President Trump visits the battlefield in Pennsylvania

MACUNGIE, Pa. — President Donald Trump toured a Mack Trucks facility in battlefield Pennsylvania on Tuesday, trying to focus attention on the U.S. economy in his first major public event outside the nation’s capital since signing an interim deal to end the war in Iran.

The trip to Macungie, a suburb of Allentown, came as Trump works to put the conflict — and the rising gas prices it caused — in the rearview mirror, ahead of the November midterm elections.

Trump gave a private tour of the facility, but his speech often sounded more like a re-election rally from two years ago than an effort to promote his accomplishments during his second term.

The president listed long-standing political grievances and made only passing mentions of promoting Republicans ahead of Election Day — all while spending more time bragging about the UFC fight he staged on the White House lawn in honor of his own 80th birthday than about the economy.

At one point, Trump even called UFC fighters Bo Nickal and Anthony Cassar on stage and wondered if he could beat either of them in a wrestling match if they “trained for the next few months.”

It was Trump’s fifth visit to Pennsylvania, a state whose support in 2016 and 2024 helped him win the White House. The truck plant is in a district where Republican incumbent Rep. Ryan Mackenzie faces Democratic challenger Bob Brooks in November.

“For more than 100 years, this legendary company has been manufacturing trucks right here in eastern Pennsylvania,” Trump said, “building the heavy machinery that keeps our economy running, our factories moving and our industries thriving across the country.”

His visit coincided with a price hike that could influence voters’ verdict on Trump’s handling in the fall. About a third of American adults approve of Trump’s economic approach, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from June. This is consistent with what Trump did last month on this issue.

The war in Iran, which began on February 28, is also a politically difficult issue for the president. Most Americans continue to disapprove of his handling of Iran, according to the June AP-NORC poll, taken as Trump announced a tentative deal with Iran and concluded just before the interim deal was signed last week. It found that 65% of American adults disapprove of the president’s handling of issues with Iran, unchanged from May.

Yet while most Democrats and independents view Trump’s actions negatively, only about three in ten Republicans are unhappy.

This is the kind of constituency that matters in the November election

Trump spoke to a cheering crowd from a stage erected at the factory, flanked by two red, white and blue trucks and rows of workers wearing fluorescent safety vests under a large “American Workers First” banner.

It’s the kind of district that could prove crucial for Republicans who hold narrow control of the House, where a defeat could hobble the final two years of the president’s term.

Mackenzie, a freshman lawmaker, is seeking to hold on to a district that Democrats have moved to flip. Brooks, president of the state firefighters union, has the support of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is also seeking re-election this year.

Trump urged the crowd to support Mackenzie, saying of his trip: “I’m not doing this for my health.” But he has devoted more energy to issues such as the U.S.-Mexico border, opposing transgender rights and denouncing “Marxist” judges, while also referencing his administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug prices.

“We have to win the midterm elections,” Trump said, in one of the few references he made to the midterm elections. Later, however, he suggested that it wasn’t really a “political season,” perhaps because he himself won’t be on the ballot in November.

Regarding Iran, Trump suggested the country would be smart and continue to negotiate during the ceasefire. “Otherwise we will have to complete the work, which will take about, maybe less than a week,” he said.

A strange moment came when the president said: “The ideology of Muslims is slightly different than that of Catholics. We have Catholics and Muslims slightly different.” He did not specify.

Biden has already been to the same factory

Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, visited the same Mack Trucks facility in 2021 to highlight regulations aimed at promoting manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing employment peaked in 1979 with nearly 19.6 million jobs. It trended downward after the 2001 recession and the Great Recession of 2007-2009. That figure now stands at 12.6 million in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2025, the truck plant was hit by market uncertainty, including massive tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, and about 170 people were laid off, according to Mack spokeswoman Kimberly Pupillo. She said that at the end of last year, almost 150 people were called back to work and that anyone laid off last year had the opportunity to return.

There are about 2,800 workers at Mack, Pupillo said.

At a pizzeria across the street from the truck plant, workers and diners said they had heard about the president’s visit and remembered Biden’s trip to the plant.

George Carver, a retired elementary school principal, said he was not a fan of Trump: “I’m looking for a president who will clean up this mess,” he said, meaning improve the economy and better manage the war in Iran and immigration.

“I’m looking for someone who will tell the truth — it could be a Democrat or a Republican,” Carver said.

Trump’s visit underscores Pennsylvania’s status as a swing state.

Trump visited Mount Pocono in December to test messages that he is addressing the issue of affordability; in July 2025, he was in Pittsburgh to tout the tens of billions of dollars of recent energy and technology investments in the state; in June 2025, he was at West Mifflin telling steelworkers he was doubling tariffs on steel imports to protect the industry; and in March 2025, he attended the NCAA wrestling championship in Philadelphia.

Denise Green, a retired software trainer, was among a handful of people protesting the visit outside a McDonald’s across the street from the factory.

Green said she was a former Republican who became a Democrat in 2007 because her original party supported policies that said “all the money” went to the rich.

Green said her main issue is funding for Social Security, which she said she will need but fears will run out.

“It’s scandalous,” she said.

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