers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing. Bos has two daughters, with a third due in January. At the grocery store, five items cost as much as a full cart once did. <\/p>\n

And on Wednesday, Bos and nearly 1400 other people were laid off from their jobs at what had been the Navistar truck factory in southwestern Ohio. <\/p>\n

The layoffs \u2014 occurring just three days before Donald Trump\u2019s rally on Saturday at a nearby high school \u2014 were large enough to basically erase an entire year of job growth in the greater Dayton, Ohio area. <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump arrives on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

And they are one reason why Bos, 30, plans to spend the final weeks before the November election canvassing votes for Democrats.<\/p>\n

Asked how many times he voted for Trump, Bos held up three tattooed fingers. <\/p>\n

But he said he\u2019s done with the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething has to change politically in this country,\u201d said Bos, a member of the United Auto Workers who identifies as a centrist.<\/p>\n

Trump is campaigning in this area on Saturday<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s election is a test for the working-class coalition that lifted Trump into the White House and gave majorities to Republicans in the House and Senate. <\/p>\n

The outcome will be decided in places like Dayton, which once sprouted factories but shed about half of its 90,000 factory jobs since 1990 after the North American Free Trade Agreement and trade with China made it cheaper to buy auto parts from abroad.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s blunt talk and status as a celebrity businessman initially helped him around Dayton, where voters sensed that politics as usual had failed them. <\/p>\n

But voters this year are disgruntled about inflation and the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the country meets certain conditions. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

An Ohio race could help determine control of the Senate. Republican Sen. Jon Husted is facing a challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is trying to harness that disenchantment as he attempts a comeback two years after losing his seat.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s visit to the Dayton area is one of what he says will be a 32-day marathon of rallies to try to convince the public that the economy is better than they think.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll over the country, they\u2019re building factories, plants, manufacturing\u2019s coming back,\u201d Trump said on Thursday. \u201cThe only thing we\u2019re doing badly at is public relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Americans increasingly blame Trump for the high cost of living, though Trump has largely sneered at concerns about affordability. <\/p>\n

However, he has promised to give people US$5000 checks if Republicans win the House and Senate next month\u2014 something Bos said he found offensive.<\/p>\n

\"UAW<\/p>\n

UAW Local 402 members, Brad Cloud, left, and Marianne Donnelly, right, embrace at the union hall, in Springfield, Ohio (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like a bribe, a slap in the face, and, like, that we\u2019re all ignorant,\u201d Bos said.<\/p>\n

When factory work moved abroad, Republicans gained traction<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, as steady paychecks vanished, drug addiction and crime increased. <\/p>\n

Things seemed to hit bottom after the 2008 financial crisis, prompting Phil Plummer \u2014 who was then Montgomery County Sheriff \u2014 to enter politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy jail was 40% drug addicts, 50% mental health patients, 10% criminals,\u201d said Plummer, the Montgomery County GOP chairman who has been a Republican state representative since 2019. \u201cWe got it upside down \u2014 that\u2019s what drove me to the state house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plummer, the Montgomery County Republican chairman, is now on the ballot for the Ohio state Senate and said he thinks Trump is what keeps the GOP\u2019s coalition of businesses and working-class families together.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An American flag is posted on the register at Fricker’s restaurant and bar in Springfield, Ohio (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

In recent years, the local economy has improved as the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base steadily added government workers. The base has drawn new aerospace companies to the area such as Joby Aviation, Electra and the Sierra Nevada Corporation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn economic development, it takes time, and you have got to give it a little bit of time to bake, and then once it does, then you\u2019re going to have something special,\u201d said Jeff Hoagland, CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition.<\/p>\n

No tax on overtime doesn\u2019t help these factory workers<\/p>\n

The White House pointed to the US$850 million investment by aircraft maker Electra \u2014 along with announcements in Ohio from Honda, Stellantis and others \u2014 as evidence Trump\u2019s policies were creating jobs.<\/p>\n

But at the former Navistar plant, Trump’s broad tariffs never boosted demand and the plant\u2019s former owner, International Motors, chose to offload the facility.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s major legislative achievement \u2014 the One Big, Beautiful Bill \u2014 contributed little to people\u2019s take-home pay, even as it temporarily stripped taxes from tips and overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t getting a lot of overtime because of the economy,\u201d said Marianne Donnelly, who drove a forklift at the factory. \u201cThere just wasn\u2019t any to be had, very little to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laid-off workers like Donnelly say they expect to be rehired in six to 12 months by Roshel, a Canadian manufacturer of armored vehicles, which is buying the plant. <\/p>\n

Roshel said in a statement that it\u2019s \u201cworking with everyone involved not only to protect the current workforce, but to more than double it over the coming years through a phased process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laid-off workers are looking for hope<\/p>\n

On the Monday before the layoffs, Morgan Hughes and JoJo Burkhard were knocking on doors in Kettering, a Dayton suburb. <\/p>\n

They were trying to convince union members and retirees to vote for Democrats.<\/p>\n

The Navistar job had helped Hughes, 35, buy a house at age 21 and work alongside her father. Burkhard said inflation had made it easier to swing voters to their side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t a hard pitch at all,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even if they don\u2019t want to stay Democratic long term, they\u2019ll at least give the candidates a chance this election, which could be a turning point for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a morning of talking to voters, the pair settled down at a Chinese restaurant for some potstickers and the weight of the week hit them.<\/p>\n

Burkhard cracked open a fortune cookie and tears began to well up. <\/p>\n

The layoffs meant no work for her, her boyfriend and her mother \u2014 and the words in small print almost seemed prophetic.<\/p>\n

Her fortune read: \u201cYou\u2019ll find your inner strength to overcome challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sipping tea from beer mugs with his coworkers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing. Bos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,65,111,139,64,69,66],"class_list":["post-619904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}