On Oct. 26, former President and presidential candidate Donald J. Trump hosted a rally at the Bryce Jordan Center (BJC). The event was scheduled to begin opening remarks at 2 p.m. with Trump expected to speak at 4 p.m. 

Lines outside the event began forming around 8 a.m. Doors for the BJC opened at noon and the line moved fairly quickly with most seats in the venue filled by 2 p.m. 

At around 2:30 p.m. local pastor Jody Reese of Nittany Baptist Church began the rally by leading the crowd in prayer. 

Other opening remarks included a few words from Penn State students and statements from former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski and local business owner Rob Shearer. 

Representatives speak first

At 2:53 p.m., U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) took to the stage. Greene was visible from the crowd early in the event, waving to attendees and taking questions from reporters in the press section. 

Greene spoke for 20 minutes in support of former President Trump and addressed Pennsylvania’s role as a swing state and importance in the upcoming election. Greene described campaigning in her home state of Georgia and how this connected to Pennsylvania, as both states are swing states. 

“As a matter of fact, your votes, every single one of you in this room, all the students here at Penn State, all of you in this county, in the Borough of State College, you can swing the election.”

Greene described the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic-related bans, such as social lives being destroyed, beaches and other public spaces closing, jobs lost and people feeling pressured to get vaccinated.  

Next, Greene discussed foreign policy, including stating that Trump “ended foreign wars” and was president during a time of “world peace.” During the Trump presidency, fighting against ISIS continued, along with airstrikes against Syria. 

She then alleged that “Kamala Harris has let in over 12 million illegal aliens.” 

Greene stated that “on average an American citizen is killed almost every single day from an illegal alien crime.” Several news articles from Reuters and NPR cite this data from the National Institute of Justice which does not state this fact explicitly, but states that “undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes.”

Greene then discussed fentanyl deaths, alleging there to be 300 a day. According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse, there were 73,838 deaths attributed to fentanyl in 2022, which would be about 202 deaths a day. 

Greene turned the focus back on young people saying that “young people have no hope for the future” and that “young people should be the most hopeful among us.”

She then discussed the media’s messaging, describing the current political climate as “the state vs. you.” She then said that with a vote for Trump, “you will be fighting against the system — what young people used to be so brave to do. But young people have been brainwashed. But you can save the future.”

Later, Greene moved on to discussing Trump as a person, describing him as “genuinely one of the nicest people I know,” stating that he loves his country and denying claims that “he will weaponize the government against the American people.” 

Greene concluded her speech at around 3:10, urging people to “fight as hard as you can in Pennsylvania.”

The next representative to take the stage was U.S. Representative John Joyce, who represents Pennsylvania’s 13th congressional district. Joyce attended Penn State and mentioned this in his speech. 

Joyce spoke on the national issue of the border and immigration, alleging that “Kamala Harris is falling in her job as being the czar of the border.” 

He then touched on Republican businessman Dave McCormick’s candidacy for senate, encouraging the crowd to vote for him. He compared Trump to being the nation’s quarterback with McCormick as “the linebacker that President Trump needs.” 

After Joyce finished speaking at around 3:20, fellow U.S. Representative Glenn “GT” Thompson took to the stage. Thompson represents PA’s 15th congressional district, which includes State College, Centre County, and the surrounding counties in Western and Central PA.

Thompson lightly addressed Harris’s stance on fracking alleging that “she will kill the future of the Pennsylvania economy.” 

Thompson described the influence of growing up in nearby Howard, PA, and his (and the Republican party’s) part in expanding career and technical education opportunities, access to telemedicine, and affordable healthcare. Thompson is currently running for re-election.

In the remainder of his speech, Thompson addressed Pennsylvania’s agricultural industry. He alleged that “Trump has always had the farmer’s backs” and would “make agriculture great again.” 

Before exiting the stage at 3:30, Thompson led the crowd in chanting “Fight, fight, fight, vote, vote, vote, win, win, win.” 

Waiting for Trump

Former President Trump was slated to begin speaking at 4 p.m.; however, the crowd waited almost two hours until he arrived at 5:40 p.m. 

Junior Lincoln Sandoval-Strausz attended the rally and described what  waiting for the former president was like

“Everyone started chanting like, ‘We want Trump! We want Trump!’ Everyone’s like, a little mad about it. I feel like it was kind of tense a lot of the time until Trump actually came out,” Sandoval-Strausz said. 

The morning of the State College event, Trump was at a rally in Novi, Michigan and on Friday night he was at a rally in Traverse City, Michigan — where he was over three hours late. “Trump came in like an hour and a half late, which was kind of goofy,” Sandoval-Strausz said. “He arrived three hours late to a different one, so I feel like we got lucky.”

The event’s atmosphere appeared to shift shortly ahead of Trump’s arrival, with an increase of Secret Security and Homeland Security officials throughout the building. In the crowd, people would suddenly go silent when one of the songs seemed particularly primed for an entrance. 

