Trump plays to strengths in crowd-pleasing stop at Pittsburgh International Airport

President Trump stepped off Air Force One on Tuesday evening to the loud cheers of thousands of people packed outside a private hangar at Pittsburgh International Airport.

After a quick nod to the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, Trump told the crowd at Atlantic Aviation in Moon Township: “Forty-two days from now, we’re going to win in Pennsylvania.”

During remarks spanning about 90 minutes, the president pitched himself as the only choice to “restore law and order” in America while downplaying concerns over police brutality and social justice. He also criticized Black Lives Matter protests that resulted in fracas between protesters and restaurant patrons in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago.

“Together, with the incredible people of PA, we will make America wealthy again. We will make America safe again. We will make America great again,” Trump said. “We are taking back our country.”

Trump mocked Democratic challenger Joe Biden — whom he referred to as “Hidin’ Joe” — as not only unfit for the office, but posing a threat to Social Security, making the suburbs less safe and that (Biden) would “give away your healthcare to illegal aliens.”

“I did more in 47 months than Biden did in 47 years,” Trump said.

@realDonaldTrump: “If Biden wins, China wins. When we win, Pennsylvania wins and America wins.”

Trump more concerned about China than Russia.

Also reiterated “I represent #Pittsburgh, not Paris” remark that rankled @billpeduto re: withdrawal from Paris climate change agreement pic.twitter.com/gFaQC3G9s4

— Natasha Lindstrom (@NewsNatasha) September 23, 2020

Trump touched on a broad range of his greatest rally hits — including focusing on energy independence, criticizing the “fake news,” ending so-called “sanctuary cities” and building the wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, now stretching some 330 miles.

“We are finishing that wall, it’s going to be done so fast,” Trump said. “We will uphold religious liberty, free speech and the right to keep and bear arms … and we will keep America out of endless, ridiculous, stupid foreign wars.”

He also reiterated the remark, “I represent the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” which drew the ire of Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto when Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate change agreement in June 2017.

Long line to get into @realDonaldTrump’s rally in Moon Township, #PA at a hangar outside #Pittsburgh International Airport.

On the speakers: “Macho Man” fades into “Sweet Home Alabama” ? pic.twitter.com/8xxKyuYEc6

— Natasha Lindstrom (@NewsNatasha) September 22, 2020

The event defied local and state guidance to limit large gatherings during the covid-19 pandemic — though Pennsylvania had been allowing events such as political rallies as protected free speech even prior to a federal judicial ruling questioning the legality of Wolf’s broader stay-at-home mandates.

Signs posted at the security checkpoint encouraged everyone to wear a face mask because of the pandemic, but few people wore masks in line and even fewer kept them on once inside the event. An official crowd estimate was not immediately available.

Signs posted at the security entrance encourage everyone to wear a face mask during the Trump rally because of the #COVID19 #pandemic.

Few people keeping masks on while waiting in line, and fewer once they get past Secret Service security checkpoint. pic.twitter.com/69fmZ6G899

— Natasha Lindstrom (@NewsNatasha) September 22, 2020

The president echoed remarks he made in Latrobe at a rally that drew about 5,000 earlier this month, when he vowed to “bring rioters, looters and anarchists to justice.”

The campaign rally marked Trump’s fourth visit to Pennsylvania in the past four weeks.

Polls suggest that Biden, a 77-year-old lifelong politician, garners supporters who consistently say they’re motivated more by opposition to Trump, who is 74, than excitement about Biden.

In 2016, when Trump won Pennsylvania by just more than 44,000 votes out of just over 6 million cast, he became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Trump spoke of mounting GOP support “from Altoona to Scranton, from Harrisburg to right here in Pittsburgh.”

“Over the next four years, we will make America the great manufacturing superpower of the world,” Trump said, “and we will end our reliance on China once and for all.”