Donald Trump takes Ivanka on the campaign trail where convention was supposed to be 

President Donald Trump took Ivanka Trump with him on the campaign trail to North Carolina Monday to make up for the convention not being held in the state the whole week.  

‘I love North Carolina. And I promised my sister-in-law that I would say that with particular emphasis because Lara Trump has told me more about this amazing state than I think just about anywhere,’ Ivanka Trump told a crowd at a food production plant in Mills River, outside of Asheville. ‘I may know more about North Carolina than I do about New York and I’ve lived there most of my life.’ 

Both Ivanka and the president were making up for North Carolina getting to host only a partial Republican convention, which President Trump blamed squarely on the state’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper – and not his decision to move the big stadium events to Jacksonville, Florida, a plan that had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. 

First daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump accompanied her father on the campaign trail Monday, making stops in North Carolina, the state that was supposed to host the Republican National Convention for the next week 

President Donald Trump (left), Ivanka Trump (center) and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue (right) appeared at the Flavor First Growers and Packers facility in Mills River, North Carolina, a small community outside the more Democrat-friendly Asheville 

Through the day, President Donald Trump blamed the cancelled convention on Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and not his decision to move the bigger parts of it to Jacksonville, Florida, plans that had to be cancelled due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in Florida 

Ivanka Trump (left) greets Trump supporters at the tarmac in Asheville, North Carolina on Monday. The Trumps visited the state after having to pull most of the RNC out of it. Now the president will deliver his Thursday evening remarks from the White House 

President Donald Trump (left) and Ivanka Trump (right) tour the Flavor First Growers and Packers facility in Mills River, North Carolina, which creates some of the USDA- funded Farmers to Families Food Boxes  

Ivanka Trump (right) leads her father President Donald tRump and other government officials through the Flavor First Growers and Packers facility in Mills River, North Carolina. North Carolina will again be a key swing state in the November presidential election 

Earlier Monday, the Trumps were in Charlotte so President Trump could give remarks to the RNC delegates after getting enough votes to win his party’s presidential nomination. 

The Trumps then headed to Mills River, a small town outside of the more blue Asheville, where they toured the Flavor First Growers & Packers facility, which is being used to produce some of the Farmers to Families Food Boxesthat Ivanka Trump has been touting on recent trips to Pittsburgh and in Washington, D.C.  

‘This is truly a win, win, win program,’ the first daughter and White House adviser said. ‘And in government – you can’t say that a lot about government programs especially one of this scale that was mobilized so quickly.’

The program allows farmers and ranchers to sell food that was originally intended to go to restaurants to distributors, which then created boxes and shipped them out to non-profits and faith-based organizations for pick-up from American families. 

‘This is a historic investment. USDA has never done anything like this,’ Ivanka Trump said. ‘With this $1 billion addition we’re going to keep it going and we’re going to keep feeing those in need until this pandemic passes.’ 

Ivanka Trump told North Carolina supporters how when she met people in Washington, D.C., to discuss the program they ‘had tears in their eyes.’ 

‘They had never experienced the produce that was being given to them in these boxes,’ she marveled. ‘They had never had anything this fresh before and this nutritious before, so the double benefit of being able to feed their families off the amazing product that you all grow on your farms.’

Washington, D.C., like many American cities, doesn’t have grocery stores in some sections creating what are called ‘food desserts.’ 

After the stop, the Trumps were headed back to D.C., so the president could watch the first night of the RNC.     

Speakers for the first night includes Donald Trump Jr., South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones, a Democrat who supports the re-election of Trump, former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley and Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters in the aftermath of George Floyd’s Memorial Day death.