Ariél Zangla reports in The Daily Freeman how local Republican officials reacted to President Donald Trump advising New Yorkers to leave the state. The Republican president told the Wall Street Journal June 25 that upstate New Yorkers needed to move where there are more jobs. “... I’m going to start explaining to people: When you have an area that just isn’t working, like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t get people, I’m going to explain, you can leave. It’s OK. Don’t worry about your house,” the president said. State Senator George Amedore said in a prepared statement, “We have a high cost of living and doing business that continues to drive people to leave the state. But we are also fortunate to be surrounded by some of the most beautiful natural resources in the world right here in the Hudson Valley and throughout the state. I have faith that with the proper policies to help relieve the burdens on residents and businesses and create a more favorable climate, we can continue to move our upstate communities in the right direction. What I’d like to hear from the president is how he’s going to work with us to accomplish that.” Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro said, "Yes, Dutchess County experienced in the early ’90s that very crisis. The mass exodus of manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.” U.S. Rep. John Faso said, “This is because state leaders like Governor [Andrew] Cuomo are more interested in defending the status quo and paying for light shows on the George Washington Bridge than pursuing reforms to foster economic prosperity for individuals and businesses.” Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.