NORTH WHITEHALL TWP — Former President Donald Trump returned to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania on Saturday to rally supporters in a pivotal battleground region 10 days before the state’s primary election.
Saturday’s visit comes two days before Trump is scheduled to stand trial in criminal proceedings in a New York City courtroom. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up payments made in 2016 after an alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. He will be the first former U.S. president to stand trial in criminal proceedings.
Although Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, there are several competitive races for GOP candidates in Pennsylvania’s April 23 primary.
Prior to Trump’s evening rally, he attended a fundraiser in Bucks County, which is considered the lone purple county of the Philadelphia suburbs.
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Saturday was Trump’s third visit to the state in 2024. In February, he spoke at a National Rifle Association event in Harrisburg and one week later unveiled a new line of Trump-branded sneakers and delivered brief remarks at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has also kept a steady presence in the crucial battleground state. He’s made four separate appearances in Pennsylvania, all in the eastern region of the state, most recently visiting in Delaware County the day after his State of the Union address.
Biden will return to the state for three separate visits in the upcoming week. On Tuesday, he’ll be in his hometown of Scranton, to deliver a “major address” regarding the nation’s tax code. On Wednesday, he’ll visit the Pittsburgh region and Thursday will return to Philadelphia.
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Ahead of Trump’s visit, a group of Democratic women lawmakers spoke at a press conference in Bucks County and criticized Trump’s stance on abortion. U.S. Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon (5th District), and Madeleine Dean (4th District), were joined by Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Rep. Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia, and candidate for PA-01 Ashley Ehasz.
“When I go to the doctor, there’s only room for me. There’s not room for the state legislature. There’s not room for Congress. There’s not room for the president, no matter who’s there. There’s not room for the Supreme Court,” McClinton said. “Unfortunately, the government has gotten into these medical offices by taking away our rights, by rolling back almost 50 years of precedent. And we cannot blindly sit still while the former President is in Bucks County frolicking around, continuing to spread the Big Lie.”
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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) put up billboards in Allentown criticizing Trump’s comments on abortion before the former president’s rally on Saturday. And Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a Friday statement that Trump’s agenda was “too dangerous and extreme” for Pennsylvania.
The Lehigh Valley is considered one of the most competitive political regions of Pennsylvania.
In 2016, when Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, he lost Lehigh County by just under 5 points, but won neighboring Northampton County by nearly 4 points. In 2020, Biden secured a victory in Pennsylvania and won Lehigh County by roughly 7.5 points, while also flipping Northampton County blue.
In 2020, Northampton County was the only county in Pennsylvania to pick the winner in all four statewide elections. The only debate between the candidates for vice president will take place in Northampton County in September.
Widespread polling shows Biden and Trump are currently locked in a close race for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes. The Cook Political Report, a national ratings outlet, labels Pennsylvania as one of the six “toss-up” states this cycle. It’s the state with the most electoral votes on the line in this category.
The Data Center Coalition is watching bills like Matzie’s closely. The coalition represents companies including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, CoreWeave and OpenAI.
Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy with the group, said the coalition is open to special utility rates for large electricity users that force these customers to pay for any grid upgrades their operations require while insulating other ratepayers from these costs. But the group opposes bills like Matzie’s that apply specifically to data centers, rather than to all electricity users over a certain size.
“If it’s a transmission line or if it’s a substation, if it’s a generating asset, of course, data centers should pay for that and will pay for that,” Diorio said.
But “no specific end user should be singled out for disparate treatment,” he said.
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The coalition also opposes mandating data centers to curtail energy use during times of peak demand or bring their own new, clean power, preferring instead incentives that reward data centers for voluntarily doing so, Diorio said.
“Things like having to take interruptible service … you could see projects move across to a different state line where they didn’t have that requirement, while doing nothing to solve the ultimate shortfall within [the regional grid],” he said.
Pennsylvania lobbying records show the Data Center Coalition spent $19,632 on lobbying at the state level on the topic of “energy, information technology and utilities” during the last three months of 2025.
“Pennsylvania is a very strong, growing and important market for the data center industry,” Diorio said. “We understand concerns, and we want to be an engaged stakeholder to address those concerns, but also keep the state strong for development. And I think we can do that — I think we can find a good middle ground.”
Parents charged after toddler injured by wolf at Pennsylvania zoo – CBS News
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The parents of a 17-month-old child are facing endangerment charges after the toddler stuck his hand under the fence of a wolf enclosure at a Pennsylvania zoo. Tom Hanson reports.
RICHMOND TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Two firefighters traveling in a utility vehicle along a Pennsylvania road during a search for a missing woman were killed in a head-on crash with a car, officials said.
The two members of the Walnuttown Fire Company died after the crash with a Toyota Camry at about 6 p.m. Saturday, roughly 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia. Fire Chief Jeff Buck and Assistant Fire Chief Robert Shick Jr. were heading north when they were struck by a sedan heading south on Route 222, according to the Berks County Coroner.
NBC Philadelphia reported that the utility vehicle was riding on the shoulder of Route 222 when the Camry swerved off of the road. Police told the station that a male and a female who were in the Camry when it crashed fled and were later arrested.
Video from the crash scene shows the utility vehicle on its side.
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No further details about the arrest or the search for the missing woman were immediately available Sunday.
A call and an email seeking information were made to the Fleetwood Police Department.
Autopsies on the firefighters, both residents of Fleetwood, were scheduled for Monday.
“At this time we would like to send our thoughts and prayers” to the Shick and Buck families, the Walnuttown Fire Company said in a Facebook post. “Rest easy chiefs, we got it from here.”
