WILKES-BARRE — Former President Donald J. Trump stayed true to form Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, delivering a meandering speech with broad promises of reforms to “Make America Great Again.”
Trump spoke for about 105 minutes, addressing a raucous near-capacity crowd at the outset of the event inside the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. As his speech went on, the crowd gradually thinned out but those who remained were no less enthusiastic in their support of the former president.
Trump opened with messaging about the economy — a theme he’d return to throughout his speech — while attacking Vice President Kamala Harris and playing to the crowd about the cost of living.
Trump blamed Harris and his 2020 election foe, President Joe Biden, for enacting policies that created the inflation that’s squeezed Americans over the past few years.
The rate of inflation on all items was just 1.4% in January 2021, less than a year into the COVID pandemic and the start of the Biden presidency. Inflation continued an upward trajectory with a peak of 9.1% in June 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It’s slowly fallen in the months since, hitting a recent low of 2.9% in July, but providing little comfort to a public paying, for example, 21% more for groceries compared to three years ago, according to The Associated Press.
“Does anyone here feel richer under Kamala Harris? Is anything less expensive under Kamala Harris?” Trump asked.
To each question, the crowd roared, “No!”
Trump pledged that on the day he takes the oath of office, should he win back The White House, “we will radically drive prices down and we will make America affordable again.”
That brought cheers. The former president didn’t follow with specific details on how that might be achieved.
Trump alluded to boosting energy production, capitalizing specifically on Pennsylvania’s resources, in an effort to cut household energy costs by 50%. He chided Harris for her new approach to fracking, having recently turned face on a position she had held — supporting a ban on the practice.
“Pennsylvania is going to always be fracking because we desperately need the energy,” Trump said.
He called for the implementation of foreign tariffs as a way to force a return of manufacturing and jobs stateside, touting a reciprocal trade act that would be punitive against countries overtaxing American goods.
Trump reiterated a position he’s blamed Harris for stealing “No tax on tips,” a proposal he touted in June while the Democratic nominee announced her support of similar action at a Las Vegas rally on Aug. 10. Trump also pledged to end taxes on Social Security income, too, and to “always protect” Social Security and Medicare.
And, he promised on his first day in office to sign an executive order directing his cabinet to do anything they can to lower inflated prices on goods.
“Day one for Kamala was three-and-a-half years ago,” Trump said, referring to her “day one” promise on addressing price gouging. “Why didn’t she do it then?”
Trump said he’d build up military defenses around the U.S., akin to the “Iron Dome” air defense system used in Israel. He also promised to prevent the use of public resources for illegal immigrants, saying he’d oversee the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in the country’s history.
But, improving the economy seemed to be his main focus during Saturday’s speech.
Harris, who’s avoided one-on-one media interviews and press conferences since she replaced Biden last month, laid out an economic plan this week.
It aims to lower the cost of rent and home purchasing, in part, through tax incentives, dedicated funding toward spurring the construction of 3 million new homes, and a proposal for $25,000 to support down-payments for first-time homebuyers. She’s also proposed to cut prescription costs, erase medical debt and lower grocery prices through a federal ban on gouging. Reception to the action on prices has been mixed with doubts cast on the potential impact and fallout.
Trump likened Harris’ plan to Soviet-style price controls, saying whenever such controls were pursued it led to supply shortages and further inflation, saying Harris “went full communist.”
“You’re fired!” Trump exclaimed of Harris during his address, his trademark phrase drawing one of the largest crowd responses of the event.
Trump’s visit to Wilkes-Barre came as his campaign schedule is picking up steam.
He campaigned in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday, and hosted media Thursday for a press conference at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, ahead of his return to Pennsylvania where he’s campaigned this summer in Harrisburg and infamously, Butler, the site of an assassination attempt.
He’ll be back in Pennsylvania on Monday for a stump speech in York before heading to Michigan for an event Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Democratic ticket launches a bus tour Sunday in Pittsburgh with events planned along the way to the DNC in Chicago.
The Harris-Walz campaign slammed Trump on Saturday ahead of his Wilkes-Barre visit, continuing to link him to Project 2025 from the Heritage Foundation and created by multiple former members of his administration. The Democrats rapped Trump for his positions on health care, tax cuts for the wealthy, labor protections and tariffs.
“When Trump was here, he killed over 275,000 Pennsylvania jobs. He shipped jobs overseas. He presided over factory closings. He was the most anti-labor president in recent memory,” Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti said at an event Friday. “(Trump’s) administration did just about everything they could to help big corporations rip off workers. Instead of giving working families a leg up, he handed out massive tax cuts to the rich and stuck the rest of us with the bill.”
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