Trump kicks off 'thank you' tour, reveling in crowd and campaign themes

CINCINNATI — A triumphant Donald J. Trump soaked up the adulation of thousands of supporters here on Thursday as he kicked off a two-week "thank you" tour featuring rallies meant to capture the campaign-style frenzy that sent him to the White House.

For Trump, who in the three weeks since the election has mostly stayed behind closed doors putting together his Cabinet, the Ohio rally provided a respite from those sometimes fraught deliberations.

The rally took Trump back to U.S. Bank Arena, where tens of thousands of people gathered in mid-October for a raucous campaign event. The crowd was noticeably smaller this time; thousands of seats remained empty as Trump started his remarks.

The event carried the hallmarks of Trump's whiplash style during the election: indicting and promising, nostalgic and forward-looking. He resurrected signature applause lines like the pledge to "make America great again" and, in a surprise, announced a Cabinet nomination, retired Gen. James N. Mattis for secretary of defense.

Trump opened his rally with a familiar trope: gawking at the crowd and lamenting the difficulty that supporters were having traveling to the arena.

"So I didn't know what came with this position, and I didn't know that they closed down the roads around the stadium for an hour and a half," he said, thanking the crowd "for being so patient."

"I'm here today for one main reason: to say thank you to Ohio," Trump told the crowd. "Thank you. We won the state by almost 10 points, which they say is totally unheard-of."

[Shouting match erupts between Clinton and Trump aides]

Trump relished reminding the boisterous crowd of his election opponent Hillary Clinton, noting that "we had a lot of fun fighting Hillary Clinton." He smiled broadly but did not react to the crowd's chants of "Lock her up!" that followed.

Those who attended expressed pride in his election and hope that the president-elect would be able to make good on his promise to make the country better.

"He wasn't originally my guy, but the more he spoke, the more he spoke to what rural America, what we want, it was just down to earth," said Kim Pollack, 50, who took a break from her two jobs and drove two hours to attend her first Trump rally.

It was a familiar scene, with hundreds of Trump's supporters lined up outside the arena. Volunteers clad in red shirts handed out "Trump/Pence" signs. The pre-rally soundtrack, heavy on Elton John and the Rolling Stones, rotated through the songs heard during the campaign. The crowd chanted "drain the swamp."

The main difference: the lectern at center stage, which now had a big, bold "USA" where the name "TRUMP" used to be.

As president-elect, Trump has at times seemed frustrated by criticism of his business conflicts and his loss in the popular vote. But at the rally, Trump was once again in good spirits, feeding off the fervor in the crowd. He had just come from Indianapolis, where he celebrated his involvement in Carrier's decision to keep roughly 1,000 jobs in Indiana.

The president-elect plans several more rallies in the next two weeks, most in swing states where his surprise victories helped power him to victory in the Electoral College. But aides to Trump have been quick to correct anyone who refers to the trips as a "victory tour," calling them instead a "thank you" tour. They say it is an opportunity for Trump to get back out in the country and connect with those who helped elect him president.

His selection of Cincinnati was a nod to one of his most resounding victories. The president-elect won by about 8 percentage points in Ohio, a battleground that President Barack Obama won twice.

Trump's campaign often pointed to the size of his rallies as indications that the polls were wrong and that there was a "movement" afoot.

Yet his tour is an unusual move for a president-elect. Most do not return so quickly to the campaign trail, especially while key Cabinet positions remain unfilled. While Trump has moved more quickly than his predecessor to announce nominations, he has yet to reveal his pick for secretary of state.

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Nick Corasaniti reported from Cincinnati, and Michael D. Shear from Washington.