At 5:30, the crowd started chanting “Bring him out” and two minutes later, Trump campaign advisor Stephen Miller took the stage. Miller referenced the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, PA, describing the former president as “strong, tall, fist in the air” a few minutes before Trump entered the stage. 

Trump speaks

At approximately 5:40, the crowd rose as “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood played and Trump entered. Trump momentarily danced as he let the crowd soak it all in before beginning his speech. 

Trump began his speech by asking the crowd whether they were better off now than four years prior, to which they responded, “No!” He then proceeded to comment on current President Joe Biden and current Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s presidency. 

“We have the worst president in the history of our country. We have the worst vice president, a grossly incompetent person in the history of our country,” Trump said. 

Trump then urged students to vote and encourage others to vote. 

Immigration was a focal point for Trump, and he addressed it about ten minutes into the speech while describing his plans for the first few days in office. 

“Two things, first day, first hour, we can do many things in the first- but first, we’re going to drill, baby, drill. And we’re going to close our borders to criminals and drug dealers and all of these people coming in from mental institutions and asylums. We’re going to have the borders closed,” Trump said. 

Other talking points for Trump were the alleged economic failures of the current administration and well as the ongoing foreign wars. 

“But I will not send you to fight and die in a foolish, never-ending foreign war. I’ll get you out of the wokeness, and your schools will be great again. Your schools are going to be great. We’ll end left-wing censorship, and I’ll defend your God-given rights. And I will ensure that you inherit the freest, strongest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth,” Trump said. 

While Trump did not explicitly mention the events of Jan. 6, 2020 in his speech, he broadly discussed election integrity, alluding to the Democratic party when saying, “They cheat much better.” His statements about this year’s election were more ambiguous, saying, “We just want to win this thing fair and square,” continuing with, “It doesn’t matter how we win.”

About 45 minutes in, as the crowd began to thin, Trump started to mention specific policies he would enact if president. These include the “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act,” bringing back the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the “death penalty for any illegal immigrant who kills an American citizen,” a year in jail for anyone who burns an American flag, and installing a nationwide missile defense system. 

Trump returned back to the topic of illegal immigration, this time referencing the alleged “army of migrant gangs.”

He continued, stating that “Kamala has imported an invasion of criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums, and mental institutions from all around the world, from Venezuela to the Congo in Africa.” 

PBS in collaboration with Politifact writers published an article fact-checking Trump’s statements from his Oct. 27 rally at Madison Square Garden, where Trump made this same claim. The article found that 108,000 noncitizens convicted of crimes were arrested, including at ports of entry. Additionally, there was no data to confirm that Venezuela, Congo, or other countries are sending people to the U.S. from prisons, jails, insane asylums, or mental institutions. 

Trump continued his discussion of border policy alleging that “Under Kamala Harris, 13,099, this was Border Patrol numbers, illegal alien convicted murders, these are convicted murders in prisons all over the world, are on the loose in the United States.” 

According to NBC News, while there are 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide living in the U.S. as per Border Patrol data, the majority of those immigrants entered the U.S. under previous administrations and are detained in U.S. prisons. 

Additionally, while Harris has a diplomatic responsibility to the border, as Vice President, she is not responsible for border policy—that role goes to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. 

Trump mentioned Republican senate candidate Dave McCormick’s connection to wrestling and invited members of the Penn State Wrestling team to join him on stage. 14 members joined him and former wrestler Zain Retherford encouraged the crowd to vote for Trump. 

After about an hour and 20 minutes, the crowd stood as Trump ended his speech with a recap of his goals for his presidency. 

“November 5th will be the most important day in the history of our country, and together we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. Thank you, Pennsylvania.”

Trump’s appearance was not complete until “YMCA” by the Village People played and he danced on stage for about 20 seconds.

Student perspectives

A variety of State High students attended the rally; some in support of Trump, others outside in protest, and others just to experience a political event. 

While Sandoval-Strausz attended the rally from inside the BJC, senior Ahmet Erdogan was not able to attend inside. Erdogan described his reasons for waiting outside the event. 

“I think it’s history, right? No matter what political side, everybody would be curious because it is a good representation [of] like a president, like, a powerful person coming [to] State College,” Erdogan said. 

Both Erdogan and Sandoval-Strausz attended the event hoping to hear about the issues important to them. Sandoval-Strausz’s priorities were social justice concerns and the economy, while Erdogan’s were the Israel-Palestine War and the economy. Sandoval-Strausz shared their thoughts on whether the rally met expectations.

“I was expecting there to be a lot of just talking with not really that much substance. And I definitely got a lot of that. A lot of political buzzwords, that kind of thing. They didn’t really go in-depth into any policy stuff as well. It was kind of just a lot of vague, like, ‘We will do this thing,’” Sandoval-Strausz said. 

