Forgotten rust belt town embraces Donald Trump – despite his broken promises

Published

11 months ago

August 31, 2024

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They were queuing at dawn for a rally that wouldn’t start for hours. Such is the draw of Donald Trump in places like this.

I’m back in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a town I’ve been to a few times over the past eight years.

I was first here in 2016, on the night when Donald Trump dramatically defeated Hillary Clinton – the election which propelled him to the White House. I returned four years later when Trump lost to Joe Biden.

This is a rust belt town which feels now to be rusting away.

It’s one of those neglected places in America, a town bypassed by highways and forgotten by people who live a better life somewhere else.

The thriving steel industry on which Johnstown was built is long gone. The vast metal plant which once dominated the town centre now employs just a fraction of the workers. Young people who see opportunity elsewhere leave as soon as they can.

Main Street is now a collection of vape shops, fast food franchises, the odd shop and boarded up businesses. One independent restaurant which had just opened on my last visit is still open, but it’s empty.

This part of Pennsylvania is Trump country. And today, there is a buzz in the air because their man is passing through.

With 10 weeks to go until the most pivotal of elections, Donald Trump and his opponent, Kamala Harris, are criss-crossing the country, shuttling between the few swing states where the future of this country will be decided.

In Pennsylvania and just a few other states, the margins are so tight, it could swing either way.

And so, just as he did in 2016 and 2020, Donald Trump came to Johnstown to tell the people here, again, that he will make their lives better.

“We’re going to win back the White House.” he told the cheering crowd in a packed arena.

“We’re going to make this country greater than it’s ever been… We’re going to bring in tremendous numbers of factories.

“Together, we will deliver low taxes, low regulations, low energy costs, low interest rates, low inflation, so that everyone can afford groceries, a car and a home.”

He hit every button and here, among the faithful who attend these rallies, they believe his pledges.

But here’s the thing. Despite his promises, he never got the factories outside this arena re-opened when he was last president.

A combination of factors is fuelling Trump’s enduring appeal.

Part of it is explained by deep-set conservative Christian values which Trumpian Republicanism has latched on to so well – the yearning for ‘the good old days’.

Part of it is the soaring inflation over the past few years – the sharp post-pandemic increase in global commodity prices, compounded by Ukraine war-related supply chain and energy delivery disruption. Here, Joe Biden foots the blame. He’s been the president. No debate.

But it’s also viscerally clear that part of America feels marginalised and ignored as ‘progressive’ liberals progress with policies and lifestyles that people in places like Johnstown feel are not aligned with them or helping them.

Put simply, the lives of the people in this arena felt better back under the first Trump term, despite the unfulfilled promises, because they have felt even worse through the past four years under Joe Biden.

Donald Trump, the salesman, has harnessed this anger with pitch-perfect rhetoric. He hears their disillusionment and he compounds it as he projects forward.

“Comrade Kamala launched a radical left war on Pennsylvania energy that will destroy the economy of your state,” he told them in a speech peppered with baseless assertions.

“Can you believe that Kamala Harris wants to outlaw your car and truck and force you to buy electric vehicles, whether you like them or not, whether you can afford it or not? When we win, on day one, I will tell Pennsylvania to drill, baby, drill.”

His speech darted from topic to topic to cheers and pantomime boos.

“She does not care if your family is struggling and she did absolutely nothing to fix it. She’s the vice president, but she just does not care.

“She does not care about women’s rights because she supported destroying women’s sports and athletic scholarships. She wants men to play in women’s sports.”

He repeated “Comrade Kamala” over and over. Not only does she represent continuity from Biden, but she is, he said, a radical-left communist.

Few watch the cable TV networks in places like this, such is the level of distrust in the mainstream media, but had they watched Harris’s first interview, with CNN on Thursday, they’d have heard her rebuking that caricature with language that sounded more centrist than socialist.

It involved U-turns, yes – like on fracking, a big industry in Philadelphia, which she once said she wanted to ban.

