Trump surrogates on Agenda 47 tour stop in Berks
A pair of High Plains governors visited Berks County on Thursday evening to encourage voters to cast ballots for former President Donald Trump this fall.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem sat on a stage inside the Morgantown Event Center and held an intimate conversation in front of a crowd of about 450 people, lauding Trump and speaking highly of his time in office.
“Doug and I personally know President Trump very well and have always appreciated him and his heart for the American people,” Noem said. “He gets up every single day and fights for you. So what we need to do is get out there and remind people that he’s not just right on the policies, he’s not just right on what he wants to put in place for this government, he cares about this country.”
Burgum told the crowd that he and Noem have firsthand experience running states under both Trump and the leadership of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his competitor in this year’s presidential election. And they each have a clear idea about who is the better option.
“One thing we have in common is that we have had an opportunity to serve as governors under Trump and we have had to endure serving under a Biden/Harris administration,” he said.
The town hall was part of the Team Trump Agenda 47 Policy Tour, and the two governors used the opportunity to speak to Berks voters about why they think Trump is the right choice to lead the nation.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum make their case to reelect Donald Trump as president during the Team Trump’s Agenda 47 Policy Tour on Thursday at the Morgantown Event Center. (BILL UHRICH-READING EAGLE)
Burgum spoke about how Trump championed the agriculture and energy industries in North Dakota. He said that when Trump was president it was like having a strong wind at their backs, and under Biden it has been like having gale force wind in their face.
“We know what it’s like to have a federal government that’s cutting red tape and pushing responsibility back to the states versus a federal government that’s overreaching on everything,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons why we have to get Donald Trump back in the White House again.”
He said North Dakota has 30 lawsuits against the federal government pushing back on new rules that were issued under the Biden administration by agencies like the Department of Environmental Protection, Fish and Wildlife Services and the Bureau of Land Management.
While both governors criticized the policies carried out under Harris, they also expressed their displeasure with her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Each said they have a lot of familiarity with Walz, as the states they lead border his.
Noem said Harris chose “the most radical governor that this country has ever seen” when she selected Walz to be her vice presidential pick. She specifically took issue with his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, lambasting him for mandating vaccines and masks as well as shutting down businesses.
Both governors also condemned Walz for what they said was a delay in calling in the National Guard during the 2020 protests that engulfed Minneapolis after a police officer killed George Floyd.
They claimed that their states have experienced an increase in residency of those who moved out of Minnesota because of Walz’s poor leadership.
Along with presenting their own remarks, the pair also took questions from the audience on topics ranging from food security to border security to election security.
Food security
Noem said Trump has been a fantastic friend to farmers and ranchers throughout the nation.
“He understands that they are the ones who are feeding our country and our world,” she said. “Food security is a national security issue. He recognizes that having a good farm policy and a safety net for agriculture is critically important for our national defense.”
She said Trump is committed to passing the farm bill, an omnibus package passed every five years that funds farm commodity and subsidy programs as well as nutrition and conservation programs.
The 2018 farm bill expired in September 2023 and Congress failed to pass a new package last year due to an impasse between Republicans and Democrats over key issues including funding for nutrition aid.
Burgum criticized Harris’ proposal for a federal ban on price gouging across the food industry. Harris has said her plan would include “new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules.”
“I mean if I own a grocery store she’s going to tell me what I can charge for bread or bacon or eggs — I mean the whole thing is ludicrous,” he said. “Any country in history that has put in price controls on food has ended up with food shortages because the black market steps in and buys up all the cheap food.”
Burgum said the Biden/Harris administration is to blame for high food prices.
“This is the worst inflation we have seen in 40 years and she is directly responsible for that,” he said.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem are greeted with a standing ovation by the more than 400 attendees during the Team Trump’s Agenda 47 Policy Tour on Thursday at the Morgantown Event Center. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)
Border security
Noem and Burgum attacked Harris’ record on immigration, arguing that she has failed to stem the flow of people from other countries entering the U.S. at the southern border.
Burgum said when it comes to securing the border the current administration is not living up to its constitutional duty to protect national security.
“They are not doing their job and that is affecting all of you,” he said.
They also claimed that migrants are driving up crime rates in the U.S.
Burgum said Harris likes to speak about how the bipartisan bill that aimed to expand border security and deportation powers failed in the Senate this past February. But, he said, the current administration would be able to solve many of the issues at the border by reinstituting executive orders that were in place under the Trump administration.
Election security
Noem said the Republican National Committee is focused on ensuring that the 2024 election is secure and free from fraud. She said the organization is taking a proactive approach by filing lawsuits as soon as they find violations of voting laws.
“They are making sure that the election will be conducted fairly and accurately ahead of time so that they have these discussions before people actually show up to vote,” she said. “They have been very aggressive on that and I think that’s going to help us quite a bit when we get to Election Day.”
Burgum also encouraged people to serve as poll watchers to ensure the election is secure in their own communities.
He said the other thing Trump supporters can do is make sure everyone they know casts a ballot.
“If we can get enough people out voting then it makes it very hard to cheat,” he said. “This is something that all of you have to take a part in. You have to make sure your friends, family and the people that you talk to vote. And that may mean we have to have some difficult conversations.”
Burgum said the reality is that even if every registered Republican in the nation casts a ballot for Trump he still loses because less than half of Americans are registered Republicans. That means they must reach out to independent voters to convince them that Trump is the right choice to run the country.
“He is a man of the people, he cares about the forgotten men and women in this country and there has never been a politician who has been attacked the way he has been,” Burgum said of Trump. “We owe it to him to get out there and do everything we can to win this election.”
Rally-goers are greeted by a cutout of Donald Trump before the Team Trump’s Agenda 47 Policy Tour on Thursday at the Morgantown Event Center. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)