In this election, young people will play a critical role, especially in Pennsylvania, a state with 19 electoral votes that could swing for either president. To gain young people’s vote, both candidates have been tailoring their messages to young audiences. In a place like State College with over 40,000 college-aged students, this angle is important when rallying in the area.

Erdogan and Sandoval-Strausz viewed Trump’s success in this realm differently. 

“I don’t really focus on the age [of candidates] because if somebody who is older, who is more experienced than somebody [else], they both have their own advantages and disadvantages,” Erdogan said. 

While the age of a candidate is not an issue for Erdogan, he elaborated on how some of Trump’s policies could be viewed as not necessarily supportive of young people, specifically referencing Trump’s record of supporting Israel. 

“If somebody loves young people, then, don’t let the young people suffer in Gaza, and allow the genocide happening, right?” Erdogan said. 

Sandoval-Strausz believed that Trump was unsuccessful in his messaging in appealing to younger audiences. 

“Because Trump, he’s like the older candidate, obviously, a lot of his voters are a lot older, which we saw in the 2016 election,” Sandoval-Strausz said. “And I don’t think he, like, communicates to young people what they want and what they are looking to hear. Especially speaking from the perspective of a young person who went to a rally. I didn’t really hear a lot of what I wanted to.” 

Sandoval-Strausz added that despite the rally being held in a town full of college students, the crowd at the rally didn’t have many young people. 

“The kids, like the young kids that were there, I feel, were either kids whose parents brought them, or people like me who just wanted to go for fun and to learn,” Sandoval-Strausz said.  

For both Erdogan and Sandoval-Strausz, the rally was their first major political event. Both spoke to how attending such events can help young people be politically engaged as well as engage with perspectives different from their own. 

“I think it’s good for young people to engage politically because especially in a time where, on like TikTok or Instagram or whatever, a lot of the political discussion is short and through easily digestible stuff, [it is important] to just go somewhere and get active and actually immerse yourself in politics. To learn and kind of foster your own perspective growth and just like learn new things,” Sandoval-Strausz said. 

Erdogan used the analogy of a chess board to describe the importance of staying politically engaged and aware of politics. 

“You need to know the best position, like you need to know the current board, you need to analyze in the best way possible so you can make the next moves,” Erdogan said. “And I don’t care about like Trump said this or Biden said this. I care about like, what’s the economy like? What’s how’s the country’s going?” 

Sandoval-Strausz also described the impact of hearing perspectives they disagree with. 

“I think interacting with people who don’t agree with you politically is important. Just so you can see the other side of the discussion, [and] you’re not, like, kind of locked in your own echo chamber, I guess. And, also it was just kind of fun,” they said. 

Both students also commented on the extremism present in the current political climate.

Sandoval-Strausz described the anti-vaccine sentiment regarding the COVID-19 pandemic expressed by Greene, as well as hostile commentary on trans rights, such as when Trump pledged to get the “transgender insanity the h— out of our schools” near the end of his speech. 

“There was a little like COVID-19 denial in there that I found extremely uncomfortable,” they said. “[The speakers] were obviously a little anti-trans a lot of the time. And, I just, I want everyone to be, you know, safe and comfortable.”

Erdogan’s perspective on extremism took a wider angle. He encouraged students not to subscribe to just one political ideology, but to take in a variety of ideas. 

“I would say that people shouldn’t shift toward extremism. Always be in the middle because nothing is truly perfect, you know,” Erdogan said. “There [are] good sides in liberalism, conservatism, and just take the best of each of them. Don’t tag yourself as, ‘I am this.’ And just, you know, be yourself. Be what’s in your innermost soul.”

Political events in the community

The Trump rally marked the first visit by a presidential nominee to State College this election cycle. State College is considered a solidly Democratic town, while the rest of Centre County leans Republican. Because of this, State College is seen as a hold for Democratic candidates, but more of a strategic stop for Republicans. 

Leading up to the election, Democratic candidate and current vice president Kamala Harris visited nearby Johnstown, PA on Sept. 20, while Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a rally in support of Harris at the State Theater on Oct. 18. On Oct. 20, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro met up with the governors of Michigan, Maine, New Mexico, and Wisconsin as a part of the Blue Wall Bus Tour stop in State College in support of the Harris-Walz campaign. Most recently, senate candidate Bob Casey held a rally at a Centre County farm on Oct. 24. 

On the Republican side, former candidate Vivek Ramaswamy visited State College on Oct. 17 as a part of a tour with Turning Point USA, and the Team Trump Bus Tour stopped by Medlar Field on Oct. 22. This weekend, Senate candidate Dave McCormick will be hosting a tailgate as part of his campaign. 

With the election a day away, and Pennsylvania a critical swing state, State College continues to be a focus for candidates on both sides of the political aisle.