Donald Trump meets a friendly crowd at Lancaster town hall amid busy campaigning day in Pennsylvania
Questions included, “What is your plan to lower taxes?” and “How soon will the wall get finished?” In several of his answers, Trump described America as a nation in decline.
One was a sheriff who’s already endorsed Donald Trump. Another was a former ESPN broadcaster turned staunch Trump supporter. A third told the former president she loves him so much that she has his face tattooed on her leg.
They were among the questioners Trump faced Sunday during a friendly town hall event in Lancaster, where the president spent more than an hour fielding questions and making his closing pitch to voters just 16 days before Election Day.
The town hall at a convention center in downtown Lancaster came just a week after Trump held a similar-style event in Montgomery County, which went off the rails when the former president abandoned the format and danced on stage to his campaign playlist for about 40 minutes. The bizarre turn, which came after two attendees suffered medical emergencies, led the Harris campaign and Democrats to question the 78-year-old’s mental acuity.
Sunday’s town hall included comparatively little swaying. Much of the conversation, moderated by ex-sportscaster Sage Steele, centered on immigration, his proposal to eliminate taxes on tips, and energy production. Questions included, “What is your plan to lower taxes?” and “How soon will the wall get finished?”
In several of his answers, Trump described America as a nation in decline. He decried “radical left lunatics” and said his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, oversaw what he described as an “invasion” of immigrants, some of whom he said are “vicious.”
“Our country is, really, it’s a failing nation,” Trump said. “I don’t care what you say. We’re laughed at all over the world by other leaders.”
» READ MORE: Trump visited a Bucks County McDonald’s to cook some french fries and work the drive-thru
He at one point quipped that Pennsylvanians would “frack like a duck” if he were to be elected for a second term, referring to hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method to tap natural gas. Trump has repeatedly attacked Harris for changing her position on fracking, which she opposed in 2019 when she previously ran for president in the Democratic primary.
“You’re restricted by so many different things they put on,” Trump said. “So we’re gonna let ‘em frack, frack, frack like a duck. Frack, frack, frack.”
And Trump repeated a claim that President Joe Biden “likes me more than he likes Kamala,” despite Harris being a member of Biden’s party and his own vice president.
In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said Trump “incoherently rambled” and that “the American people deserve a president who will fight tirelessly for them — not one too ‘exhausted’ to focus on anything but himself.”
The town hall came during a busy 24 hours in Pennsylvania for Trump and his supporters as he makes his closing arguments in the critical battleground state. On Saturday, Trump held a rally in Latrobe, where he referred to Harris as a “s— vice president” and told a detailed story about the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia.
Earlier Sunday, Trump made french fries and worked the drive-thru window at a McDonald’s in Bucks County, and used the photo op to suggest Harris never worked at the fast-food restaurant, where she has said she once held a summer job.
On the other end of the commonwealth, Elon Musk, a Trump supporter and one of the richest men on Earth, made headlines for presenting a woman with a $1 million check during an event in Allegheny County. Musk, who bankrolled a pro-Trump super PAC, said he will randomly give prize money to registered voters who sign his PAC’s petition. (Gov. Josh Shapiro said the awards are “concerning” and something that law enforcement “could take a look at.”)
And on Sunday night, just after his Lancaster town hall, Trump traveled to Pittsburgh to attend a Steelers game.
Harris campaigned in Michigan Sunday. A handful of major surrogates stumped for her in Pennsylvania, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and labor leader Shawn Fain, who hosted a rally for union workers in Philadelphia. Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration staffer who now supports Harris, campaigned for the Democrat in Lancaster.
Trump won Lancaster County by 16 percentage points in 2020. However, Democrats saw a notable uptick in votes there compared to 2016, thanks in part to gains in downtown Lancaster.