Trump heads west to meet Ohio State attack victims

President-elect Donald Trump speaks to reporters Tuesday in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York before heading to North Carolina to salute his supporters there.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks to reporters Tuesday in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York before heading to North Carolina to salute his supporters there.

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump is taking on a somber task Thursday that became all too familiar to his predecessor — supporting survivors after an outbreak of violence, this time families and victims from last week's attack at Ohio State University.

Trump is flying to Columbus, Ohio, to meet with several people who were slashed by Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan. Artan, 18, first rammed a campus crowd with his car before getting out with a knife and stabbing students before being fatally shot by police.

As Trump left for Ohio, there was word that he is expected to pick fast-food executive Andrew Puzder to lead the Labor Department. That's according to a Republican official and a person close to Trump's transition, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose the information before the official announcement.

Puzder heads CKE Restaurants Holdings, the parent of Carl's Jr., Hardee's and other chains. The Californian was one of Trump's earliest campaign financiers, and his selection would bring another wealthy business person and elite donor into the president-elect's Cabinet.

After the Ohio State attack, Trump tweeted that Artan, a legal Somali immigrant, should not have been in the country. And last week, in nearby Cincinnati, Trump said lax immigration policies enacted by "stupid politicians" led to the "violent atrocity" at Ohio State.

"We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism out of our country. People are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they are, what they're thinking. And we're going to stop that dead cold flat," Trump told that Ohio crowd. "You just take a good look at what just happened in your state."

Trump will then head to Iowa for the next stop on his tour meant to salute supporters who gave him the White House. He is to appear in Des Moines with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, whom he is planning to appoint as U.S. ambassador to China. On Friday, the president-elect is to make an appearance in Louisiana to boost the Republican Senate candidate ahead of that state's runoff before holding a rally in Michigan.

Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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