Long before the main act took the stage, the crowd inside Santander Arena in Reading was already buzzing.
The thousands of people gathered there were cheering and chanting. They were holding up and waving signs with “47” and “Make America Great Again” printed on them.
They were working their way into a frenzy, hitting a fever pitch when the man they had come to see finally appeared.
Former President Donald Trump made his first visit of this presidential campaign to Berks County on Wednesday with a rally in Reading, less than one month before voters head to the polls to pick the next president. It was part of a day Trump devoted to the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, following a stop earlier in the day to hold a rally in Scranton.
The former president and Republican candidate gave a 75-minute-long address to an excited and receptive audience, many of whom wore Trump’s trademark red hats or clothing adorned with his image.
Before he started his remarks, Trump sent his prayers to those in the path of Hurricane Milton — a dangerous storm that made landfall in Florida as he spoke. He also shared his concern for those still recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene that recently hit the southeastern part of the country, lambasting the current administration for its response to the devastation it wrought.
“This administration has not done a proper job at all,” he said. “But, hopefully, we can help everyone rebuild and get it all back together. We hope that God will keep them safe.”
As he got into the meat of his speech, Trump wasted no time in attacking current President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. He called on his supporters to save the country from the “lunatics” currently occupying the White House.
“From the very beginning of this journey I have been on a mission to rescue our nation from a failed and corrupt political establishment, and to give you back the country that you deserve,” he said. “I will never quit, I will never bend, I will never break and I will never under any circumstances, even in the face of death, give up.”
Trump told the crowd that he didn’t have to run again, that he could be laying on a beach somewhere. But instead, he has chosen to run for a second term and there is no other place that he would rather be.
Rally-goers fire up the crowd before former President Donald J. Trump’s speech Wednesday at Santander Arena in Reading. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
He said the reason why he felt like he had to run again is because his supporters are constantly approaching him to say that the country is being run by incompetent people.
Trump said his campaign did great in 2020 and falsely claimed he had millions more votes than his Democratic opponent. Trump had more than 7 million fewer votes nationwide than Biden, and lost in the Electoral College vote 306-232.
Trump called on his supporters to deliver him a decisive victory in November, claiming that’s the only way the election won’t be stolen by Democrats.
“We have to make this too big to rig,” he said.
Trump said he thinks winning big should be easy, claiming that no one makes a better case against Harris than she does herself. He then showed on the large video screen hanging from the ceiling of the arena a clip of Harris from an appearance this week on “The View” when she was asked if she would have done anything different than Biden has done during his term — to which she replied that she couldn’t think of anything.
Trump then listed a number of things that he felt were disastrous decisions made during the Biden-Harris administration. He claimed millions of illegal immigrants have crossed over the southern border, inflation has risen to the worst level in decades, transgender ideology is being pushed on children and that the current conflict in the Middle East could have been avoided.
“And that’s a small portion of the incompetence,” he said. “What they’ve done to our country is unthinkable. This November the people of Pennsylvania have to tell Kamala Harris that she’s fired — she has to get the hell out of here.”
Those remarks were greeted with chants of “U.S.A.”
Trump then began speaking about specific topics he thinks the Biden-Harris administration has failed on and that he could fix if elected. He first touched on illegal immigration, claiming Harris let in 13,099 convicted murderers who are roaming free in the country.
According to the website PolitiFact, a recent letter from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement said there are 13,099 noncitizens convicted of homicide who are not in immigration detention. But that data goes back four decades, and does not specify that the 13,099 entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump said that if elected he will deport these people and essentially “liberate” the entire nation from this mass migrant invasion of murderers, terrorists, gang members, drug dealers and job predators.
“I will send home all of those who do not belong in our country,” he said to loud applause.
Trump then moved on to taxes, claiming Harris would raise taxes on middle class American families by letting many provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act legislation expire after 2025.
Harris, on the other hand, has pledged during her campaign that people earning less than $400,000 a year won’t pay more in federal taxes if she’s elected.
Trump also bragged about the performance of the economy under his leadership, painting his four years in office as a time of wage growth, low unemployment and high profits for businesses.
The former president’s record on the economy is a mixed bag. While for much of his term wages did grow, the stock market performed well and other economic indicators were fairly positive, by the time he left office it was a different story.
Largely due to the COVID pandemic, Trump’s term saw an overall loss of more than 2.7 million jobs and an economic growth rate of -2.2%.
Along with attacking Harris’ job performance, Trump lobbed personal attacks at his competitor. At various times throughout his speech he questioned her intellect.
“People are realizing she is a dumb person and we can’t have another dumb president,” he said of Harris. “I don’t want to be nasty. Someone on my staff said to me don’t call her dumb, the women won’t like it. The women want to see our country come back, they don’t care. The women are tougher than the men, right?”
Those comments led Trump to brag about what he sees as his appeal to women voters.
“They want to see a country that works and we’re going to have a country that works very, very soon and the women are going to like Trump,” he said. “I think they like me anyway.”
Near the end of his speech, Trump began rattling off a series of things he will do if elected.
