Trump vows economy to rebound as Iran price shocks reverberate

President Donald Trump touted his protectionist trade agenda to voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, turning his attention to the US economy following an interim deal to end the war with Iran.

Trump’s visit to Macungie, in the northeastern part of the state, comes as he seeks to put the conflict he launched — and the ensuing spike in energy prices — in the back of Americans’ minds as the November midterm elections loom.

The president said the nearly four-month-long war destroyed Iran’s military capabilities and cut off its path to a nuclear weapon. And to voters who have given him poor marks for his handling of the economy and consumer costs, the president vowed that relief was near.

“We’re trying to work out a deal that’s fair,” Trump said Tuesday during a visit to a Mack Trucks manufacturing plant. “Oil is going to come charging down, and with oil comes everything else.”

The trip to Pennsylvania marked Trump’s first campaign stop since signing a memorandum of understanding with Tehran that opened negotiations to bring a permanent end to the war. The location, in a swing state Trump won in 2024, highlighted the stakes for the president’s party ahead of elections that will swing on voter perceptions of the economy.

The president proclaimed the US economy is “ready to soar to levels the world has not seen before” now that the war has concluded. He touted the tariffs he imposed on metals, imported autos and medium- and heavy-duty trucks, boasting that his policies slashed the trade deficit with China. He also mentioned his initiatives to lower prescription drug prices and cut taxes.

“For decades, the workers of this commonwealth watched globalist politicians let other countries rip you off and close your factories, rob your jobs, take them away to foreign lands,” Trump said. “Then I came along, we stopped it very quickly.”

The president’s speech veered into other subjects, including transgender people participating in women’s sports, immigration and voter identification laws. He repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 election and suggested he could seek a third term, saying “maybe we should run again.”

The GOP faces an uphill battle in the fall, with polls showing voters unhappy with Trump’s economic policies and worried about high costs for housing, healthcare, utilities and groceries.

Those strains were exacerbated by the war, leading to a spike in oil and gas prices and tumult in financial markets.

Even Trump’s trade agenda created headwinds at the very site he was visiting. Mack’s parent company, Volvo Group, last year announced plans to lay off hundreds of workers at several facilities, including its Macungie factory, citing uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs.

Trump is looking to boost Republican Representative Ryan Mackenzie, one of the party’s most vulnerable lawmakers. Mackenzie won his seat in 2024 by a slim margin of just over 4,000 votes. Republicans only hold a single-digit majority in the House, making every battleground race even more important for their hopes of holding on to control of Congress.

“We got to make sure you vote for our congressman here. I’m not doing this for my health,” the president said.

The race in Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district pits the incumbent, Mackenzie, against Democrat Bob Brooks, the president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association. Brooks offers Democrats a chance to boost their standing with the blue-collar voters Trump made significant inroads with during the 2024 election.

Republican lawmakers have pressed Trump to hone his economic messaging to assure voters they are acting on their concerns, but pledges by the White House to hit the campaign trail regularly have failed to materialize, in part due to the distraction of the war.

An Associated Press-NORC poll earlier this month found only about one-third US adults approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.

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