Republican Presidential nominee, former president Donald J. Trump remarks during a campaign event PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh Nov. 3. 2024. (Photo by Matt Petras for the Capital-Star)
About halfway into one of the final speeches of his third campaign, former President Donald Trump called out to his children in the audience, Eric, Tiffany and Don Jr.
“They’re very good kids,” he said. Then he mentioned his wife, Melania, and his children who weren’t present, Ivanka and Barron.
“This is our last time now for forever,” Trump said. “Think how sad. We started it really as a family unit nine years ago. We’ve had the biggest rallies, the most spectacular rallies in the history of politics. It’s the biggest and most powerful movement in the history of our country by far.”
Then he called out the “fake news” for not accurately reporting the size of his “powerful movement,” and questioned the results of the 2020 election.
“We won 50 states, and then we won the presidency,” Trump said about his 2016 campaign. “And we did even better the second time than we did the first time, as you know.”
Trump held the first of two events in Pennsylvania on the last day of the 2024 campaign, at Santander Arena in Reading.
During his speech in Reading, Trump oscillated between nostalgia for the near-constant campaign stops of the last nine years (he even held rallies while president), and the caustic ad libs that have come to define them. But for roughly an hour and twenty minutes, on the last day of what is almost certain to be his last campaign, Trump mostly played the hits.
He said he’d invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to pursue a mass deportation plan. Anyone who tried to reenter the country after, he said, would receive a sentence of “10 years in jail with no possibility of parole.” And he called for the death penalty for any migrant who kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer.
He talked about his plan to increase American fossil fuel production, and his dislike of wind power.
“It kills all your birds,” Trump said. “It doesn’t work. It’s the most expensive energy in the entire world. And then after 10 years, when it rusts out, they don’t look too good.”
He brought out his nicknames: “Radical left Marxist” for Harris. “Pocahontas” for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.) For Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), “Do I call him crooked? Maybe crazy is a better word,” Trump said.
He said he would get rid of taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits.
And he brought up culture war issues. “We will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our school,” Trump said.
There was also some new material.
Trump discussed the October jobs report released on Friday that showed only 12,000 jobs were added that month, well below estimates. It was likely impacted by back to back hurricanes.
“This is an unbelievably — like an unthinkable number,” Trump said. “I’ve never heard of a number that low.”
Trump, however, had presided over worse. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost when the COVID pandemic began in 2020. And, before that, when two hurricanes made landfall in September, 2017, that month’s report showed the country actually lost 33,000 jobs.
He also discussed Harris’ Saturday Night Live performance.
“She uses everything I do,” Trump said. “Even Saturday Night Live they copied … I think I did it better actually.”
Near the end of his rally, Trump looked back again, on the “tremendous amount” of rallies over the last nine years. He estimated 900.
“They’ve been flawless, right,” he said. “Every once in a while I’d make a little aggressive statement that people didn’t like. Don’t forget, I’m rarely on the teleprompter. Isn’t it nice to have a president that isn’t on the teleprompter?”
But Trump said the rallies were what made his presidency possible. “We’ve been fighting against the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth,” he said. “That’s right. With your vote in this election, you can show them once and for all that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you.”
But just before closing his speech, Trump changed his tone.
“We’re gonna do a great job for everybody,” he said. “For 100% of the people. We’re gonna do it for Democrats. We’re gonna do it for liberals or progressives if they prefer, which they do prefer. But we’re gonna do it for the independents. We’re gonna do it for everybody.”
The Trump campaign is still dealing with the fallout after a comedian told racist jokes about Puerto Rico at his Oct. 28 rally at Madison Square Garden. According to 2020 Census data, Reading has a 69% Hispanic population, making it the largest in Pennsylvania and one of only three cities in the state with a Latino population over 50%. The other two cities, Hazleton and Allentown, are within a two hour drive from Reading, with some dubbing it Pennsylvania’s “Latino Belt.”
The Reading event was Trump’s second visit to the city this year; he held a rally there early last month also at Santander Arena.
Trump campaigns in eastern Pennsylvania with rallies in Scranton and Reading
After the Reading rally, Trump headed to Pittsburgh for an evening rally at PPG Paints Arena in the city’s Hill District neighborhood. The rally is Trump’s first public campaign event in Pittsburgh of 2024.
Pittsburgh Public Schools were on a half-day schedule and Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh workers will be dismissed at noon Monday, with both Harris and Trump in Pittsburgh this evening.
Both candidates and their surrogates have campaigned relentlessly in Pennsylvania over the course of the race, with its 19 electoral votes key to either party winning the White House.
First campaign stop in city of Pittsburgh
Surrounded by thousands of supporters, including men behind him in hardhats at PPG Paints Arena, Trump promised a “golden age of America” and mocked Harris’ nearby turnout.
“It’s not quite this,” Trump said to great applause.
Trump asked the crowd if they’re better off now than four years ago and promised to decrease grocery prices. He also made reference to the attempted assassin in Butler who “tried to stop our movement,” Trump said. “And this is by far the greatest political movement in the history of our country.
The crowd shouted insults toward President Joe Biden and Harris. After Trump called the crowd “frisky,” he said “many people say that God saved me in order to save America. Many, many people say that. And with your help, we will fulfill that extraordinary mission together.”
Before the rally, thousands of Trump supporters formed a line around PPG.
Entrepreneurs manned booths with stickers, buttons, t-shirts and posters depicting Trump shaking hands with Robert F Kennedy Jr., posing shirtless with artistically imposed muscles and protecting pets. As the supporters entered the hockey rink home to the Pittsburgh Penguins, they formed more lines, to get nachos, popcorn, chicken tenders and pop. One supporter in the bar area quipped that “the prices are unAmerican.”
The scoreboard screen cycled through information about voting, clips displaying various alleged Kamala Harris flip-flops and shots of the crowd. A pastor took to the stage to lead the crowd in prayer before someone sang the national anthem, leading to chants of “USA!”
Guest speakers included a few members of the Pittsburgh Fraternal Order of Police, army veteran and thriller author Sean Parnell and Kimberley Brown, Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo, Congressman John Joyce, daughter of legend Jim Brown, a player for Cleveland Browns, a bitter rival of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Brown, who spoke against transgender athletes competing in sports and painted Trump’s former presidency as a win for African-Americans, drew the most ecstatic applause from the crowd. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also drew applause, for comments such as boasting his reputation as “the most loyal” member of Trump’s cabinet. He introduced Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.
Kim Lyons of the Capital-Star contributed
This story was updated with details from Trump’s Reading rally, and details from the Pittsburgh event
(Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.)