He claimed, among other things, that he would increase drilling for oil and natural gas, end inflation, lower the cost of energy, end the war in Ukraine, seal the southern border and deport undocumented migrants, stop crime, protect Social Security and Medicare, turn the U.S. into a manufacturing superpower and work with businessman Elon Musk to eliminate government waste, fraud and abuse.
“Everyone will prosper, every family will thrive and every day will be filled with opportunity and hope,” Trump said. “But for that to happen we must defeat Kamala Harris and stop the radical left agenda once and for all. We want this to be a landslide, because if we win by a lot then they can’t cheat.”
Trump encouraged everyone to make a plan to vote and get everyone they know to vote.
“With your help from now until Election Day, we will redeem America’s promise, we will put America first and we will take back the nation that we love,” he said.
Before Trump took the stage, several others addressed the crowd. That included Stephen Miller, who served as a senior adviser for policy under Trump; Vivek Ramswamy, an entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate; Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick; and local elected officials like U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, who represents parts of Berks County in Congress; and Berks County Commissioner Michael Rivera.
Ahead of Trump’s visit to Reading, the Harris campaign said Pennsylvanians know the former president doesn’t look out for the middle class and his legacy reflects that.
“As president, Trump killed over 275,000 jobs in the commonwealth, gave handouts to his ultra-wealthy friends at our expense and tried to rip away our health care,” the campaign’s Pennsylvania Rapid Response Director Onotse Omoyeni said in a statement. “A second term would be even worse: He’ll raise costs by nearly $4,000 and give more handouts to the super-rich and big corporations while trying to cut our Social Security and Medicare.
“While Trump cares about himself and billionaires, we know who will stand up for Pennsylvania families and our freedoms: Kamala Harris.”
The supporters
Standing near the front of the snaking line to get into the arena were Michele Nissley of Exeter Township and Renee Royer of Sinking Spring. The friends said that when they found out Trump was appearing in Berks they knew they had to show their support.
“I love Trump,” Nissley said. “I love his honesty”
Royer agreed, saying he presents a clear message to his supporters.
“You might not like his delivery, you might not like his speech, but I don’t have to guess at what his intentions are,” Royer said. “I don’t always like it. He can be very crass, but he gets his point across. I haven’t understood one thing Kamala has said.”
Royer said the economy seemed so much better under Trump. She believes his proposals to bring down inflation will lead to more money in her bank account at the end of a week.
“I want to be able to pay my bills and not struggle,” she said.
They said that in addition to the economy, they believe Trump will crack down on the influx of migrants over the southern border and reassert dominance on the world stage.
“Life was just easier under Trump,” Nissley said.
Royer said she feels much the same way.
“Our world wasn’t on fire the way it is right now,” Royer added.
Nissley and Royer, who have been friends since they were in grade school, said their devotion to Trump is evidence that he has a lot of support from women. The 60-year-olds have been big fans of the candidate since his first run for office in 2016.
“Look around, for someone who supposedly has trouble with female voters there certainly are a lot of women here,” Nissley said.
A few hundred feet away, the Rivera family was decked out in their Trump gear and wearing the red “Make America Great Again” hats.
Samuel and Clara Rivera, both pastors at a Reading church, said they were happy Trump had decided to hold a rally in the city they have called home since 1996. Both were born in Puerto Rico but came to the United States as babies.
“The situation at the border, the poor economy and his position on life are the reasons why we are voting for Trump,” Samuel Rivera said. “We voted for him in the last two elections.”
Clara Rivera acknowledged that people may be surprised to see a fervent Latina Trump supporter in the city, but she said there are many others like her family. She said her family is just like every other family in America who want the best for their children — and that includes a future with religious freedoms.
Their 15-year-old son, Eliacim Rivera, joked that while he may not be old enough to cast a ballot for Trump his family has played a crucial role in his political preferences.
“I didn’t really have any other choice,” he said with a chuckle.
Standing in line behind the Rivera family were a group of students from Alvernia University who said they were excited to be able to vote for Trump in their first presidential election. The young men agreed that the thing they liked most about the candidate was his honest and straightforward way of talking to the American people.
“He may not sound like a politician, and that’s what I think people like,” Garrett Gehr said. “I like that about him, but I do think having JD Vance as his running mate helps balance that out a little because he is much more professional.”
Gehr said Trump is not afraid to take on the Deep State, which he described as a secret cabal of corporate owners who control the federal government.
The 20-year-old said he also likes that Trump is a champion for free speech, that he is against illegal immigration and that he wants to fix the economy so young people like him have more opportunities to get ahead.
Friends Doug Wentzel and Harold Bond said they like many of the same things about Trump that Gehr does, despite being of a different generation. The 80-somethings said they would like to see tax breaks and a closed southern border.
“He says he’s going to do something and he does it,” Bond said. “Kamala has had the job for the past four years and she has got nothing done.”
Both men, who live in Bern Township, said Trump tells the American people the truth.
And as for Trump being the oldest person to ever serve as president if he should be elected next month, Wentzel said his age should not be a factor because he appears to be very sharp.
“He’s in pretty good shape, and his running mate is young,” he said.
Originally Published: October 10, 2024 at 4:45 a.m.
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Publish date : 2024-10-09 22:21:00
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