MOUNT POCONO, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump is testing his claims that he is addressing Americans’ accessibility issues at a rally Tuesday in Mount Pocono, Pa., turning the argument made in Oval Office appearances and social media posts into a campaign-style event.
The trip comes as polls consistently show public confidence in Trump’s economic leadership has weakened. Following the disastrous results for Republicans in last month’s off-cycle elections, the White House has tried to convince voters that the economy will get stronger next year and that any anxiety about inflation has nothing to do with Trump.
The president has consistently blamed his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for inflation, even as his own aggressive policy implementation pushed prices that settled after rising in 2022 to a four-decade high. Inflation began to accelerate after Trump announced his high “Delivery Day” tariffs in April. Companies have warned that the import duties could be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices and reduced employment, but Trump continues to insist that inflation has disappeared and that it has sparked stronger growth.
“We were coming down the tubes and now we’re the coolest country in the world,” Trump told the crowd Tuesday, repeating a line he’s used frequently in Washington.
The president’s reception in the county hosting his rally on Tuesday could signal how much voters trust his claims. Monroe County returned to Trump in the 2024 election after supporting Biden in 2020, helping the Republican win the swing state of Pennsylvania and return to the White House after a four-year absence.
As home to the Pocono Mountains, the county relied heavily on tourism for skiing, hiking, hunting and other activities as a source of employment. Its proximity to New York City – less than a two-hour drive – has also attracted people looking for more affordable housing. The event on a cold December night was held in a ballroom at the Mount Airy Casino Resort’s conference center, rather than a venue that might draw a few thousand attendees, as Trump did at last year’s rallies.
But what seems undeniable — even to Trump supporters in Monroe County — is that inflation appears to be here to stay.
Lou Heddy, a retired maintenance mechanic who voted for Trump last year, said he noticed in just the past month that his and his wife’s grocery bills had gone from $175 to $200.
“Once food prices go up, they never go down. That’s how I feel. I don’t know how the hell they would do that,” said Heddy, 72.
But Suzanne Vena, a Democratic voter, blames Trump’s tariffs for making life more expensive as she struggles with rising food, rent and utility bills on a fixed income. She remembers Trump saying he would stop inflation.
“That’s what we were told initially,” Vena, 66, said. “Did I believe it? That’s another question. I didn’t believe it.”
The district Trump visits could help decide control of the House in next year’s midterm elections.
Trump is rallying in a congressional district supported by Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who is a top Democratic target and won the 2024 race by about 1.5 percentage points, among the nation’s closest. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democrat, is running for the nomination to challenge him.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running digital ads during Trump’s visit to the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader website that criticize Bresnahan for stock trading during the convention and suggest that Trump has not addressed the double-dealing in Washington as promised.
Speaking to the crowd before Trump, Bresnahan said the administration is working to cut costs, but voters “don’t want partisan arguments, they want results.”
It’s unclear whether Trump can motivate voters in Monroe County to turn out next year if they’re worried about inflation.
Nick Riley, 38, said he was cutting back on luxuries such as eating out because he was absorbing higher food and electricity bills and finding it hard to find a good deal on a used car. Riley voted for Trump in 2020, but opted out of the 2024 election and plans to do so again next year.
“We’re all screwed. It doesn’t matter if you support Republicans or Democrats,” Riley said. “We are all brothers and we all feel it.”
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told the conservative online show “The Mom View” that Trump will be on the campaign trail next year to engage supporters who might otherwise enter a congressional race.
Wiles, who helped manage Trump’s 2024 campaign, said most administrations try to localize midterm elections and keep the president out of the race, but she plans to do the opposite.
“We’re actually going to turn that around,” Wiles said, “and put it on the ballot because so many of those low-propensity voters are Trump voters.”
Wiles added: “So I haven’t told him yet, but he’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 all over again.”
The challenge for Trump is how to address voters’ concerns about the economy while maintaining that the economy is enjoying a historic boom.
Asked on a Politico podcast how he would rate the economy, Trump turned to inflation, answering “A-plus,” before changing his answer to “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.”
Trump said he was providing relief to consumers by relaxing fuel efficiency standards for cars and signing deals to lower the list prices of prescription drugs.
Trump also advocated for cuts in the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate – which influences the supply of money in the US economy. He argues that this would reduce the cost of mortgages and auto loans, although critics warn that the scale cuts Trump is seeking could instead worsen inflation.
The US economy has shown signs of resilience, with the stock market rising this year and overall growth looking solid for the third quarter. But many Americans are seeing the prices of housing, food, education, electricity and other basic needs eat into their incomes, a dynamic the Trump administration has said it expects to fade next year with more investment in artificial intelligence and manufacturing.
After Democrats won key races in November by focusing on kitchen-table issues, Trump often dismissed concerns about prices as a “scam” and a “scam” to suggest he bears no responsibility for inflation, even as he campaigned on his ability to quickly lower prices. Only 33 percent of US adults approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a November poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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Boak reported from Washington.