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SMITHTON, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump sat in a large barn in rural Pennsylvania on Monday, asking questions of farmers and offering jokes but, in a rarity for his campaign events, mostly listening.
The bombastic former president was unusually restrained at an event about China's influence on the U.S. economy, a roundtable during which farmers and manufacturers expressed concerns about losing their way of life. Behind Trump were large green tractors and a sign declaring “Protect our food from China."
The event in Smithton, Pennsylvania, gave Trump a chance to drive his economic message against Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing that imposing tariffs and boosting energy production will lower costs. He highlighted Harris' reversal of a previous vow to ban fracking, a method of producing natural gas key to Pennsylvania's economy.
And he noted the tractors behind him were manufactured by John Deere, which announced in June it was moving skid steer and track loader manufacturing to Mexico and working to acquire land there for a new factory. Trump threatened the firm with a 200% tariff should he win back the presidency and it opted to export manufacturing to Mexico.
“If they want to build in the United States, there’s no tariff,” he added.
Trump opened the event with some of his usual themes. He declared that in 2020: "We had an election that didn’t exactly work out too good. And it was a disgrace.”
But he then did something unusual: He let others do most of the talking.
When one farmer said recent decades had seen scores of family farms shut down, Trump asked what that meant for overall production. The response was that, thanks to larger farms now operating, total production is actually up but "we are losing the small family farms.”
“I know that, yes,” Trump responded somberly. Later, he said, "I am not too worried about the people around this table” supporting him on Election Day, while jokingly adding, “But you never know.”
In response to another participant’s concerns about energy production, Trump said he didn’t know that farmers were so energy-dependent. Another farmer talked about Chinese-subsidized businesses, prompting Trump to respond, “That’s why we need tariffs.”
After the same farmer finished her comments by praising him profusely, he intoned: “Amen. I agree.”
Trump has embraced tariffs as he tries to appeal to working-class voters who oppose free-trade deals and the outsourcing of factories and jobs, and the event wasn't all about showing a more personable side.
Later, the former president took questions from reporters and got more customarily combative when asked whether he was concerned that tariffs on manufacturers like John Deere would increase costs for farmers. He said of Harris, “She is not going to be good for Pennsylvania.”
Stopping at a neighborhood market prior to an evening rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump bought a bag of popcorn and quipped that, if elected, he may send for more from the Oval Office. He also gave a woman paying for groceries a $100 bill, declaring that her total “just went down a hundred bucks.”
The change didn't last long. At his evening rally, Trump reverted to form, using an abrasive message to energize mostly conservative, white, working-class voters.
“She’s a one-woman economic wrecking ball and if she gets four more years, her radical agenda will smash the economy into rubble and grind your financial situation right into the dust,” Trump said of Harris. He claimed, “She wants to take your guns away” even as the vice president has stressed being a gun owner herself.
"She’s coming for your money. She’s coming for your pensions, and she’s coming for your savings," he said.
The former president urged supporters to “get out and vote” but scoffed at the idea of casting early ballots, suggesting without evidence that it allowed more time to commit fraud. Citing unknown sources, he declared, “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 a glimpse of himself on the big screen and joked about a ”handsome man over there” before concluding, “Oh, it’s Trump.”
He also got especially candid with the rally audience saying, “I don’t like anybody that doesn’t like me, I’ll be honest,” before adding, “sounds childish” but “that’s the way it is ... call it a personality defect.”
It was a starkly different tone from Trump’s first event in Smithton, which was hosted 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 there, “China is getting into our farmlands, and we have to be able to see China very clearly.”
At the end of 2022, China held nearly 250,000 acres of U.S. land, which is slightly less than 1% of foreign-held acres, 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.
Still, the National Agricultural Law Center estimates that 24 states ban or limit foreigners without residency and foreign businesses or governments from owning private farmland. The issue emerged 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 who raises cattle and grows corn and hay, said farmers support Trump in this area, and said he wanted fewer taxes and “more freedom.”
“I want him to do everything for the economy,” said Murphy, 48. “If he just becomes president, and he does what he does, he will do more.”
Harris is visiting Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Attending a New York fundraiser on Monday, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, told a group of about 30 donors focused on climate change that Trump’s energy catchphrase of “drill, baby, drill” is “not a solution to things, and the public knows that it’s a cheap, easy thing.”
Walz, speaking at a midtown Manhattan hotel to an audience that included former presidential candidate Tom Steyer and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, called climate change an “existential threat” but also “an incredible opportunity to grow our economy.” He specifically cited farmers who use their land to generate wind energy in addition to growing crops.
Harris campaign spokesman Joseph Costello said that “despite all his lies and pandering, Donald Trump used the White House to give handouts to wealthy corporations and foreign companies."
Costello said in a statement that those came "at the expense of family farmers, drive farm bankruptcies to record levels, and sacrifice small American farmers as pawns in his failed trade war with China.”
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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.