Outside a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, young people in MAGA hats say they’re scared for their future

It was a college town, so the crowd was bound to be younger than usual. But the sheer amount of fresh-faced college and high school-age youths at Donald Trump’s rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania on Monday evening was something to behold.

They lined up for hours in MAGA hats of all colors; many of them wore T-shirts with Trump’s most famous image on the front — his fist in the air and the American flag billowing in the background in the seconds after the first attempt on his life a few weeks ago.

What could bring out so many young people to see a former president, I asked, as I waited in a line that extended to the parking lot?

“The economy,” said Brodie Lyons, a 22-year-old law student as he waited to enter the arena at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

“Look how it was four years ago — pretty much everything has doubled [in price],” he added.

Those concerns were shared by other fellow students who tried and failed to get into the packed arena alongside me. Indeed, so many people were keen to see Trump speak on Monday night that hundreds were turned away.

“I’m scared for my future. I want my future economy to thrive,” said Kelsey Moyer, a 20-year-old student at Indiana University. “Both presidents have had a four-year span and you can see the difference in the country.”

Young people have traditionally been a reliable voting bloc for the Democrats. And polls show Harris has a strong lead among young people across the country generally — she’s leading by 31 points among likely voters between 18 and 35, according to one new poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, for example.

But Trump has been making inroads into this demographic — with young men in particular. The same poll found that while Harris leads by 70 per cent to 23 per cent among young women, that lead is down to 53 per cent to 36 per cent for men. That’s a significant gap, especially if it’s playing out in an all-important swing state like Pennsylvania. Shaving down those razor-thin margins could get either candidate over the line.

It’s important to consider which issues actually resonate with young people, versus what the dominant messaging might suggest. Despite the media being dominated by images of college students protesting over the war in Gaza over the past year, the economy is time and time again reported to be the single most important issue for young people aged between 18 and 30 — many of whom will soon be entering the job market.

An NBC poll released earlier this month found that inflation and the cost of living was the issue that mattered most, far above threats to democracy, abortion or health care.

Indiana County, where the rally was held, is a reliably Republican-voting area — some 68 per cent voted for Trump in 2020. And unlike many other colleges, it is situated in a rural part of Pennsylvania where Trump signs outnumber those for Kamala Harris immeasurably.

“I have never seen this amount of young people at a rally before,” said Scott Presler, a conservative activist who founded a vote registration PAC. “I’m struck by it. And we’re getting everybody registered to vote.”

Inside the arena, Trump’s speech meandered around his usual talking-points and pointed insults aimed at his enemies. He spent a long time talking about his personal obsession: the late-night cable shows and his feuds with the various hosts.

“When they don’t like me, I don’t like them, OK? Sounds childish,” he said. “That’s the way it is. Call it a personality defect.”

But it was his lines about the economy that drew some of the biggest cheers.

“As president, I will keep Kamala’s greedy hands out of your pockets and we will deliver gigantic tax cuts,” he told the crowd in the full 5,000-person arena. “I gave you the biggest tax cuts in history and we are going to go further.”

Trump has repeatedly made false claims about the economy under his presidency, and under his successor, Joe Biden. The average annual GDP growth rate under Trump was 2.3 per cent. Under Biden it is around 2.2 per cent.

Harris said she plans to bring down consumer prices by implementing a federal ban on price-gouging on food and groceries. She also says she will put in place rules to stop big corporations from getting “excessive profits” by “unfairly” exploiting consumers.

Trump, meanwhile, said he would seek a 10 to 20 percent tariff on all imports from all countries — and that he would slap a 60 percent tariff on Chinese imports, according to CNN. He would also increase energy production in an effort to lower costs.

Across Pennsylvania, there are pockets of strong support for both candidates. But here in the town of Indiana, it was clear that Trump had succeeded in getting his message across — and convincing a demographic Republicans usually struggle to get on board.