But on the broad political spectrum that reflects America, she fell more towards the moderate middle ground than many of Mr Trump’s own policies.

Take immigration. Kamala Harris pledged to sign into law the tough bipartisan border security deal which Mr Trump torpedoed a few months ago.

His allies in Congress blocked the bill despite it being precisely what he wanted to fix the chaotic southern border. Why did he have it blocked? Because he knew its success would help the Democrats.

Beyond immigration, it was the livelihoods of everyday Americans which Kamala Harris chose to focus on in the CNN interview, not progressive base motivators like reproductive rights or gun control.

The problem is that even if the crowd in this rally were watching the Harris interview; even if they did hear her words, which were still undeniably light on policy detail, they don’t believe her.

“The people of Pennsylvania are smart…” Mr Trump said. “They are not going to fall for it. She will destroy. If you don’t have fracking, you don’t have a commonwealth.”

The crowd roared.

Both sides in this starkly divided country have been led to a place where they have no trust in the other. There are two siloed worlds here and it’s increasingly embittered, resentful and aggrieved.

US

Farmer becomes first person to die during Trump’s ICE raids

Published

37 mins ago

July 13, 2025

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Farmer becomes first person to die during Trump's ICE raids

A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.

His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.

The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.

“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.

Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.

Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.

Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.

“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.

“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”

Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.

“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.

US

Donald Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s US citizenship

Published

37 mins ago

July 13, 2025

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Donald Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship

Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.

In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”

He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.

O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.

“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.

“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”

O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.

She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.

O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.

This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.

But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.

Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.

“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.

“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”

US

Donald Trump announces 30% tariff on imports from EU

Published

17 hours ago

July 12, 2025

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Donald Trump announces 30% tariff on imports from EU

Donald Trump has announced he will impose a 30% tariff on imports from the European Union from 1 August.

The tariffs could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the US.

Mr Trump has also imposed a 30% tariff on goods from Mexico, according to a post from his Truth Social account.

Announcing the moves in separate letters on the account, the president said the US trade deficit was a national security threat.

In his letter to the EU, he wrote: “We have had years to discuss our trading relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, trade Deficits, engendered by your tariff, and non-Tariff, policies, and trade barriers.

“Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from reciprocal.”

In his letter to Mexico, Mr Trump said he did not think the country had done enough to stop the US from turning into a “narco-trafficking playground”.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said today that the EU could adopt “proportionate countermeasures” if the US proceeds with imposing the 30% tariff.

Ms von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said in a statement that the bloc remained ready “to continue working towards an agreement by Aug 1”.

“Few economies in the world match the European Union’s level of openness and adherence to fair trading practices,” she continued.

“We will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required.”

Ms von der Leyen has also said imposing tariffs on EU exports would “disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains”.

Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on the X social media platform that Mr Trump’s announcement was “very concerning and not the way forward”.

He added: “The European Commission can count on our full support. As the EU we must remain united and resolute in pursuing an outcome with the United States that is mutually beneficial.”

Mexico’s economy ministry said a bilateral working group aims to reach an alternative to the 30% US tariffs before they are due to take effect.

The country was informed by the US that it would receive a letter about the tariffs, the ministry’s statement said, adding that Mexico was negotiating.

Trump’s tariff threats and delays

On his so-called “liberation day” in April, Mr Trump unleashed “reciprocal tariffs” on many of America’s trade partners.

The US president said he was targeting countries with which America has a trade imbalance.

However, since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.

The US imposed a 20% tariff on imported goods from the EU in April but it was later paused and the bloc has since been paying a baseline tariff of 10% on goods it exports to the US.

In May, while the US and EU where holding trade negotiations, Mr Trump threated to impose a 50% tariff on the bloc as talks didn’t progress as he would have liked.

However, he later announced he was delaying the imposition of that tariff while negotiations over a trade deal took place.

As of earlier this week, the EU’s executive commission, which handles trade issues for the bloc’s 27-member nations, said its leaders were still hoping to strike a trade deal with the Trump administration.

Without one, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes.