Trump offers his vision for the world and America at Schnecksville rally
Former President Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Schnecksville Saturday night that if he were still president, the world would be much safer.
Without adding details about how, he said there would have been no war in Ukraine, no Hamas attack on Israel and no Iranian drone and missile attack against Israel earlier on Saturday.
That reflected a common theme throughout his more than one-hour speech before several thousand enthusiastic supporters on the grounds of the Schnecksville Fire Company.
As he sees it, returning him to the White House will solve problems: curbing inflation, boosting the economy, lowering gas prices, deporting undocumented immigrants starting on Day 1, closing the border and ending the Russia-Ukraine War.
“I will prevent World War III,” he added.
Apart from adding more agents to control the border and drilling for more oil and gas, he never explained how we would accomplish many of his objectives.
Familiar targets throughout his speech were Biden, with Trump often mocking the president’s age, and Democrats whom he described as radicals and Marxists who hate America. He also attacked the judge who will preside over his “hush-money” trial that will begin Monday in Manhattan.
“Hardworking American patriots, we’re going to defeat crooked Joe Biden and we’re going to make America great again,” Trump said.
Trump’s entrance was heralded by Lee Greenwood's “God Bless the U.S.A.” As the former president walked in, he was greeted with a roar of cheers from supporters, many who waited hours in blustering winds and mostly cloudy skies for a chance to see him.
Many people in the crowd raised their cell phones high to capture the former president as he made his way to a stage surrounded by bleachers filled with sign-waving supporters.
Among those watching was Matthew Miller, a student at Northern Lehigh High School who will be old enough in June to register to vote.
“We decided to come to support our future president,” said Miller, who, like his friend and fellow student Logan Galloway, 18, was sporting a red Trump hat.
Galloway said he wanted to see what Trump had to say. “I’m here to listen and let the democratic process take place,” he said.
As his speech got underway, hundreds of fans were still making their way into the venue, waylaid by a line that at one point stretched at least a mile, and by a security entrance with metal detectors.
Many Trump fans who didn’t get it in stood outside the fenced-off area, listening to his speech. “Disappointing,” one supporter told a companion as she walked away without getting in.
Trump’s visit came on the same day he was in Newtown, Bucks County, for a fundraiser, where tickets ranged from $2,500 a person up to $250,000 for a host couple.
His Lehigh Valley stop underscores the region’s importance as a swing area worth courting.
During his speech, Trump revisited the 2020 election, where he lost Pennsylvania.
“The election was rigged, pure and simple,” he said. “2020 was rigged.”
Biden, who grew up in Scranton, won Pennsylvania with 50.01% of the vote to Trump’s 48.84%.
On the night of the election, Trump led Biden by about a half-million votes and Trump believed he would win the state. But counties had yet to count all of the 2.5 million mail-in ballots, cast mostly by Democrats, which eventually gave Biden a victory five days after the election.
Biden’s home state gave him enough Electoral College votes (273) to win the presidency even before Arizona, Georgia and Nevada finished counting their votes. Biden eventually won those states as well.
The Trump campaign tried to stop Pennsylvania’s certification of the vote, saying there was election fraud. Two weeks after the election, a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed the lawsuit, saying the campaign provided no evidence of improprieties.
The Lehigh Valley aided Biden’s Pennsylvania victory. In Lehigh County, Biden took 53.21% of the vote to Trump’s 45.62%. In Northampton County, Biden eked out a win with 49.78% of the vote to Trump’s 49.05%. Biden’s campaign recently opened an office in Easton, suggesting his srategists feel he can grow his support there.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic candidate, has already made one visit to the Lehigh Valley this year – stopping in Emmaus and Allentown on Jan. 12 to tout his economic policies.
Before Trump took the stage, U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican who represents the 9th Congressional District in northeast Pennsylvania, pumped up the crowd, leading them in chants.
Meuser singled out Maria Montero, the GOP congressional candidate from the Lehigh Valley area’s 7th District.
Meuser gave Montero’s campaign $2,000 last year, according to her campaign finance reports. He made no mention of Kevin Dellicker and state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, the other two congressional candidates in the April 23 Republican primary. The GOP nominee will face incumbent Democrat Susan Wild, who is seeking her fourth term in office.
Toward the end of his speech, Trump endorsed Republican Dave McCormick for U.S. Senate. McCormick is unopposed in the primary and will face incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey in November.
When he sought the Republican nomination for senator two years ago, McCormick didn’t receive Trump’s endorsement. That went to Mehmet Oz, who narrowly defeated McCormick in the primary but lost the general election to John Fetterman.
Earlier in the day, traffic was heavy but moving along Route 309 in the Schnecksville area, which was dotted with signs for Trump, Dellicker, Mackenzie and Montero.
The rally had a concert-like atmosphere with many people talking and laughing as they got in a line that eventually reached the adjacent Lehigh Carbon Community College.
Vendors, including one with a shirt that said “Even My Dog Hates Biden,” wove throughout the crowd with carts stuffed with Trump paraphernalia, including red visors with fake orange hair.
Grilling hamburgers in the parking area before Trump’s speech was a group that included Linda Paul, 64, her daughter Jessica, 33, and Phil Kisko, all of Effort, Tracy Johnson, 56, and her husband Jack, 59, of Saylorsburg, and Jessica’s boyfriend, Nathan Haydt of Germansville.
All are Republicans except for Tracy and Jack Johnson, who are Independents. All support Trump.
“I want my country back,” Linda Paul said, explaining her support of Trump. The others nodded in agreement.
Linda Paul and the others said they aren’t experiencing any of the economic success that Biden touts.
Tracy Johnson and her husband Jack have had a home construction business for 30 years. Jack Johnson said he and his wife haven’t had work since November. He said high mortgage rates have driven customers away.
Haydt said he has had a technician job with HYDAC, a hydraulics, systems and fluid engineering company in Hanover Township, Northampton County. He said a slowdown has left him with no work for him to do there since January. He said he is about to start a new job as a mechanic with Crayola.
“I’m broke,” he said. “I don’t have a couple of dollars to my name.”
All agreed that their lives were better under Trump, with the Johnsons pointing to the construction work they had. The group feels things will improve if Trump is elected on Nov. 5.
When asked what Trump will do, Haydt said, “He knows how to make things happen.”
Janice Csanadi, 48, of Walnutport arrived at the fire company grounds around 11 a.m. with her husband Stephen. They were hanging out in their pickup truck adorned with a Trump sign. Csanadi wasn’t expecting to get into the rally.
“I’m here to have fun, support [Trump] and experience history," she said.
Csanadi said she has been a Trump supporter since 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“I like the fact that he talks like the average person,” she said. “They say he’s not professional, well good!”
She also believes Trump can turn things around for her and her husband’s tree service business.
Csanadi said the company has been weighed down by the high cost of running the business with the price of gasoline being a big reason. All their trucks and equipment run on gas or diesel.
She likes that Trump wants to drill for more oil in the U.S., which she said could help with the price of gas. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2023 the U.S. produced a record high of 12.9 million barrels per day, a 9% increase over 2022 and more than any other nation.
While she’s not opposed to alternative energy, she said Biden’s push for it won’t work with her business.
“How are you going to run a chainsaw on a battery?” she asked.
During his speech, Trump called the initiative to get more electric vehicles on the road “the green new scam.”
“I will end Biden’s electric car mandate and natural gas export ban,” he said.
The White House did not ban exports of liquified natural gas but earlier this year announced a delay in considering new natural gas export terminals as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Biden’s goal is to have 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030.