President-elect Trump met Thursday with families and victims of last week's terror attack at Ohio State University, just before jetting off to Des Moines, Iowa for the latest stop on his swing state "thank you tour."

After conducting transition business in New York City Thursday morning, Trump and several top aides departed for Columbus, Ohio where he performed a far more somber task.

"This is a great honor for me today. We're in a fantastic state that I love, Ohio. And we just saw the victims and the families," Trump told reporters after his meeting.

"These were really brave people, amazing people. The police and first responders were incredible," he added. "The families have done so well to come through this so well."

Just over a week ago, a Somali-born refugee plowed his vehicle into dozens of pedestrians on Ohio State's campus before stabbing several onlookers with a butcher's knife. The attacker, 18-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was gunned down by law enforcement officials within minutes, but not before severely injuring at least 11 of his peers.

"We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism our of our country. People are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they are, what they're thinking, and we're going to stop that dead cold flat," the incoming Republican president told a crowd in Cincinnati at his first post-election rally last Thursday.

The Islamic State terror group took credit for the Ohio State attack last week, and Trump is likely to use it to make a forceful push for his own proposal to restrict immigration from state sponsors of terrorism and suspend the current administration's refugee resettlement program.

"ISIS is taking credit for the terrible stabbing attack at Ohio State University by a Somali refugee who should not have been in our country," Trump tweeted last week.

The president-elect's meeting with victims of the attack and first responders took place in the Jerome Schottenstein Center on Ohio State's campus. Reporters were not allowed to enter the event and transition officials declined to say whether Trump would deliver remarks before heading to Iowa.