ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania — Former President Donald Trump’s rally Tuesday in front of a packed PPL Center in Allentown focused heavily on cracking down on illegal immigration and attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, signaling his final pitch to voters a week out from Election Day.
Kicking off his speech by asking his audience, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump aimed to paint his presidency as a time of prosperity and the Biden-Harris administration as a time of hardship.
“I’m here today with a message of hope for all Americans,” he said. “With your vote … we will end inflation, we will stop the invasion of criminals into our country. And we will bring back the American dream. Our country will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before.”
He used inflammatory rhetoric about migrants, saying that illegal immigration has turned the United States into a “dumping ground” and calling the U.S. an “occupied country.” He also lobbed personal insults at Harris, President Joe Biden, former first lady Michelle Obama and other Democrats.
The number of migrants attempting to cross the border reached a record high in late 2023, although since then border crossings have declined and are at the lowest point since 2020, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump took the stage around 7:45 p.m., about 45 minutes later than originally scheduled.
The Allentown rally comes two days after a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, where comments from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe and others were criticized as racist and inflammatory. Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” during his set, which drew widespread rebukes.
Allentown is more than 50 percent Latino, and around 33,000 residents have Puerto Rican heritage.
Although Trump and other speakers did not directly address the controversy, Trump’s campaign selected three supporters with Puerto Rican heritage to speak on his behalf during the pre-programming.
“We Hispanics are part of the soul of this country,” said Zoraida Buxo, a Republican shadow senator from Puerto Rico, who endorsed Trump at the rally. “We have made a difference and we will again make a difference in this coming election to bring about much-needed change.”
Trump, for his part, claimed that as president, he had “done more for Puerto Rico than any president by far.” However, Trump came under criticism during his presidency for his handling of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico — he questioned the reported death toll of 3,000 and tossed paper towels into an audience of survivors during a visit to the island.
Trump’s roughly 85-minute speech a week before Election Day also highlighted the importance of Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes are the most of any swing state.
“The fate of our nation is in your hands,” he said. “If we win Pennsylvania, we’re going to win the whole deal.”
Alluding to his unproven conspiracy that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud, he said “we’ve got to keep the cheating from these people,” referring to Democrats.
After laying out some of his policy proposals — including incentivizing fracking, offering tax credits to caregivers, and ending taxes on tips and on Social Security benefits — Trump claimed that he has created “the greatest movement in the history of mankind” and that his supporters could have filled up Madison Square Garden “six, seven or eight times.”
He also insulted Harris, calling her a “low IQ individual” and “unfit for office,” and said that “very very stupid people” are running our country.
He also repeated his vow to oversee the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, and said he would seek the death penalty for any migrant who kills a U.S. citizen or law enforcement officer. He played a campaign video featuring comments from the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Texas girl who was found dead in a creek not far from her home. Police charged two Venezuelan men who had entered the U.S. illegally with the girl’s murder.
In a memorable moment, Trump invited Marco Rubio — who had already addressed the crowd during the pre-program segment — back on stage during his speech. Rubio took the podium and said, “Just moments ago, Joe Biden stated that our supporters are garbage,” which prompted an outpouring of boos from the audience.
“We are not garbage, we are patriots who love America,” Rubio said.
Biden, who made the comment on a Zoom call with the organization Voto Latino Tuesday, said the following: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his hatred — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
After the remarks generated a firestorm, Biden and the White House tried to clarify his remarks, saying he was referring to hateful rhetoric as garbage, not Trump’s supporters.
The rally led to widespread road closures, traffic and public transit disruptions, and closed Allentown schools for a day. The line to enter snaked from the PPL Center all the way down several blocks of the city, and people began queueing to enter before dawn Tuesday. All morning and afternoon, streets were filled with Trump supporters and decked with vendors selling Trump related merchandise, flags and other memorabilia.
A counterprotest organized by Allentown-based immigration group Make the Road Action gathered in a parking lot nearby to voice their anger about Trump’s visit.
Polls predict a close race in Pennsylvania, with most polls showing Donald Trump with a less than 1 percent edge on Kamala Harris. The margins of the 2016 and 2020 election in the state were extremely tight — Trump won Pennsylvania by around 40,000 votes in 2016, and Biden by around 80,000 in 2020.
The Harris-Walz campaign held a competing event Tuesday morning at an Allentown campaign satellite office with the mayor, council president, state representatives and actor Martin Sheen, best known for his portrayal of President Jed Barlet on the political drama show “The West Wing.” Sheen called Trump’s Sunday rally a “celebration of ignorance” and said he traveled to Pennsylvania to support Harris.
Harris delivered her campaign’s closing argument at a rally Tuesday evening at the Ellipse in Washington, where Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021. Harris said she would “put country above party and above self,” while attacking Trump as “unstable” and “obsessed with revenge.”
Story by Lindsay Weber, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
