--- title: Trump Trains His Fire on Biden in Must-Win Pennsylvania description: Standing in front of thousands at a rally in north central Pennsylvania, President Trump leveled multiple attacks at Joe Biden canonical: https://time.com/5592402/donald-trump-biden-pennsylvania/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-21T04:35:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:58:08.604Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Trains His Fire on Biden in Must-Win Pennsylvania og:description: He criticized Biden for moving away when he was 10 og:url: https://time.com/5592402/donald-trump-biden-pennsylvania/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt312cbadcb7edd80e/69894a2eb21a9c3c6c500a21/trump_maga_rally_pennsylvania.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: trump_MAGA_rally_Pennsylvania.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Trains His Fire on Biden in Must-Win Pennsylvania twitter:description: He criticized Biden for moving away when he was 10 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt312cbadcb7edd80e/69894a2eb21a9c3c6c500a21/trump_maga_rally_pennsylvania.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Trains His Fire on Biden in Must-Win Pennsylvania  by [Brian Bennett / Montoursville, Pa.](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett / Montoursville, Pa. Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. May 21, 2019 4:35 AM UTC  President Donald Trump tosses a hat into the crowd as he arrives for a 'Make America Great Again' campaign rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania on May 20, 2019. President Donald Trump tosses a hat into the crowd as he arrives for a 'Make America Great Again' campaign rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania on May 20, 2019.Drew Angerer—Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett / Montoursville, Pa.](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett / Montoursville, Pa. Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. May 21, 2019 4:35 AM UTC President Trump seems itching for a fight against Joe Biden. Monday night he tried out some new jabs. Standing in front of thousands of supporters at a rally in north central Pennsylvania, Trump leveled multiple attacks on Biden, who [leads Trump in an early poll ](https://poll.qu.edu/pennsylvania/release-detail?ReleaseID=2620)in the state. Trump said foreign leaders will get their way with Biden as president and that Pennsylvanians shouldn’t feel a kinship with the former vice president because Biden left the state when he was a child. “Don’t forget: Biden deserted you,” Trump said as he wrapped up his speech to thousands of supporters gathered at an airport hangar at Williamsport Regional Airport in Montoursville, Pa. “He left you for another state, and he didn’t take care of you because he didn’t take care of your jobs,” he said. Biden is working to convince Democratic voters that he has the best chance of beating Trump out of the [20-plus contenders in the Democratic field](http://time.com/5580311/2020-democratic-presidential-candidates-ideas/) because of Biden’s ties to Pennsylvania, and his belief that he can block Trump from winning the state again. Biden was born in Scranton, Pa., and moved to Delaware with his family when he was about 10 years old. He later represented Delaware for 36 years in the U.S. Senate. Biden would lead Trump in Pennsylvania in a head-to-head race 53 to 42 percent, [according to a Quinnipiac University poll](https://poll.qu.edu/pennsylvania/release-detail?ReleaseID=2620) released May 15\. The poll also showed Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont defeating Trump in the state 50 to 43 percent. Candidates Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas were within the poll’s 4.2 percent margin of error. Trump’s campaign sees Pennsylvania as crucial to Trump’s reelection strategy, which means holding on to a state that voted for a Democrat in the previous six Presidential elections before 2016. “We gotta win this state,” Trump said. “We did great last time. Remember the fake polls they put out last time? Suppression — they call them suppression polls, ‘Pennsylvania will go for Hillary Clinton!’ ” Trump said, leveling an unfounded accusation that polls showing him trailing Clinton were fabricated. Trump said Pennsylvania voters should vote for him in 2020 because unemployment is low and the economy is growing. “How the hell do you lose this election, right?” Trump said. “Sleepy Joe said that he’s running to, quote, ‘save the world,'” Trump said. “Well, he was. He was going to save every country but ours.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5592402/donald-trump-biden-pennsylvania/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5592402/donald-trump-biden-pennsylvania/"},"headline":"Trump Trains His Fire on Biden in Must-Win Pennsylvania","datePublished":"2019-05-21T04:35:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:58:08.604Z","description":"Standing in front of thousands at a rally in north central Pennsylvania, President Trump leveled multiple attacks at Joe Biden","url":"https://time.com/5592402/donald-trump-biden-pennsylvania/","keywords":["2020 Election","Joe Biden","Pennsylvania","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt312cbadcb7edd80e/69894a2eb21a9c3c6c500a21/trump_maga_rally_pennsylvania.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett / Montoursville, Pa."}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt312cbadcb7edd80e/69894a2eb21a9c3c6c500a21/trump_maga_rally_pennsylvania.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump_MAGA_rally_Pennsylvania.jpg","caption":"President Donald Trump Holds \"MAGA\" Rally In Central Pennsylvania","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5592402/donald-trump-biden-pennsylvania/","name":"Trump Trains His Fire on Biden in Must-Win Pennsylvania"}}]}] ```