OAKS, Pa. — Former President Donald Trump vowed to make housing, energy and food more affordable at a town hall in the nation's largest swing state Monday night, before multiple audience members called out the health emergency. I ended the event early because I experienced this.
Trump, 78, was removed from the packed auditorium after he criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for presiding over high interest rates and inflation that have increased consumer prices by about 21% since Biden took office. , canceled a forum in suburban Philadelphia.
“Let's make this a music festival,” Trump improvised, calling on his staff to belt out opera icon Luciano Pavarotti's “Ave Maria” and other songs as he urged supporters to vote. He left the stage with a call for attendance and voting.
“We won Pennsylvania, we're in a clover state, and we're going to rebuild our country. And we're going to solve it quickly,” Trump said in response to some of the audience's questions. After answering, he encouraged the audience.
The much-hyped event was initially canceled after attendees heard a loud thud that sounded like someone falling from the bleachers, but then a large, middle-aged man was carried off on a stretcher with his shirt torn off. It was.
Minutes later, more attendees shouted for health care workers and Trump was unable to answer questions.
The former president asked for the facility's doors to be opened, but later said he could not leave them ajar due to safety concerns. He and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who is hosting the event, speculated that inflation was making air conditioning equipment too expensive. For facility operators.
Mr. Trump appealed to suburban voters in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania's third most populous county, and outlined some of his economic policies. The county has evenly matched results in statewide polls, and he lost by wide margins in both 2016 and 2020. Mr. Harris, 59 years old.
If he returns to the White House — “You're going to buy that house, you're going to pay 3% interest for two and a half years, and you're going to say, 'I love this person.'” Trump told the first questioner to a veteran who said his family was struggling to buy a home.
Asked about grocery costs by a woman in Philadelphia who said she grew up in a union family who votes Democratic, Trump said she had been asked about her grocery costs during Harris' term, when she was Biden's point person on reducing immigration along the southern border. The focus was on illegal immigration, which recorded the highest rate.
“The influx of millions of people into our country has had a devastating impact on Black families and Hispanic families more than any other family,” Trump said.
Republican candidates advocated increasing domestic fossil fuel production, arguing that “when energy goes down, prices go down.”
“Energy prices will be halved nationwide for one year starting January 20,” he claimed.
President Trump also said he would take aim at regulations that increase the cost of building new housing, a vision that Harris also advocated.
During the shortened question-and-answer session, President Trump talked about new initiatives to strengthen the middle class, including eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits, making IVF infertility treatments free, and allowing automobile tax credits. He did not mention some of the trademark economic policies he targeted. interest payments.
Reflecting the importance of battleground states in national elections, the vice president visited Erie, Pennsylvania, on Monday night, a post-industrial region that has historically been seen as a bellwether.
Trump's town hall drew an audience of 5,000 to 6,000 people, according to his campaign, and Harris addressed a crowd of about 7,000 in Erie, according to the pool report.
Ms. Harris has touted her middle-class economic proposals to expand the child tax credit and keep subsidies for home improvement among the Inflation Control Act's suite of environmental incentives.
Democratic candidates argue that President Trump's tariff plan amounts to a new national sales tax, while Republicans, who used tariff threats as a negotiating tactic during their terms, argue that's not the case, and Biden He claims that illegal immigration has increased to record levels under his administration. Mr. Harris has driven up costs, including housing costs.
Trump won Pennsylvania by more than 44,000 votes in 2016, but lost the state by more than 80,000 votes in 2020.
The former president has performed poorly in Montgomery County in past elections, undermining his overall efforts to keep the state alive, even though he trailed Hillary Clinton by 21 points in 2016. , lost the county to Joe Biden in 2020 by more than 26 points.
