President Donald Trump will return to Pennsylvania, hosting his first rally since reelection, amid his controversial budget proposal that could cost constituents their benefits.
President Donald Trump is holding a rally with steelworkers in the Pittsburgh area on Friday to promote a potential deal between Japanese-owned Nippon Steel and US Steel.
Nippon Steel started the process to purchase US Steel a little more than a year and half ago and has promised to invest $14 billion into the company and keep US Steel’s headquarters located in Pittsburgh.
This will be his first rally in Pennsylvania since winning reelection after the 2024 election.
Democrats are using this as an opportunity to highlight how Trump’s agenda has harmed Pennsylvania residents.
“As Trump travels to Pittsburgh today, he has done nothing but peddle a ‘billionaire first’ agenda that screws over working families across Pennsylvania,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “While Trump fattens the pocketbooks of America’s wealthiest, Pennsylvanians are footing the bill, with more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians set to lose their health care as costs skyrocket.”
All 10 of Pennsylvania’s US House Republicans voted last week for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which provides massive cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in order to pay for tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
Trump’s budget bill includes an $800 billion cut to Medicaid and a $290 billion cut to SNAP. The Center for American Progress estimates that 340,000 Pennsylvanians are at risk of losing their health care coverage and 400,000 residents are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits, which helps put food on the table for those who are struggling.
Since taking office, Trump and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and X, are responsible for cutting government programs and agencies that help ordinary Pennsylvanians.
Some of those cuts include: $762 million in Title I funding, which helps close to 800,000 low-income, rural and disabled public school students, the elimination of the Low Income Home Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps 302,000 Pennsylvanians heat their homes in the winter and the elimination of of the Housing and Urban Development’s rental assistance program, which helps over 390,000 residents afford housing and avoid homelessness.
Pennsylvania has lost close to 20,000 jobs since Trump took office, according to a report from the US Senate Democrats’ Joint Economic Committee. Mack Trucks, a Volvo owned subsidiary, laid off close to 300 workers at their plant in the Lehigh Valley due to Trump’s tariffs earlier this year.
“Make no mistake: Trump’s out-of-touch agenda is throwing the economy into chaos, cutting jobs, raising prices, and gutting health care for working families in Pittsburgh and across the state,” Martin added.
