MACUNGIE, Pa. — President Donald Trump traveled on Tuesday to one of the tightest congressional battlegrounds in this year’s midterms, but he showed about as much interest in boosting the Republican candidate as the candidate showed in him.
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“We got to get a certain very talented congressman reelected,” Trump said. “Where are you? Where are you, Mr. Congressman?”
After four more minutes of riffing on rigged elections and tariffs, Trump still didn’t name Rep. Ryan Mackenzie. “We got to make sure you vote for our congressman here,” Trump told the crowd, gathered inside a Mack truck factory. “I’m not doing this for my health.”
The dynamic at the campaign-like event showed the political bind facing this season’s most endangered Republicans. They still need the support of Trump’s base voters, so they are not asking him to stay away or declining to appear with him, as Democrats did with Joe Biden in 2022. But they are not hewing to the unpopular president’s agenda as closely as in past cycles.
Trump has lost ground with independents and non-college-educated Americans who swung the 2024 election to him, reflecting frustrations with inflation and the Iran war that made it worse. Only 24 percent of Americans think the war was worth the costs, and 63 percent doubt the ceasefire deal will lead to lasting peace, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted in the five days ending Monday.
When Trump finally called up Mackenzie, almost an hour into his speech, he teased the candidate, whose seat is rated one of 14 GOP-held toss-ups by the Cook Political Report.
“Run up here,” the president said. “Run fast. Nobody wants to hear you.”
Onstage, Mackenzie kept it short — and bland.
“Mr. President, I can’t thank you enough for coming here to the Lehigh Valley, highlighting the great men and women of Mack Trucks, doing all the work that you do in Washington, D.C., for our veterans, our first responders and everybody across this country to continue to maintain America as the greatest country in the world. You are the president that is fighting for all Americans.”
While Trump was speaking, the Senate voted against resuming the war in Iran, with four Republicans joining Democrats to pass the resolution 50-48. The measure probably would have failed if not for the absences of Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who is ill, and Dave McCormick (R-Pennsylvania), who was with Trump here.
Absences also allowed the anti-war resolution to pass the House earlier this month after repeated failed attempts. The White House and some Republicans argue the resolution isn’t binding. But it still sets a new high-water mark for Republican pushback on Trump’s unpopular war.
The president has acknowledged those political stakes, scolding the Republican defectors for undermining his bargaining position in the ongoing negotiations with Iran. On his way here, Trump weighed in on the latest dispute in the ceasefire talks, denying the Iranians’ account that they hadn’t agreed to international nuclear inspections, a day after Vice President JD Vance said they did.
In the speech here, Trump appeared eager to put the Iran war behind him. “We just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said of the war he started with the stated goals of regime change and unconditional surrender, which led to the bottling up of world energy supplies in the Persian Gulf.
Trump cheered for 19 million barrels of oil leaving the strait on Monday, a figure confirmed by ship-tracking firm Kpler for oil and refined products combined. The waterway’s daily traffic averaged 20 million barrels in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. Trump falsely claimed 19 million barrels set a record.
The president pointed to falling gas prices and surging stock prices to argue the economy was already recovering from the oil price shock, even as tech stocks dropped Tuesday. He received only scattered applause for touting 401(k) performances, and about half the audience raised their hands for having a retirement account — consistent with public polling.
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Trump’s approval rating fell to 34 percent in the Reuters poll, matching the survey’s second-term low in April.
While it’s not uncommon for swing-district candidates to keep some distance between themselves and an unpopular incumbent president, “it’s different this time because the president’s job approval is so low,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres. “That’s what makes it particularly challenging.”
“Almost by definition, if you’re in a swing district, you need a lot of independents to vote for you, and it’s a delicate dance to make sure your base gets out at the same time you get sufficient independents to win a majority,” Ayres continued. “There’s a reason why the president’s party’s performance in midterm elections is so closely related to the president’s job approval.”
Chuck Coughlin, a longtime political strategist in Arizona who left the Republican Party after Trump’s first election in 2016, said he recently queried the results of independent voters’ primary ballot requests in the state’s 1st Congressional District — expected to be a toss-up race come November.
The independent voters requesting Democratic ballots are outnumbering those requesting Republican ones, Coughlin said.
“That just doesn’t happen,” he said. “That’s a sign that momentum is moving away from him.”
“In swing states like Arizona, it’s going to be independent voters who make up which way this thing goes. And his base is depressed for all of the reasons we’re well aware, and independents are going to react against that,” he said. “Trump had independents last time — clearly had them — and this time that’s not going to be the case.”
Trump on Tuesday sought to energize the crowd by citing specific accomplishments for working Americans, including eliminating taxes on tips and overtime, and investments including a new $3.5 billion Eli Lilly production plant in the Lehigh Valley. Before the speech, Trump met with Stephen Roy, president of Mack Trucks, whom he said lobbied him for a 15,000-truck contract.
Trump appeared to enjoy the speech as a warmup for his rally on the National Mall on Wednesday, which he previewed as a “rally to end all rallies” after musicians dropped out of the launch for America’s 250th birthday festivities. He rehearsed several of his go-to bits such as imitating a transgender weightlifter and alleging fraud in elections Republicans lost.
Trump revealed that he personally called the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, to demand an investigation into California’s primary earlier this month. Essayli announced the probe the day after Trump publicly criticized the slow counting of mail ballots.
At the start of Trump’s speech, a heckler referencing the president’s past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was promptly escorted out and drowned out by supporters’ cheers. It was not clear if Trump noticed.
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