The Rust Belt is Counting on Trump

It’s official, Donal Trump has been sworn in as the 45th president of the United States and Armageddon did not transpire during Friday’s inauguration. The real estate mogul from New York City did the unthinkable and as he unpacks his champagne glasses in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Americans, especially in the Rust Belt wait and watch in hopes of a presidency greater than the last eight years under Barack Obama.

As 44 headed for the door, he left behind a disaster in the center of the globe better known as the Middle East, a broken national health care system, and issued more presidential commutations (1,385, if you are keeping count) than any president in recent history. For better or worse, President Trump will now spend the first 100 days picking up the pieces and undoing the damage wrought by the last eight years of a president who lacked follow through on various campaign promises.

There is no doubt, the Trump white house will be under a microscope. Between the media and fellow global leaders, all eyes will be on America, thanks in large part to Twitter. However, the first 100 days and possibly the next four years will not be about the media or other countries, but rather, it will be about the voters.

When Trump ran for office, his campaign was, to put it mildly, unconventional. Trump leveraged Twitter and harnessed the unrest and frustration felt by millions of Americans who had watched their circumstances wane during the course of Obama’s presidency.

Along the campaign trail, Trump reignited a fervor in the American dream, and now it is time to deliver. Over the next 100 days, while the world watches in feverish anticipation of a misstep by Trump, American voters who rode the Trump Train to victory will hope for a better situation than the quagmire they have found themselves in during the previous eight years.

It is a well known fact, Trump’s campaign strategy to win was paved through the Rust Belt. Flipping key states in the Rust Belt such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as well as Indiana and Iowa, both states had previously supported Obama in 2008 and again in 2012. Trump’s Rust Belt strategy paid off and now it is time for Trump to make good on his promises or risk becoming a one time president who sold the sizzle but never delivered on the steak.

Blue collar workers are counting on the Trump presidency to turn the country around and they will measure his success, not in bills passed by Congress or laws signed by Trump himself, but by the jobs kept in or brought back to America, lower taxes, and most of all a rise in their household income.

The statistics are staggering in terms of how the Rust Belt has suffered between a decline in jobs to a decline in wages. Since 2000, over 700,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, and wages are no match for the continued rise in cost of living.

Nevertheless, on Friday, January 20th, Americans in the Rust Belt as well as the rest of the country have the opportunity to reap the benefits of Trump’s America. However, for skeptics, critics, and pessimists the next four years will be long and arduous, because the truth is Trump has already failed them long before he ever took office.

While Congress huddles together to find an alternate solution after the repeal of Obamacare, Trump should use his first 100 days wisely and focus on giving back to the part of the country that took a chance and swiped right on a Republican candidate. After all, nothing says four more years like turning the Rust Belt into gold by bringing back good paying manufacturing jobs and jumpstarting the economy.