Trump zigzags between economic remarks and personal insults at rally in critical Pennsylvania

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Saturday again sought to deliver a campaign message focused on the economy, but the Republican repeatedly swerved into non-sequiturs and personal attacks, including twice declaring that he was better looking than Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump wound back and forth between hitting his points on economic policy and delivering a smattering of insults and impressions of President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron as he held a rally in northeastern Pennsylvania.

As he attacked Democrats for inflation, he asked his crowd of supporters, “You don’t mind if I go off teleprompter for a second, do you? Joe Biden hates her.”

Trump’s rally was in a swath of the pivotal battleground state where he hopes conservative, white working-class voters near Biden’s hometown will boost the Republican’s chances of winning back the White House.

His remarks Saturday came as Democrats prepare for their four-day national convention that kicks off Monday in Chicago and will mark the party’s welcoming of Harris as their nominee. Her replacement of Biden with less than four months before the November election reinvigorated Democrats and their coalition, and has presented a new challenge for Trump.

Trump laced in attacks on Harris’ laugh and said she was “not a very good wordsmith” and mocked the names of the CNN anchors who moderated the debate he had with Biden in June.

He also hammered Harris on the economy, associating her with the Biden administration’s inflation woes and likening her latest proposal against price gouging to measures in communist nations. Trump has said a federal ban on price gouging for groceries would lead to food shortages, rationing and hunger and on Saturday asked why she hadn’t worked to solve prices when she and Biden were sworn into office in 2021.

“Day one for Kamala was three and a half years ago. So why didn’t she do it then? So this is day 1,305,” Trump said.

He maundered in his remarks from the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 to doing impressions of Macron’s French accent. But he took issue with the way his free-wheeling style is typically portrayed in news reports.

“They will say he’s rambling. I don’t ramble. I’m a really smart guy.” “I don’t ramble.”

He predicted financial ruin for the country and Pennsylvania in particular if Harris wins, citing her past opposition to fracking, an oil and gas extraction process.

“Your state’s going to be ruined anyway. She’s totally anti-fracking,” Trump said.

In 2016 and 2020, Trump crushed his Democratic rivals in the county that is home to blue-collar Wilkes-Barre. The Rust Belt region, home to Biden’s native Scranton, offers Trump hope and helps him spotlight Democratic vulnerabilities after the president ended his reelection bid and Harris launched her campaign.

Her campaign has tried to soften her stance on fracking, saying she would not ban it, even though that was her position when she was seeking the 2020 presidential nomination.

Some Democrats in Pennsylvania acknowledge the challenges but say the economy is what concerns most people in the area.

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Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis said in an interview that voters are “really fired up.” David Harris’ rally in Philadelphia to introduce her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, along with 36 field offices, including several in more Republican-leaning parts of the state.

“The energy has clearly shifted in a dramatic way toward Vice President Harris,” Davis said. He argued that Trump “just goes on rambling rants and just makes personal attacks on Harris.”

On Sunday, Harris plans a bus tour starting in Pittsburgh, with a stop in Rochester, a small town to the north. Trump has scheduled a visit Monday to a plant that manufactures nuclear fuel containers in York. Trump’s running mate JD Vance is expected to be in Philadelphia that day.

Trump’s Saturday rally is his fifth at the arena in Wilkes-Barre, the largest city in Luzerne County, where he has had victories the past two elections. Biden bested Trump in neighboring Lackawanna County, where the Democrat has long promoted his working-class roots in Scranton.

Some of Biden’s loyal supporters in this former industrial city of 76,000 were upset to see party leaders put pressure the president to step aside.

Diane Munley, 63, says she called dozens of members of Congress to vouch for Biden. Munley eventually came to terms with Biden’s decision and is now very supportive of Harris.

“I can’t deny the enthusiasm that’s been going on with this ticket right now. I am so into it,” Munley said. “It just wasn’t happening with Joe, and I couldn’t see it at the time because I was so connected to him.”

She said she does not know a Democrat or even independent in her circle of a couple hundred people who is not fully committed to Harris and Walz.

“We are all-in on Kamala Harris,” Munley said. “All in 110%.”

Robert A. Bridy, 64, a laborer from Shamokin, Pennsylvania, traveled to the rally to show support for Trump. He said the election feels tight in this state and added that his union and a close friend are trying to convince him to vote for Harris and other Democrats, but he has voted for Trump since 2016.

“It’s close. You can’t change Democrats’ minds no matter what. They’ve got a one-track mind, and that’s it,” he said.

Bridy called Trump a “working class guy like us.” Trump is a billionaire who built his fortune in real estate.

“He’s a fighter,” Bridy said. “I’d like to see the closed borders. He doesn’t mess around. He goes at it right away and takes care of business the way it should be.” ___

Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.