SCRANTON, Pa.—Speaking to large audiences in two working-class communities on Oct. 9, former President Donald Trump described how he would put more money back in people’s pockets if he wins reelection.
Trump said current policies are crushing Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that could decide the outcome of the Nov. 5 presidential election.
“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing!” he told an audience of 3,000 people at the Riverfront Sports complex in Scranton, repeating it later at a rally in Reading’s Santander Arena, which holds 7,000 to 8,000 people.
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, have both made multiple recent stops in the Keystone State, as they make their final pushes for voters.
“I make Pennsylvania this promise: I will stop the energy-price hikes, I will stop the [industrial] plant closures immediately,” Trump said.
In Scranton, and Reading, about 100 miles away, the median income is under $50,000; in contrast, the national median income is $75,000, national figures show.
Robert Dee, a retired firefighter in the borough of Dunmore near Scranton, said Trump’s speech in Scranton was inspirational.
Dee, who was with about two dozen firefighters who attended wearing distinctive T-shirts or firefighters’ dress-blue uniforms, said he is confident that Trump will fix problems that affect people’s daily lives if he wins reelection.
“I just love Donald Trump. I love everything he stands for, securing the border, improving the economy, health, everything,” Dee told The Epoch Times.
Harris and President Joe Biden have pushed for generating energy from wind, water, and solar power. Trump said wind power is so expensive to create and unreliable as a power source.
Trump set a goal of cutting people’s energy costs by 50 percent within the first year of his new administration if he regains the White House.
The current mandates to shift from gasoline-powered cars to electric ones will overburden the nation’s power grid and decimate U.S. auto manufacturers and other companies, Trump said.
The former president said American society doesn’t function correctly because current policies are allowing illegal immigrants to flood across the nation’s borders, sapping public resources and undercutting Americans’ ability to get good-paying jobs.
Trump pledged to address each of those issues, saying, “We’re going to have a country that works very, very soon.”
The state has been hit hard by the decline of its industries. Trump said that if he becomes the 47th president, he will end federal regulations that are pushing companies out of business. He pointed to the recent closure of the state’s largest coal-fired energy plant across the state in Homer City as a “devastating” blow to that western Pennsylvania community of fewer than 2,000 people.
Trump also reminded people that he would implement a permanent federal tax cut, while also halting taxation of overtime pay, tips for service workers, and seniors’ Social Security income.
Pennsylvania has flipped back and forth between Harris and Trump five times in RCP’s standings since August, changing columns more times than any of the other six swing states: Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. In those states, voters’ allegiance has shifted between the two major political parties, rather than remaining reliably Republican or Democrat.
His campaign did not disclose specific reasons the former president chose to add Coachella to his calendar.
