PHILADELPHIA — Donald Trump rallied on the Temple University campus Saturday night, and the former president wasted no time attacking President Joe Biden’s record on issues from migrants to inflation.
“Less than four years ago, we were a great nation,” Trump told an enthusiastic crowd at Liacouras Center, the North Philly home of Temple’s basketball teams. “And we will soon be a great nation again.”
Trump forcefully ravaged the incumbent on the ongoing US-Mexico border crisis, which has seen a record number of illegal border crossings in recent years.
He vowed to take strong executive action on the crisis, including a massive deportation effort involving increased immunity for federal law enforcement.
“Under Crooked Joe, the City of Brotherly Love is being ravaged by bloodshed and crime,” Trump said, linking Philadelphia’s trend of violence and skyrocketing retail theft rates to illegal immigration and dubbing it “Biden migrant crime.”
“We had the safest border in the history of our country. Now we have the unsafest border in the history of the world,” he said.
Trump used both “Crooked Joe” and his more common nickname “Sleepy Joe” when referring to Biden — at one point even asking the crowd which name they preferred.
Though cheers were noticeably louder for “Sleepy Joe,” the former president said he preferred the former and stuck with “Crooked Joe” for the remainder of the rally.
Trump vowed to fix America’s ongoing economic problems, arguing that inflation was “practically nothing” when he left office in January 2021.
“Inflation is a country-buster,” Trump said. “On Day 1 of my [new] administration, we will throw out Bidenomics and replace it with MAGAnomincs!”
The former president also floated other ideas, such as returning Department of Education authority to the states, eliminating tax on tipped income and constructing an Israeli-inspired “Iron Dome” defense system for America.
His calls to cut all federal funding for any school pushing COVID-era mandates or “transgender insanity” drew raucous applause.
Before Trump spoke at 7 p.m., a flurry of Pennsylvania leaders preceded him onstage, including GOP Rep. Dan Meuser and Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
The latter was called up during the rally and received a public endorsement from Trump.
“We’re going to win up and down the ticket here in Pennsylvania because people want change,” McCormick told the crowd as Trump looked on. “They want to get rid of Joe Biden, and they want to get rid of Bob Casey, who votes [with him] 98% of the time.
“David McCormick, you have my total support and my total endorsement, and you’ve got to win,” Trump said of the Senate candidate. “Dave will defeat your atrocious radical left senator Bob Casey.
Bob Casey… He doesn’t do anything.” For attendees at the rally, Trump was hitting all the right notes on his biggest issues.
“I feel like our country is being overrun, and the American people are taking a back seat to illegal immigrants,” said Phyllis Madigan, who traveled two hours from Maryland’s Eastern Shore for the rally. “I just think Trump sees that. He wants to put the American people first and keep the American people first.”
Another attendee, Philadelphia resident Joann Palladino also said she wants Trump to focus on the economy and border.
Palladino added that Trump’s recent conviction for falsifying business records in New York would have “not one bit” of impact on her vote for him.
— Additional reporting by Katherine Donlevy
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