Trump touts U.S. economy and oil prices in a midterm pitch in Pennsylvania
MACUNGIE, Pa. — Speaking in a key Pennsylvania swing district on Tuesday, President Donald Trump sought to reassure voters that costs are coming down and that they are better off than they were two years ago.
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After the war with Iran helped drive up energy prices, and with them the cost of household goods and groceries, Trump touted the price of oil dropping to a recent low as markets surged. U.S. crude closed at $73.21 Tuesday, just $6.19 higher than the day before the U.S. struck Iran.
“That oil is going to come charging down. And with oil comes everything else,” Trump said.
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Billed as a speech focused on American workers and the cost of living, Trump delivered his remarks at a massive Mack Trucks manufacturing facility here in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, an area critical to Republican hopes of maintaining control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Jobs are surging in the Lehigh Valley, Trump told the crowd, with more auto plants under construction. Trump said the administration had created 32,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania, with pharmaceutical, medical device and other companies building manufacturing facilities in the area. He cited his tax cuts and efforts to lower prescription drug prices, saying each “alone should win us the midterms.”
Trump touted what he said were the economic benefits from the peace agreement that his administration is working to cement with Tehran. And he defended his overseas efforts, saying he’d successfully stood up to “trade cheaters” with his tariffs to protect American jobs.
“And now I’m standing up again because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “I placed 50% tariffs on foreign copper, aluminum, and steel, so they couldn’t come in and steal your job, and sometimes even more than 100% tariffs. They weren’t going to come in from foreign lands and steal your jobs.”
The president also made repeated pitches for passing the SAVE America Act, a sweeping voter ID bill and chief legislative priority of his second term, including riffing on a recent election in California before calling for the law to be passed. It is currently stalled in the Senate.
Trump urged voters to back Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania, who represents Macungie and is one of four Pennsylvania Republicans whom Democrats are targeting to win the House majority this fall. The president’s supporters lined up for over half a mile in the pouring rain.
“They want to hear that the economy is going to grow again,” John McLaughlin, the president’s pollster, said. “You have a lot of working and middle-class voters who have felt that they’ve been exploited for decades. It’s about economic growth.”
“They could feel better,” he added. “But the president’s not on the ballot in November, and Republicans need to get behind his agenda.”
“If you can grow the economy, small business will grow, jobs will stay in America, and they will benefit,” McLaughlin said. “But they want to be able to see that. … If you don’t have a growing economy, it makes it very hard to hold your majorities.”
That’s likely to come up Wednesday, when Trump visits Capitol Hill to speak to Senate Republicans at their weekly lunch. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he had a list of things that Senate Republicans would like to accomplish with Trump ahead of November that “will enable us to take an argument to the American people that will persuade them that they want to keep majorities here in Congress.”
Also expected to come up is the SAVE America Act, which Republicans have so far been unable to pass amid Democratic opposition and despite Trump’s repeated calls to do so.
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Ahead of Trump’s remarks, attendees said they wished to hear more from him about his efforts to bring down prices. Many were broadly supportive of his efforts in office, saying they were willing to give the president more time, including on the Iran war, as the administration works to negotiate a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
Jason Banonis, an attorney who attended the speech, said he doesn’t mind if the U.S. has to strike Iran again. “I trust the president,” Banonis said, adding that he believes the cost of goods will come down once the conflict resolves.
But Banonis, who has two sons ages 18 and 20, said that while people are feeling better about the economy, he hoped the president would deliver a message to Americans on how he plans to bring prices down further.
As for Republicans in the midterms, he said, “Trump is not on the ballot — that’s a concern.”
Complicating that picture is the Iran war, now into its fourth month, with negotiations underway this week in Switzerland to keep open a vital shipping waterway and bring the conflict to a close. The war has driven up gas prices and economic uncertainty heading into the summer. And while a fragile truce is underway, the president has threatened to restart combat operations if he does not see the progress he is hoping for in negotiations, saying Tuesday that if they are not reasonable, “we’ll have to finish the job.”
That would take “about maybe less than a week,” the president added.
Ben Coombs, 30, a production team leader at Mack Trucks, said before the speech that he hoped to hear Trump lay out plans to help stop manufacturers from moving their operations to Mexico. He said the hit on the economy is being felt locally and blamed the price of diesel going up and consumer confidence dropping, which he said had hurt orders of the company’s trucks.
When asked about the president’s efforts to end the Iran war, he responded, “The war didn’t have to happen.”
When asked what he thought were the risks for Republicans heading into the midterm elections, Coombs cited his disappointment with Republicans’ handling of the Epstein files, documents related to investigations into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “The Epstein files crushed my hopes,” he said, adding that he “would have liked to see people held accountable.”
Jim Vinup, another attendee, said he wanted to see movement on the SAVE Act. “The Senate and the House has to get together and do that,” Vinup said. “I really want to see that bill go through.”
He said he was pleased with Trump’s handling of the Iran war and urged critics to cut him slack after just 18 months in office, saying “it’s only a matter of time” until gas prices fall back down.
As for Iran, rallygoer Rhonda Butz said, “they cannot have the bomb.”
McLaughlin said the president’s record in recent primary elections shows his base of support is still strong, including in Kentucky, where a Trump-endorsed candidate toppled Rep. Thomas Massie — the lead Republican on legislation to release the Epstein files, who frequently broke with Trump — after 14 years in office.
The challenge is ensuring Trump’s voters turn out in November, in an election where he will not be on the ballot, and independent voters remain motivated. “They are looking at the next election and saying, ‘What are you going to do to make my life better?’” McLaughlin said.
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