SMITHTON, Pa. — Donald Trump sat in a large barn in rural Pennsylvania on Monday, asking farmers questions and cracking jokes but, unusually at his campaign events, mostly listening.
The former president displayed unusual restraint at an event devoted to China’s influence on the American economy, a panel discussion in which farmers and industrialists expressed concerns about the loss of their way of life. Behind Trump stood big green tractors and a sign declaring “Protect our food from China.”
The Smithton, Pennsylvania, event gave Trump a chance to hammer home his economic message to Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing that imposing tariffs and increasing energy production would reduce costs. It highlighted the reversal of Harris’s promise to ban fracking, a method of producing natural gas that is critical to Pennsylvania’s economy.
He also pointed out that the tractors behind him were made by John Deere, which announced in June that it was moving skid-steer and track loader production to Mexico and was working to acquire land for a new plant. Trump has threatened the company with a 200% tariff if he returns to the presidency and it chooses to export its production to Mexico.
“If they want to build in the United States, there are no tariffs,” he added.
Trump opened the event by returning to some of his usual themes. He said that in 2020, “We had an election that didn’t go very well. And it was a disgrace.”
But then he did something unusual: he let others do most of the talking.
When one farmer said that the past few decades have seen dozens of family farms close, Trump asked what that meant for overall production. The response was that, with the big farms now operating, total production is actually up, but “we’re losing the small family farms.”
“I know that, yes,” Trump replied somberly. Later, he said, “I’m not too worried about the people around this table” supporting him on Election Day, while adding jokingly, “But you never know.”
In response to another participant’s concerns about energy production, Mr. Trump said he didn’t know farmers were so dependent on energy. Another farmer talked about Chinese-subsidized companies, prompting Mr. Trump to respond, “That’s why we need tariffs.”
After the same peasant woman had finished her speech by congratulating him profusely, he intoned: “Amen. I agree.”
Trump pushed for tariffs in an attempt to appeal to working-class voters who oppose free trade deals and the outsourcing of factories and jobs, and the event wasn’t just about showing a more personal side.
Later, the former president took questions from reporters and grew even more aggressive when asked whether he was concerned that tariffs on manufacturers like John Deere would increase costs for farmers. He said of Harris: “She’s not going to be good for Pennsylvania.”
Stopping at a neighborhood market before an evening rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump bought a bag of popcorn and joked that if elected, he might bring more to the Oval Office. He also gave a $100 bill to a woman paying for groceries, saying her money total “just went down a hundred dollars.”
The shift didn’t last long. Once the rally began, Trump was back in full swing, using an aggressive message to energize conservative, white, working-class voters.
“She is a one-man economic wrecking ball and if she stays in office for four more years, her radical agenda will tear the economy to pieces and grind your financial situation to dust,” Trump said of Harris. He claimed she “wants to take away your guns,” even though the vice president noted that she owns a gun herself.
“She’s coming for your money, for your pensions and for your savings,” he said.
The former president urged his supporters to “go vote” but scoffed at the idea of early voting, suggesting without evidence that it allowed more time for fraud. Citing unidentified sources, he said: “They said if we don’t win this election, there may never be another election in this country.”
At one point, the former president caught sight of himself on the big screen and joked about a “handsome man over there” before concluding: “Oh, that’s Trump.”
The tone was starkly different from Trump’s first event in Smithton, organized by the Protecting America Initiative, led by Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, and former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin.
Grenell told the small group of attendees: “China is coming into our farmland, and we need to be able to see China very clearly.”
As of late 2022, China held nearly 250,000 acres of U.S. land, or just under 1% of foreign-owned land, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By comparison, Canada was the largest foreign owner of U.S. land, accounting for 32%, or 14.2 million acres.
Yet the National Agricultural Law Center estimates that 24 states prohibit or restrict ownership of private farmland by foreigners without residency permits and by foreign companies or governments. The problem arose after a Chinese billionaire bought more than 130,000 acres near a U.S. Air Force base in Texas and another Chinese company sought to build a corn plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.
Rex Murphy, from a nearby rural community that raises cattle and grows corn and hay, said farmers in that area support Trump and that he wants lower taxes and “more freedom.”
“I want him to do everything he can for the economy,” said Murphy, 48. “If he becomes president and does what he’s doing, he’ll do even more.”
Harris is visiting Pennsylvania on Wednesday. On Monday, while attending a fundraiser in New York, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, told a group of about 30 climate-focused donors that Trump’s energy slogan, “drill baby, drill” is “not a solution to the problems, and the public knows that’s a cheap, easy thing.”
Speaking at a midtown Manhattan hotel to an audience that included former presidential candidate Tom Steyer and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, Walz called climate change “an existential threat” but also “an incredible opportunity to grow our economy.” He cited farmers who use their land to generate wind power in addition to growing crops.
Joseph Costello, a spokesman for Harris’ campaign, said that “for all his lies and pandering, Donald Trump has used the White House to hand out gifts to wealthy corporations and foreign businesses.”
Costello said in a statement that the moves have come “at the expense of family farmers, pushed farm bankruptcies to record levels and sacrificed small American farmers as pawns in his failed trade war with China.”
Colvin reported from Indiana, Pennsylvania. Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Didi Tang in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
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