‘This is our Agincourt’: Trump’s campaigners are pounding the streets of a crucial election battleground
They’re calling Pittsburgh and its surrounding area “ground zero” in this election and we joined a crack team of Trump troops on manoeuvres in this crucial battleground territory.
It’s 9am in a packed hotel room outside the city and the Mighty American Strike Force is mustering.
“You are in the arena,” an organiser tells them. “If you’re British,” nodding to us, “this is our Agincourt.”
The Mighty American Strike Force gathers in a hotel room
This is arguably the most important county in the most important swing state.
Pennsylvania looks like the tightest race after Kamala Harris lost her lead here a few days ago and it has the greatest number of electoral college votes, 19 of them.
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So, unless there is a big upset somewhere, whoever wins here wins the White House.
A Trump supporter told campaigners anyone who didn’t think the US had “fallen off a cliff” since Joe Biden was elected is “an idiot”
This has been Democrat country for decades, working-class industrial heartlands where the unions help deliver a Democrat vote and now more progressive liberals have reinforced the party’s urban strongholds.
But the Trump campaign sees an opening here and is out to exploit it.
Michael Hildreth talks to Pennsylvania voters
Church minister Michael Hildreth has driven for two days from Texas with his son to campaign in this crucial battleground state.
We join them and fellow campaigner Stacie, also from Texas, as they drive out into enemy territory, the Democrat suburbs, on the hunt for votes.
“Tensions are high,” he tells us. “This time, there’s hostility.”
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Battle to win votes in swing states
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The first voter he speaks to on the porch of his house says he’s a “Kamala guy”.
The second says he never votes.
Pennsylvania is arguably the most important county in the most important swing state
But he and Stacie find potential recruits as they pound the pavements nearby.
“It’s Trump and Vance,” says one man. “Closed borders, economic freedom, inflation, less crime, a businessman who knows how to run a business.”
“Anybody who doesn’t think this country has fallen off a cliff in the last four years is an idiot,” another Trump supporter tells us.
The economy and affordability motivates most people in the Pittsburgh suburb
As we pause for breath, I ask Michael what made him drive all this way to help Trump win here.
For him, it’s about ending America’s wars overseas.
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“The left-wing people are psychopaths. I’m not saying every single person who’s a Democrat is,” he says.
“But the people in power, they’re all about the money. And people will die. People have already died.
“Hundreds of thousands have died in Ukraine. And we’re going to see maybe millions upon millions dying if we don’t stop this war.”
Whoever wins in Pennsylvania likely wins the White House
He is a preacher and a pacifist and believes Trump will end the Ukraine conflict and not let others happen, so his son is never drafted to fight for other people in far-off foreign countries.
Many voters they encounter have more mundane concerns, though.
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It’s the economy and affordability that motivates most people we find in the quiet sunny streets of this Pittsburgh suburb.
The Trump camp thinks it has a chance because of that: if it can make its mark here and elsewhere in this all important state, the former president will return to the White House.
On the night, Sky News will have access to the most comprehensive exit poll and vote-counting results from every state, county and demographic across America through its US-partner network NBC.
You can find out more about Sky News’ coverage here.
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.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
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.
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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.
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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.”
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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
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.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
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.
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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.”
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