MACUNGIE, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s speech on manufacturing in a key Pennsylvania swing district repeatedly veered into other topics and musings about elections in other states, like Maine and California.

It took the president nearly an hour to even reference by name GOP U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, the vulnerable incumbent whose district Trump was visiting to boost his chances in this year’s midterm elections.

And GOP gubernatorial nominee Stacy Garrity didn’t even get a mention during Trump’s the speech to roughly 1,500 attendees, including workers at the Mack Trucks facility in Macungie in Lehigh County.

Trump’s visit comes just days after the company received $47 million through a Defense Department contract.

And while he touted the trucks, he spent just as much time meandering about weight loss drugs, immigration, firearms, the role of transgender athletes in women’s sports and the UFC fight recently held on the White House lawn. He also repeated conspiracy theories about the races for Los Angeles mayor and California governor, saying he asked the U.S. attorney in that state to investigate after conservative mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt did not advance to the general election.

And he threw jabs at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro amid 2028 speculation and appeared to undermine Shapiro’s Republican opponent, Stacy Garrity.

Speaking about recent victories by Democratic socialist candidates around the country, Trump quipped that “Shapiro is not that much better to be honest with you.”

He referenced the Democratic governor’s potential presidential aspirations, warning that “a guy like Shapiro is going to be forced on the left otherwise he’s not going to get the nomination.”

But despite weighing in on Shapiro, the governor’s Republican challenger’s name was noticeably absent from Trump’s list of shoutouts to GOP officials, despite the fact that Garrity spoke earlier in the event.

Trump instead heaped praised on U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Pennsylvania Republican who considered a run before ultimately opting against it and enabling the state party to coalesce around Garrity.

“Meuser’s another great guy who was thinking about running for governor. I think he would have won. He was thinking of running for governor, and I said I want you to stay in Congress,” Trump said.

Trump endorsed Garrity earlier this year, but the lack of acknowledgment was striking given the election year focus of the event and Garrity’s own promises to support Trump’s agenda.

“We need a governor in Harrisburg who will be a partner with President Trump in Washington, not an opponent in the court rooms,” she said before Trump took the stage. “We need a governor who will fight for Pennsylvania jobs, like right here at Mack Trucks.”

Trump reinforced his belief that tariffs have and would further revitalize the U.S. economy, though gas prices have reached new heights since he began a war with Iran and stymied the flow of oil. (The Strait of Hormuz has reopened, following a tentative peace deal struck this month.)

“I placed a 25% tariff on foreign automobiles and very importantly posed a 25% tariff on medium and heavy duty trucks, so Mack Trucks could do very well with this factory in Pennsylvania,” he said.

“They weren’t gonna come in from foreign lands and steal your jobs,” Trump added.

However, the company cited Trump’s tariffs last year as contributing to its decision to lay off hundreds of workers at its Lehigh Valley operations center, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported at the time.

Tuesday marked Trump’s fourth Pennsylvania appearance in his second term and his first this year ahead of November’s high-stakes midterm elections. The visit was billed as an official event as part of Trump’s American Workers First tour, but the event had the feel of a campaign rally.

Four U.S. House districts in Pennsylvania are considered competitive, the most of any state, and the event took place in the 7th Congressional District, which is viewed as one of the most likely to flip to Democratic control.

“We have to reelect a certain congressman,” Trump told the crowd.

In 2024, Mackenzie won the seat by 1 percentage point in 2024 while Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris and won Pennsylvania in the presidential race.

“Workers, like the ones here at Mack, are spearheading the great American comeback,” Mackenzie said.

Bob Brooks, a union leader and firefighter who won the Democratic nomination to challenge Mackenzie, praised the union workers at Mack ahead of the event for building “the literal engine for the American economy,” but he blasted Trump and Mackenzie for failing to bring down prices.

“No speech from Mackenzie can change the fact that his time in Congress has been an absolute disaster for the hardworking people of the Lehigh Valley,” Brooks said in a statement ahead of Tuesday’s event.

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, in a press call earlier Tuesday, said Trump’s choice to rally at Mack Trucks specifically signals he and his party recognize a “real political danger” because of Trump’s policies.

“Donald Trump’s agenda is putting Congressman Mackenzie at serious risk,” Davis said. “They’re circling the wagons and trying to save that seat.”

Affordability is likely to be key issue on voters’ minds as they choose between Mackenzie and Brooks.

Steve Leiby, 52, who works for Mack and attended Tuesday’s event, said he understands the tariffs Trump enacted are controversial, but he still supports them.

“It’s a big risk, if we had a war, that we didn’t make a lot of war supplies in the U.S,” he said.

Brent and Francine Stanley, both 60, from New Tripoli, said they support Mackenzie because he shares their conservative values. His office organized an elder care symposium that Francine attended because the couple has a 23-year-old child with disabilities, and they were able to get connected to resources.

But they both know how competitive this election is, noting the stack of pro-Brooks mailers they’ve already received and predicting that Democrats will be knocking on their doors as November approaches.

“They’re really persistent, and if you don’t answer, they follow up,” Francine said. Mackenzie, she said, should consider doing the same.

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(Staff reporters Andrea Padilla and Sam Janesch contributed to this report.)

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