EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump speaks 1-on-1 with Local 12 during Cincinnati visit

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump speaks 1-on-1 with Local 12 during Cincinnati visit

READING, Ohio (WKRC) – President Donald Trump visited the Cincinnati area Wednesday, touring Thermo Fisher Scientific and touting efforts to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States while defending his record on energy, national security and drug prices.

It’s really a great company, and they supply a lot of jobs, and they’re bringing medicine and medications back into our country,” Trump said of Thermo Fisher. “They’re doing a fantastic job, and I like to reward the companies that are doing really, really good.”

The visit included a stop in Reading and an appearance later in Northern Kentucky, where Trump signaled the trip also carries political overtones ahead of the midterm elections.

“We have to win the midterms,” Trump said. “Historically, the person that wins the presidency doesn’t do well in the midterms. We’re going to try and turn that around.”

Trump addressed rising gas prices, saying he would consider tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve again. “I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again, but right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down,” he said.

He also pointed to U.S. military action against Iran, saying, “We are knocking the hell out of them,” and claimed Iranian military assets and leadership had been significantly weakened.

On the SAVE Act, election legislation focused on voter identification and citizenship requirements, Trump said, “We want voter ID. Very important. You have to have identification and you have to have proof of citizenship.” He also reiterated opposition to widespread mail-in voting, saying, “We don’t want mail-in ballots because you have crooked elections.”

During his Northern Kentucky appearance, Trump said a key focus would be prescription drug costs. “We went from the highest price in the entire world and now we’re going to pay the lowest price in the entire world,” he said, claiming some medicines have been reduced “by 70, 80, 90 percent.”