MOUNT POCONO, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s raucous rally Tuesday night in Pennsylvania was billed as the launch of a national tour focused easing voters’ economic anxieties that threaten Republicans’ hold in Washington with the 2026 midterms looming.

But the economy couldn’t maintain the president’s interest for the duration of the speech.

Instead, he rallied the crowd at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono by fomenting anger at Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and other Somali immigrants who live in Minnesota and teasing a 2028 run, despite constitutional limits on a third term.

Employing a method he calls “the weave,” Trump darted back and forth between cost-of-living issues and entirely unrelated material, such as claiming credit for the use of the phrase “Merry Christmas” during the holiday season.

“If I read what’s on the teleprompter, you’d all be falling asleep right now,” Trump said.

It was Trump’s third trip to Pennsylvania since he began his second term, following a campaign in which he spent a considerable amount of time in the Keystone State, winning it back in part by promising to cure a beleaguered economy. It’s the president’s first return to Northeast Pennsylvania, where he saw his biggest gains in the region during the last election, and which will be a crucial battleground in next year’s election, when the GOP’s razor-thin House majority is on the line.

“America is winning again. Pennsylvania is prospering again. And I will not rest until this commonwealth is wealthier and stronger than ever before,” Trump proclaimed at the large casino and hotel complex tucked in between ski resorts in the Pocono Mountains.

The speech comes as many Americans lament the cost of living, workers have lost power in the job market and with their employers, and people are bracing for Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire at the end of the year.

The casino stayed open Tuesday and gamblers played slots and card games on the floor upstairs as Trump spoke in the ballroom below.

Trump, in a speech that stretched over an hour, blamed high prices on his Democratic predecessor, former President Joe Biden. He argued gas prices are down and car prices are dropping thanks to relaxed fuel-efficiency standards. The stock market is up this year and overall growth for the third quarter is strong. Trump also has signed agreements to reduce list prices on prescription drugs.

While Trump continues to contend the affordability narrative is a “hoax,” the event itself was at least an acknowledgment that frustrations with the economy are damaging the Republican brand ahead of the midterms.

“Democrats talking about affordability is like Bonnie and Clyde preaching about public safety,” he said.

Trump noted his connections to the state as a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “I love Philadelphia. It’s gotten a little rougher, but we will take it,” he quipped.

He then reminisced about hosting the Philadelphia Eagles at the White House earlier this year following their Super Bowl win. He hailed coach Nick Sirianni as a “real leader” and marveled at running back Saquon Barkley’s muscles.

“It’s like I hit a piece of steel. ... He’s so strong,” Trump said about patting the Eagles player on the back.

But despite these light-hearted moments, Trump repeatedly went after Omar and the Somali immigrant community.

Trump asked if anyone from the crowd was from Somalia and asked them to raise their hands before tearing into Omar, the progressive Minnesota Democrat who left the African country as a refugee.

“She comes from a country where, I mean, it’s considered about the worst country in the world, right?”

Later in the speech, Trump complained about immigration from Somalia, instead of countries Norway and Denmark. He also accused Democrats of making Pennsylvania a “dumping ground” for immigrants.

Despite this incendiary rhetoric, Trump also celebrated his performance with Black and Latino voters in the last election. He put up the strongest Republican performance with these demographic groups in decades, though a majority both went for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Black people love Trump,” Trump said. “I got the biggest vote with Black people. They know a scam better than anybody. They know what it is to be scammed.”

The two hours of programming before Trump arrived included speeches from two local waiters expressing gratitude for the new law mandating no tax on tips, and a cop grateful for no tax on overtime.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke before Trump at the rally, heralding the region’s contributions to the nation and promising help is coming.

“You built the industrial revolution of our country, built our industrial strength, helped us win two wars,” Wright said, promising that with an increase in natural gas production, energy costs would soon come down.

Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., flew on Air Force One with Trump from Washington.

“He’s here again. I can’t get rid of this guy,” Trump joked after noting McCormick’s frequent presence at his rallies last year.

‘Everyone’s paying a lot more’

Nationwide, prices and inflation have increased this year — with many experts saying that the president’s tariff policies have contributed, though Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that prices have fallen since he took office in January.

In his speech, Trump touted his tariffs as bringing in “hundreds of billions of dollars,” and noted his administration would be steering $12 billion to farmers through that revenue — while glossing over the fact that the money is meant to help agriculture producers cope with retaliatory measures taken by China and other trading partners in response to Trump’s tariffs.

