Trump to host rally on Biden’s home turf in northeast Pennsylvania, the last before his trial begins

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump plans to hold a rally in northeastern Pennsylvania on Saturday, venturing into an area that President Joe Biden considers his home turf in what will be the Republican’s last rally before his criminal hush-money trial starts on Monday.

The presumptive Republican Party nominee and former president will speak at the Schnecksville Fire Hall in Lehigh County. It will be Trump’s third visit this year to the vital swing state, a visit that could decide who wins this year’s presidential race. He also plans to attend a fundraiser in nearby Bucks County before the event.

Pennsylvania is a crucial battleground in the rematch between Trump and Biden, with both candidates expected to visit the state regularly through November. Trump flipped the state into the Republican column in 2016 but lost it four years later to Biden, who was born in the northeastern city of Scranton and has long spoken of his roots in the city. Biden plans to give a major speech on tax fairness in Scranton on Tuesday.

Trump is facing four separate criminal charges while on the run to avenge his loss to Biden, creating an unprecedented swirl of legal and political chaos.

Jury selection begins Monday in New York for his trial, where he is accused of trying to bury stories of extramarital affairs by arranging hush money payments during his 2016 campaign.

It will be the first criminal trial ever against a former American president. And it will limit Trump’s availability on the campaign trail, even though he is expected to speak to the media often after court and has spent months raising money and campaigning for the charges against him, arguing that political opponents chase to stop him from winning the White. Home again.

Biden has argued that Trump’s lies about losing the 2020 election are dangerous for the country. He has said Trump poses a fundamental threat to democracy and U.S. alliances abroad — rhetoric that Trump has argued applies to Biden.

In recent weeks, both candidates have sought to shake up their voting bases and break up their opponents’ coalitions, a strategy that will be tested in the coming months.

Trump recently said that all Democratic-leaning voters who support Israel should support him instead, as Biden has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in his war against Hamas. The Republican said Wednesday that “any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or for Biden should have their head examined.”

He also has new ammunition to criticize Biden’s handling of the economy, as the administration said Wednesday that inflation rose 0.4% in March to an annual rate of 3.5%.

But Biden has also put Trump on the defensive on the issue of abortion, a key weakness for the Republican Party as many voters oppose new restrictions some states have placed on the procedure after judges Trump appointed to the Supreme Court , helped overturn Roe v Wade. in 2022.

Trump tried to defuse the controversy and appease women voters by saying the matter should be resolved by the states, rather than the federal government.

But that argument became problematic this past week when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the state could enforce an 1864 law criminalizing abortion, prompting Trump to suggest on Wednesday that the 19th century law was too restrictive for his taste.

Trump has instead tried to make immigration the central issue of the campaign. The Republican has sought to portray Biden as worthless on border security, given the record-high number of individuals who have crossed the southern border illegally during his administration. He also attacked the president for not doing more to increase oil drilling, even as domestic production is at a record high.

The Lehigh County area saw job growth under Biden. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said it has 445,200 jobs, compared to a pre-pandemic total of 429,900 jobs during the Trump administration.

The area’s unemployment rate is a healthy 3.9%, significantly better than the 4.6% reached before the coronavirus pandemic struck during Trump’s presidency.

Yet the Democrat has failed to convince people that he has successfully managed the economy. Only 37% of American adults approve of his economic leadership, according to a March survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

And inflation has persistently dogged Biden’s reputation. Higher costs for shelter, gasoline, car insurance and other factors boosted annual inflation in March, as it has been rising since January. The increase to 3.5% reversed last year’s decline in inflation, which hit a four-decade peak in 2022.

Biden said he still expects inflation to fall and the Federal Reserve to respond by cutting interest rates.

“We have a plan to deal with this, while the opposition – my opposition – is talking about two things,” he said on Wednesday. “They just want to cut taxes for the rich and raise taxes for other people.”