Donald Trump returned to Pennsylvania, emphasizing its critical role in his 2024 campaign and urging supporters to vote, even as he criticized early voting as "stupid stuff." He told rally-goers, "If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing," acknowledging the state's pivotal role, as it swung for Joe Biden in 2020 and helped secure his victory.
Despite polls showing Vice President Kamala Harris with a slight edge in the state, Pennsylvania remains highly competitive, with both candidates visiting frequently in the lead-up to November. Axios reported that Trump has held fewer rallies this year compared to 2016, though his campaign plans to ramp them up as the election nears. Earlier that day, Trump discussed economic issues with farmers and advocated for tariffs on foreign countries to bolster the U.S. economy.
While Trump’s rallies have been fewer, his speeches are increasingly filled with digressions, a hallmark of his speaking style. At Indiana University of Pennsylvania, he moved rapidly between topics, at times difficult to follow. When focused, he painted a grim picture of America under Democratic leadership, pledging mass deportations and other policies if he regains office. Trump defended his tangents as part of a storytelling method he calls “the weave,” though critics argue it's a way of masking disorganization.
During the rally, Trump railed against Harris, calling her "a very dumb person," and mocked Biden, reverting to his old nickname "sleepy Joe." He also touched on several other subjects, from environmentalism to his superiority over Winston Churchill in drawing crowds. At one point, he claimed, falsely, that crime is rising (in fact, it has decreased), and repeated his baseless assertion that he won the 2020 election by millions of votes.
Trump linked the ongoing wars between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas, to his loss in 2020, suggesting that these conflicts wouldn’t exist if he were in office. He criticized Harris’s interview with Oprah Winfrey and resurfaced an unproven claim about her not working at McDonald’s as a student. In response, Trump said he might work at a McDonald’s himself for a short time to see what it’s like.
He also addressed the controversial topic of abortion, commending the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade while vaguely supporting unspecified exceptions to abortion bans. He criticized Democrats for focusing on the issue, despite other pressing concerns like the threat of world war.
Trump’s stop in Pennsylvania came after two reported assassination attempts on his life, including one in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. He mentioned his return to Butler in early October and displayed an immigration chart he said helped save his life during the attack, humorously claiming he “sleeps with that page” every night. He continued to rail against immigration, describing some towns as "lawless" due to an influx of migrants and promising to end migrant flights to Pennsylvania if he wins the presidency.
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