saw her support slip ahead of a runoff<\/a>, prompting Trump to issue a rare dual endorsement of Attorney General Alan Wilson as well. <\/p>\nWilson is projected to win Tuesday\u2019s runoff.<\/p>\n
It also took Trump nearly an hour into his 83-minute speech to formally recognize 7th Congressional District Rep. Ryan Mackenzie. While the president did mention on occasion the importance of reelecting \u201cthe congressman,\u201d Mackenzie was one of the final guests invited on stage to speak. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not here for them,\u201d said Trump, referring to the other three Keystone State representatives, \u201cI\u2019m here for him,\u201d as he told Mackenzie to \u201crun up here (to the stage).\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Trump asked him to keep his remarks short.<\/p>\n
Mackenzie is attempting to hold onto the seat he won in 2024 by ousting former Rep. Susan Wild, but is facing a daunting challenge from Bob Brooks, president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association. Brooks also has the backing of popular state Gov. Josh Shapiro in his quest.<\/p>\n
Trump urged the crowd to support Mackenzie, saying of his trip, \u201cI\u2019m not doing this for my health.\u201d But he devoted more energy to issues like the U.S.-Mexico border, opposing transgender rights and decrying \u201cMarxist\u201d judges, while also referencing his administration\u2019s efforts to lower prescription drug prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cCareer politician Ryan Mackenzie is no friend to working people,\u201d said Brooks in a statement. \u201cHe is a liar who campaigned on a promise to lower costs but has instead voted in lockstep with his boss Donald Trump to jack up prices, rip away health care, and spend billions of dollars on a needless war overseas. No speech from Mackenzie can change the fact that his time in Congress has been an absolute disaster for the hardworking people of the Lehigh Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president sought to reassure voters that costs are coming down and they are better off than they were two years ago. He said the administration had created 32,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania, with pharmaceutical, medical device and other companies building manufacturing facilities in the area. He cited his tax cuts and efforts to lower prescription drug prices, saying each \u201calone should win us the midterms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump listed longstanding political grievances, and made only passing mentions of promoting Republicans ahead of Election Day \u2013 while spending more time bragging about the UFC fight he staged on the White House lawn in honor of his own 80th birthday than he did the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all appreciate the President joining us to celebrate America\u2019s 250th anniversary on the very Pennsylvania soil where our nation was founded,\u201d said Meuser in a social media post. \u201cThanks to his leadership, we can look forward to an even brighter future for our economy and our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy electing Democrats up and down the ballot, we have the power to send a clear message to Donald Trump and put a check on his chaos, cruelty, and corruption,\u201d said Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis. \u201cSo today as Donald Trump attempts to sugarcoat and make light of the reality Pennsylvanians are facing everyday, let\u2019s not forget that Stacy Garrity will always be a rubber stamp to his disastrous policies no matter the cost to Pennsylvanians.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Trump essentially came to the Lehigh Valley to assist Mackenzie in his closely-watched race, it was notable that the other three Pennsylvania Republican congressmen facing difficult reelection races \u2013 Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-01), Rob Bresnahan (R-08), and Scott Perry (R-10) \u2013 were absent. Sen. Dave McCormick was also in attendance and received numerous shoutouts from the president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump made a stop in the Lehigh Valley at a Mack Truck facility in Macungie on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-226332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}