DeWine defends right to protest, takes wait-and-see approach to Trump policies
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Thousands of protestors hit the streets across Ohio over the weekend to show their dissatisfaction with the federal government.
“These were peaceful demonstrations, appeared to be all over the country, not just in Ohio,” Gov. Mike DeWine said. “And look, this is part of our system. This is part of what we do in this country.”
The protests were part of a series seen regularly across the country since February, much of it against the leader of DeWine’s party and the country, President Donald Trump.
“Well, I thought what you saw this weekend was people exercising their First Amendment rights and we have to be in favor of them exercising their rights,” DeWine said. “We respect their opinions and I'm sure that, you know, people will continue to express their opinions, which is a good thing.”
While DeWine is happy to see Ohioans voicing their opinions via their First Amendment rights, he said it is still too soon to tell how certain decisions that Trump is making, like widespread tariffs, might impact Ohioans.
“We’re going to see how this works,” DeWine said. “These are the president's decisions; he's made these decisions. We can only hope that, you know, this does, in fact, work and puts the United States in a better position, but the jury is still out. We do not have a verdict on that, certainly.”
DeWine said, however, that the state budget, which is being worked on right now, is impacted by the state of the economy.
“Well certainly our budget always depends on how much money is coming in,” he said. “Unlike the federal government, we have to actually balance our budget, which we think is good thing and so, if we have a downturn in the economy, if that’s what happens, then certainly that is going to impact our budget.”
DeWine said regardless, this last month’s report on the state of Ohio’s economy was “by and large, pretty good.”
“We’ll just have to see where we go,” DeWine said. “Certainly, we are impacted in our state budget, what money we have for education, what money we have for all kinds of things certainly depends on how good the economy is doing. The economy has been doing pretty well and so that’s been very helpful.”