Trump tells defense workers he will cut energy costs 'in half' by boosting production

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Former President Donald Trump on Monday pledged to cut the "cost of energy in half" with a massive change of energy production and manufacturing if he returns to the White House.

In counter-programming to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, Trump spoke for 54 minutes inside a girder-lined space within a Pennsylvania defense manufacturing facility, Precision Components Group in York, Pa. Components for the Hoover Dam, Seawolf-class nuclear submarines and laboratories that include Los Alamos National Lab were made there.

Trump, speaking before a few hundred invited guests and employees, focused mainly on energy and the economy, and infrequently broke away from those topics. In one instance, Trump said he will tell Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris "you're fired," repeating his catchphrase from the reality TV show The Apprentice .

He warned there would be a "big-league depression" like in 1929 if Harris is elected.

Instead, Trump said a change in energy production will help spur economic growth.

Trump said he wants to reduce energy costs by 50% in his first 12 months in office.

He said he will help accomplish that by ending mandates related to electric vehicles and abolishing regulatory "green energy" policies.

He said that, if Harris is elected, energy prices will "triple and quadruple" and the United States "won't be producing a drop of oil."

Trump backs fracking and told oil producers to "drill, baby, drill." He noted Harris has flip-flopped on the issue and now is in favor of it.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, he said, power plants are closing, calling it a "regulatory jihad to shut down power plants."

"We will open dozens and dozens more," he said. "We are going to be dominant in energy."

Pennsylvania is a battleground state for the election.

On Saturday , Trump appeared at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., targeting the northeastern section of the Keystone State. Harris and her vice president running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, conducted a bus tour Sunday with their wives in the western part of the state.

Trump plans to campaign in other key states with different themes: Tuesday in Michigan on crime, Wednesday in North Carolina on national security, Thursday on immigration at the border at Montezuma Pass in Arizona and then Nevada on Friday for "no tax on tips." He also is planning a rally in the Phoenix area on Friday.