DAVID GREENE, HOST:
You know, if you watch any presidential candidate for long enough, you see different sides of their personality. Sometimes on the campaign trail, Donald Trump can be combative. Other times, he seems mischievous. As NPR's Scott Detrow reports, a campaign swing through Ohio brought out Trump's lighter side.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Back in Ohio, Trump seemed relaxed and confident. His anti-free trade message resonates in this manufacturing state, and Trump kept returning to it, even when he ran into some problems with the teleprompter in Toledo.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMPAIGN RALLY)
DONALD TRUMP: Employees at Dixon Ticonderer-ow-ow-ow-woo (ph)...
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Dixon Ticonderoga, right? Is that the name? Who the hell cares? They're gone. I mean, who cares?
DETROW: Dixon Ticonderoga - the company closed its Ohio plant after NAFTA went into effect, and they made their Ohio employees train Mexican workers who would take over their jobs.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMPAIGN RALLY)
TRUMP: See, now with me, they wouldn't be able to leave because whatever the hell they make...
DETROW: They make pencils. As he's been doing lately, Trump walked the crowds through his top priorities - rewriting NAFTA, repealing Obamacare.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMPAIGN RALLY)
TRUMP: It's a catastrophic situation beyond imagination.
DETROW: When Trump is in a groove on the campaign trail, he frames himself as a change agent ready to blow up Washington. But sometimes, Trump just can't let things go. It's like he has to counter every criticism, like Hillary Clinton's critique he left the campaign trail this week to preside over the grand opening of his new Washington, D.C. hotel. Here's Trump in Springfield, Ohio.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMPAIGN RALLY)
TRUMP: I've been doing six, seven, eight things a day every single day. She's home sleeping half the time.
DETROW: Despite what nearly every public poll shows, Trump is acting confident.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMPAIGN RALLY)
TRUMP: If we win on November 8...
DETROW: He teed the Toledo crowd up to urge him on.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAMPAIGN RALLY)
TRUMP: When we win...
(CHEERING)
DETROW: If Trump is going to become president, though, he almost certainly needs to win here in Ohio.
Scott Detrow, NPR News, Toledo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
