President Trump Holds 100-Day Rally In Pennsylvania

President Trump held a campaign-style rally tonight in Pennsylvania to celebrate the first 100 days of his presidency.

The energy was high at the rally, where Trump spoke to about 11,000 people in the capital city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump made sure to point out that he attended the rally in lieu of the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. The media and Trump have been at odds since his campaign, so it’s no wonder that the populist candidate opted to speak directly to the people on the 100th day of his presidency. Trump said that there is no place he would rather be than in Pennsylvania to celebrate the milestone.

Attendee at Trump's Pennsylvania rally throws Russian flags into air as he speaks https://t.co/BOoCNczwIL pic.twitter.com/ponLUwYCtB

— The Hill (@thehill) April 30, 2017

After calling mainstream media outlets like CNN and NBC “fake news,” Trump threw a dig at his political opponents by asking the crowd if anyone even remembered who he ran against in 2016. He pointed out that the media is extremely critical of him, but that paper journalism is failing and newspapers like the New York Times are going out of business.

He emphasized that his loyalty was to American workers. He talked about how before he became president, steel mills and factories were closed, jobs were shipped overseas, and American troops were deployed to protect foreign borders while leaving our own border undefended. He said we would no longer let other countries take advantage of us anymore and that from now on, it would be America first. The crowd energetically cheered or booed along with Trump’s statements.

Latest #cartoon from Ben #Garrison#bengarrison #Trump #patriotsparade #patriots #hillary pic.twitter.com/OZGxodPTMr

— DJT is my President (@DonaldJTrumpNY) February 7, 2017

Trump addressed criticism of his comments about Chinese currency manipulation by telling the crowd about his meeting with the Chinese president. He said that although the president has China’s best interest in mind and not ours, he was still a good man and they had a common enemy in North Korea.

“We are ending offshoring and bringing back our wonderful, beautiful, great American jobs.”

Trump emphasized that this has been 100 days of action. By his own standards, Trump’s first 100 days have been pretty successful since he’s implemented or began to push many policies he promised during his campaign. He listed several of the accomplishments he made during this time, including having Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch confirmed, cracking down on gangs, and withdrawing from the TPP.

“That’s what we’re doing in Washington, D.C.”

Trump spoke directly to Pennsylvania residents, saying that he would put Pennsylvania steel manufacturing into the backbone of America’s economy again. When he talked about putting coal miners back to work, some people in the crowd stood up. He said he was very happy about the record-high numbers in the stock market and about the work he and others had done for military veterans.

President Trump also addressed immigration, a controversial issue that brought ovations from the crowd. Border crossings are down, and Trump said that this was a sign that the world was getting the message. He promised to build the wall, “rest assured.” He promised to honor law enforcement and to protect America from “radical Islamic terrorists.” At this point, he read the poem “The Snake.”

Trump said that one of his proudest 100-day accomplishments was how his administration worked with the Egyptian government to free an American prisoner, Aya, who is now back in the states. Her husband and eight other people were also freed and returned to the U.S.

He promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, defend the Second Amendment, and rescind Common Core. He said cities would experience a rebirth and children would take pride in being American. He finished with his signature slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

The rally was a way for Trump to communicate directly to the people without the media’s filter. Many of the accomplishments he explained can be read in this scorecard.

It makes sense that President Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania to talk to his fans and supporters because Pennsylvania was critically important in getting Trump elected. Pennsylvania was widely predicted to give its 20 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton, but the state ended up voting red and provided Trump with a windfall that pushed him way past the required 270 votes needed to win.

Of the three states cited as surprise “flips” that went for Trump — Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — Pennsylvania is the largest. Pennsylvania had been called “reliably blue.” Its electoral votes had not gone to a Republican candidate since 1988, and Obama won it by over five percentage points.

The fact that Pennsylvania “flipped” was part of why the 2016 election result was so surprising. Most political analysts expected Pennsylvania to vote blue, as it had in every election since 1992. But Donald Trump campaigned there heavily, touching on economic concerns of the semi-rural state.

With this rally, Trump’s Pennsylvania fans got a chance to hear him speak at the milestone 100th day of his presidency.

[Featured Image by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images]