“We gave the farmers a little help ... and they are so happy.” Trump said.

Poll after poll shows Americans see rising home prices, groceries, education, and electricity costing more. Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index found a 17-month low in terms of trust in the economy, and the survey found Americans’ views of the job market are at their most negative since the end of Trump’s first term during the height of the pandemic.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told MS NOW on Tuesday that the “first audience” that Trump has “to sell right now is his own voters now. And now all the polling seems to indicate that he’s really kind of losing the plot with a part of his own voters now front and center.”

For the average Pennsylvanian, there is a “financial struggle” with higher prices on food, child care, health care, and electricity, among other expenses, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

He attributes it to Trump’s tariffs and immigration policies, including deportation, which he said limits the number of people working and has “hurt growth and raised inflation.”

“Everyone’s paying a lot more for basic necessities, most everything,” Zandi said.

Zandi noted Trump’s economic policies include a few positives for workers and employers, including tax breaks for businesses from Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act, as well as the tax cuts on tips and overtime.

“But net, I think the policies have contributed to the financial hardship of the typical Pennsylvanian,” Zandi said.

The picture is slightly brighter in Pennsylvania, the only growing economy in the Northeast, according to Moody’s Analytics. The state has secured $31.6 billion in private-sector investments since Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro took office in 2023, according to his administration.

Shapiro has been quick to argue the state’s relative fiscal health has come in spite of federal policies he argued are hurting Pennsylvanians. He called Trump “a president who seems to want to blame everybody else, whose economic policies are failing,” in an interview Monday night on MS NOW.

“I mean, if he comes to Pennsylvania and spews more B.S. … I think what you’re ultimately going to find are people tuning him out,” Shapiro, a potential contender for the presidency in 2028, said ahead of Trump’s visit. “Because folks can’t unsee what they see when they go to the grocery store, which is that beef and O.J. and bread and the normal staples that they need in their homes, those prices have dramatically increased on Donald Trump’s watch.”

A key battleground

The setting for Trump’s speech is also one of the most closely watched battlegrounds in the state, home to freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s district, which Democrats are targeting to flip. Bresnahan won by 1.5 percentage points last year.

Bresnahan said he and Trump have heard the call for relief. “The message is the same everywhere we go: Lower the cost, higher-paying jobs, keep our community safe, and listen to the people during the work,” he told the crowd in Mount Pocono.

He argued policies authored by Trump and passed by the Republican-led Congress, like tax credits for working families and seniors, are already helping people.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee seized on the visit to blast Bresnahan in ads on the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader website, highlighting his penchant for stock trading. And Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democrat running to unseat Bresnahan, took the moment to call him “the exact kind of self-serving politician that Northeastern Pennsylvanians … all agree we need to get rid of.”

Whether Trump’s message resonates in this part of the country will be telling. Monroe County, home to Mount Pocono, flipped to Trump in the 2024 election after backing Biden in 2020.

The region is home to a large number of New York City transplants who have moved here seeking more-affordable housing in a region that largely relies on Pocono Mountains tourism as the main source of jobs.

While views on the economy were mixed on the casino floor, attendees in the ballroom gave the president a warm welcome back to the state. The Secret Service had to turn people away, and many who got in had waited more than four hours outside on an 18-degree day.

Trump’s ongoing response to affordability woes could have major implications for other vulnerable Republicans hoping to be reelected in the state. In last month’s election, Democrats successfully ran on affordability in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races — and picked up a slew of local seats in Pennsylvania.

The DCCC has its sights on the seats of three other Pennsylvania Republicans, along with Bresnahan: U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County; U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Lehigh County; and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry of York County.

Attendees in the crowd Tuesday night held “Hold the House, Save the Country” posters.

Marc Stier, executive director of the Pennsylvania Policy Center, who was a leading advocate for the establishment of the ACA, argued that “voters are not fools, particularly when it comes to their pocketbook.” Penn Policy helps lead the “Federal Fightback” campaign against Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy associated with cuts to food assistance and Medicaid.

Whether the current state of the economy affects Republicans’ chances in 2026, Stier said, depends on how willing the party will be to keep acknowledging that many Americans are struggling.

“How they talk about it will determine in some ways how badly they get hurt,” Stier said. “If they acknowledge a problem and, say, come up with ideas to deal with it, they will probably be hurt less. If they followed Trump’s line … I think they’re gonna get clobbered.”

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