Former President Donald Trump got on the phone and answered questions from voters at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, on Wednesday. The event draws several hundred thousand people to the state every year.
In an on-air conversation with Fox News, Trump outlined his plans for the economy and Social Security, as well as his plans for American energy independence.
This televised segment targeted the sought-after middle American voters days after Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, chose her running mate: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. He is a former high school teacher turned congressman who claims he understands working class voters better than his Republican counterparts.
Trump’s latest phone-in to Fox News was another opportunity for him to court working class voters, which the Harris-Walz campaign is also jockeying for.
Trump on the economy: ‘Drill, baby, drill!’
While on the phone, Trump fielded comments and concerns from three different voters. One, a father and stepfather to eight children, said his biggest concern is his family’s struggles to pay bills and hopes for his children to survive without their parents’ help.
Trump highlighted his solution: “We’re going to drill, baby, drill.” He said by lowering energy costs, he can tame rising prices. During his presidency, the cost of food and housing was low, as were the interest rates, Trump added.
“You had gasoline at $1.87. Now, it’s $5, and, by the way, going up ... very substantially,” the former president said.
“We’ve got to get the energy prices down, and everything else is going to be tumbling down with it, the prices, because what Biden has done to the economy is so horrible, and what he’s done to inflation in our country is just very destructive,” he said.
The latest report from the federal Labor Bureau shows unemployment hit 4.3%, its highest level since October 2021 in July, meanwhile, credit card debt among U.S. consumers also touched an all-time high at $1.14 trillion, as the Deseret News reported.
Trump on U.S. energy independence
Another voter asked the former president about his “permanent, long-term energy solution.” Trump said the U.S. has more “liquid gold” than other countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia.
“We were energy independent four years ago, and now we’re begging Venezuela for oil,” he said. “Venezuela, they don’t even have oil. They have a tar. You have to take tar and you have to refine it. It’s a terrible process.”
Trump is referring to Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude oil, which requires more processing through refineries. The U.S. imposed oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2019 but the Biden administration entered talks and agreed to lift the sanctions if the Latin American country held free and fair elections. After accusing President Nicolás Maduro of walking back on his word, the Biden White House reinstated these sanctions earlier in April.
“We have the best, most beautiful, the best, highest quality oil under our feet in Texas and numerous other places,” Trump said, before noting the Biden administration’s energy goals that deviate away from oil and gas as energy sources and focus on renewables.
The former president also argued for the need to keep adding to the strategic petroleum reserves, the federal Energy Department’s energy stockpiles, at high levels. “It’s the lowest number it’s ever been,” Trump said.
Biden has sold more than half of the reserves while in office to lower the price of gas. The last time the SPR was this low was in the mid-1980s. His administration recently purchased 4.65 million barrels to replenish the reserves, as Fox News reported.
“He’s using the strategic reserves, which is meant for military, which is meant for war, and very important things, he’s using it to try and keep gasoline prices down and we can’t allow that to happen. ... We can’t let people use that to fill a car,” Trump said.
Trump on Social Security
A third voter asked if the former president would make Social Security payments adjustable to inflation.
“One of the things I’m doing is no tax for seniors on Social Security, and I’ll get it done quickly,” Trump said.
“And for all you waiters and waitresses and everybody else out there, drivers, we’re not going to have any tax on tips.” He also touted his administration’s decision to not raise the Social Security eligibility age and left the entitlement program “the way it is.”
The Biden-Harris administration also promised to continue strengthening Social Security. Meanwhile, Walz has a record of supporting cutting the Social Security tax for Minnesotans.
“I don’t think those at the top of the line — millionaires and billionaires — are concerned about the Social Security tax,” Walz told MPR News.