Trump says fracking in Pa. would slow under Harris: ‘Your state’s going to be Third World’

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that Pennsylvania will be relegated to “Third World” status if he is not elected in November, claiming the state’s energy production would plummet if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected.

”You’re going to go from being one of the largest producers in terms of fracking, the energy produced, into a nonfactor,” Trump said of his Democratic opponent. “Your state’s going to be Third World. Like much of our country, it’s being made Third World by these people. They don’t have a clue.”

Harris supported a fracking ban as a presidential candidate in 2019, but she backed away from the position after becoming President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020. Her 2024 campaign says she no longer supports a ban, but her old position continues to fuel GOP attacks in Pennsylvania, the second-largest natural gas producer in the nation.

The former president’s remarks came during a campaign stop Monday afternoon at Precision Custom Components, a manufacturing facility in York, Pa. It was his second trip to the commonwealth in three days, underscoring Pennsylvania’s place at the center of the presidential contest. Monday was the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and both Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, were in the state.

Trump’s campaign advertised the York event as policy-focused, saying he would talk about ending inflation, implementing policies to help American workers, and establishing America as “the dominant energy producer in the world.” Polls have repeatedly showed voters trust Trump over Harris on the economy, and reports say his campaign has been pressing him to highlight his economic proposals.

The speech turned out to be the third economy-focused event in a week during which Trump at times veered off script and digressed into unrelated attacks.

» READ MORE: JD Vance says he’ll be in Pennsylvania ‘a lot’ before Election Day

He talked about a House GOP report released Monday that accused President Joe Biden of “impeachable conduct” but did not offer direct evidence. Trump baselessly claimed that Harris was “involved” in bringing criminal cases against him and said she has “no idea what the hell she is doing.” He referred to the 2020 election as “unfair.”

And he defended himself and Vance from Democratic messaging that has sought to label them as “weird, saying, “we are extremely normal people.” That messaging was popularized by Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“He’s weird,” Trump said of Walz, whom he then mocked for “crazy” stage movements. “Weird is a nice word by comparison.”

Still, Trump spent the majority of his speech Monday on economics and energy, vowing to bolster natural gas production — using his signature phrase “drill, baby, drill” — and saying Pennsylvania could see an economic boost from increasing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. And he hit Harris for her flip-flop on fracking.

“She’s totally a non-fracker, you know that?” Trump said. “Until a few months ago.”

The former president also highlighted his promise to cut energy prices in half in his first year in office, saying all energy bills — including for heating, electricity, and gas — “will be less than half.” He blamed the Biden administration for inflation, higher gas prices, and increased mortgage rates since he left office in 2021.

And he repeatedly described Harris as too liberal, saying her “radical” playbook would reward job outsourcing and describing her proposal for a federal ban on price gouging in the food industry as “socialist.”

“Very simply, Kamala Harris is an economy wrecker and a country destroyer,” Trump said.

» READ MORE: Kamala Harris’ fracking flip-flop shows perils of Pa. campaigning

Onotse Omoyeni, a spokesperson for Harris’ campaign, said in a statement that more energy jobs were created under the Biden administration than Trump’s.

“Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class,” Omoyeni said.

In addition, the union that represents workers at Precision Custom Components also panned Trump’s campaign stop.

Brian Bryant, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), in a statement blamed Trump for the closure of dozens of manufacturing plants during his presidency and said his tax policy “accelerated job losses, eroded the foundation of American manufacturing and devastated the IAM union.”

“Donald Trump had his chance, and he failed us,” Bryant said.