U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to deliver remarks on the U.S. economy and affordability at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 9, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
It's no coincidence that President Donald Trump chose Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, for a MAGA rally on Tuesday. Pennsylvania, as Democratic strategist James Carville famously noted back in the late 1980s, is a complex and volatile swing state that can go either Democrat or Republican. And Trump has a history of both winning and losing in the Keystone State, which he carried in 2016 and 2024 but lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
The Mount Pocono event marked Trump's return to MAGA rallies after putting them on the back burner during his second presidency. But Salon's Sophia Tesfaye, in a biting article published on Wednesday, attacks the Mount Pocono gathering as a "flop."
"Donald Trump's midterm reboot was supposed to be the triumphant return of a political heavyweight," Tesfaye explains. "After Democrats saw impressive gains in off-year elections across the country in November, White House advisers promised the president would return to the campaign trail to storm the 2026 midterms with the same 'fire and dominance' he claimed to wield in 2024 — infamous weave and all. But if his Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania rally is any preview of what the GOP should expect, Trump's promise should be read as a threat. Far from a comeback, his return rally was a flop."
Trump aggressively defended his economic policy during the rally, which, Tesfaye emphasizes, suffered from both poor attendance and bad messaging.
"Trump's team clearly hoped the blue-collar community in one of the country's most important swing states would give him a friendly launchpad," the Salon journalist writes. "While I expected a crowd of a few thousand with the nostalgic sound of MAGA chants echoing off metal bleachers, I tuned into Fox News Tuesday evening to find the president in a conference center ballroom inside a local casino that appeared to hold, generously, 200 people. And even that small crowd seemed hesitant, almost resigned, as Trump ranted for nearly an hour."
Tesfaye adds, "Fox News, of course, dutifully avoided any wide shots. But the truth was clear on screen: The MAGA magic had vanished."
According to Tesfaye, Trump's "gaslighting" on the economy during his Pennsylvania rally did nothing to persuade swing voters.
"The Trump of 2026 is not the Trump of 2024," Tesfaye observes. "The president is clearly tired, angry, confused and incapable of adjusting to a country in economic crisis. Even Fox News can’t spin this."
Sophia Tesfaye's full article for Salon is available at this link.