MOUNT POCONO, Pa. — The bar in the heart of the casino floor buzzed with businessmen, tourists and gamblers enjoying drinks and cigarettes, but it wasn't the usual college basketball on the overhead TVs or the countertop video poker, keno or roulette games driving the conversations.

For at least an hour, politics was center stage under the flashing neon of clinking slot machines. President Donald Trump was in town for a rally ostensibly geared around his "golden age" economy, and he had just left the casino via helicopter, one patron had heard.

"I'd give him an A-minus," Mark Paul Jones told a trio of fellow rally attendees as he held court at the Mount Airy Casino Resort bar and posed for photos while donning colonial Minuteman garb complete with a wool tricorne hat.

A 58-year-old musician, photographer and writer from nearby Stroudsburg, Jones has traveled to more than 50 Trump rallies in Pennsylvania and beyond since 2016. His photo has been featured in The New York Times and several magazines, and he'd already been interviewed Tuesday by the Pocono Record, the Financial Times and even a Japanese outlet — though he asserted early on that one of the best things Trump has done is ramp up his unabashed attacks on corporate media.

Blasting the Democratic Party as a communist organization and repeating Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen, Jones gave the president high marks for his efforts to lower prices, create jobs and curb immigration.

But like many from all backgrounds in the working class region, even the Trump diehard Jones couldn't give the president a perfect grade 10 months into his second term.

"He got a little too globally focused," he said of the president's efforts to resolve conflicts in Ukraine, Israel and other nations. "I want to see him focus more on domestic issues. It's going to take some time to get the economy going."

That sentiment resonated with several Republican and independent Trump voters in eastern Pennsylvania's Monroe County in interviews this week. While they back Trump wholeheartedly and he was greeted with raucous applause at the casino's convention hall, many supporters said they still struggle with insurance and housing costs, stubbornly high grocery prices and steep utility bills.

Those economic concerns — which helped send Trump back to the White House — now loom large over an upcoming governor's race and midterm elections in 2026.

"The hardworking middle class in this country are the ones floating the boat for everything," said Marie Magnini, a 69-year-old former nail salon owner from just across the border in New Jersey and who came to see Trump speak Tuesday night. "It's not right."

Trump's visit marks a turning point for his administration as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles called for the president to campaign aggressively in the run-up to the midterms.

The plan, in Pennsylvania at least, aims to tamp down the effects of a remarkably consistent phenomenon in the Trump era: when he's not on the ballot, Republicans lose — and they often lose big, or in counties they normally win.

Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity hopes to unseat the popular Gov. Josh Shapiro next year. And U.S. Reps Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan face competitive races while the GOP seeks to maintain its slim majority in the House.

Trump gave a shout out to several Cabinet officials and lawmakers such as Sen. Dave McCormick, but not Garrity, who has been a Trump ally and promoted the event on social media. She attended the rally but did not give a speech as Bresnahan, Mackenzie and Rep. Dan Meuser did.

'Take care of veterans'

Magnini's husband, Joe, a longtime truck driver and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, died in July.

The couple had briefly moved to Florida a few years ago to escape New Jersey's high taxes, but came back after the heat proved disagreeable with Magnini's Parkinson's disease. They moved into a smaller place in Jersey (stuck with more than double their previous mortgage's interest rate), and Magnini temporarily retired to take care of her husband before he passed.

"I lost my husband, lost my benefits, and may lose my house," she said. "I think Trump's doing a great job. But he's got to take care of our veterans. And try to lower mortgage rates."

Magnini is one of hundreds of thousands of family members, veterans and advocates pressing in court for compensation after they or their loved ones were exposed to toxic chemicals while stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Former President Joe Biden signed legislation in 2022 allowing veterans to sue the feds for damages. The Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledges that water at the military base was contaminated decades ago, potentially leading to various cancers and diseases such as Parkinson's.

While many such veterans have long been eligible for benefits, thousands still await compensation, with the Biden administration fighting or delaying many claims in court, and the U.S. Navy still litigating aggressively under Trump, Magnini said.

She shrugged off suggestions by friends that she seek federal food benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. "I'm not starving yet," she said.

She added that Congress ought to pass a ban on lawmakers trading stocks, saying several had gotten rich on widespread graft.

"I ran a small business," she said. "You do it fair and honest."

When Election Day came last year, Lisa Ellefsen also cast her ballot for Trump — a vote in honor of her son, Vincenzo Scofrano, who died at 31 in 2023 and was "Trump's biggest fan in the world," she said.

"In the 60 years I've been on this earth, this is the first president I've ever voted for," she told the Post-Gazette, noting her son lost his life because of fentanyl.

Ellefsen, who's lived in the Poconos area for many years, applauded Trump's actions to blunt the flow of drugs into the U.S., including closing the southern border and focusing on crime and safety.

A former restaurant manager who's worked in the food business for years, she also said she "loved" Republicans' temporary tax relief for those whose incomes are built around tips and overtime.

"Eliminating taxes on tips will be transformative for me and so many servers in our community," Amy Conboy, who works at an Irish pub in Stroudsburg, told the Trump crowd Tuesday.

She said the tax policy would help her save money and create stability on her way to owning a home and "investing back in the community that raised me."

"Affordability affects everyone, but especially those living paycheck to paycheck," she said.

'Ripping millions off Medicaid'

From widespread tariffs that have forced businesses to hike prices to cuts and reforms in many vital social programs, Democrats and some independents in the region and statewide aren't buying what Trump's selling.

Several protesters lined Pocono Boulevard on Tuesday night, holding signs reading "Medicaid cuts kill," "Dictator or democracy, that's the choice," and "250 years of no kings in America."

One Monroe County Democrat effectively called for a boycott of Conboy's restaurant on Facebook Tuesday, calling it a "MAGA magnet."

Several pointed out that Trump's and Republicans' contentious tax and spending package permanently extended tax cuts for the wealthy, but relief for low-income workers and servers expires in a few years.

"The tipped workers tax cut is if you file a tax return and itemize deductions, which I don't think many tipped workers do," state Rep. Arvind Venkat of McCandless said during a press call before Trump's visit Tuesday.

Many also noted that paying for Trump's big tax cut required slashing Medicaid and SNAP, with Shapiro and state and local Democratic leaders saying the cuts will negate many tax breaks and impact hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians.

With Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring at the end of the year, premiums are poised to spike, potentially leaving many without health insurance.

"Donald Trump just thanked Ryan Mackenzie for helping him pass the 'Big Beautiful Bill' that cuts taxes for billionaires while ripping millions off Medicaid," Ryan Croswell, a marine and former federal prosecutor who is one of a handful of Democrats looking to flip Mackenzie's seat, wrote on social media. "They're celebrating a bill that robs working families."

Jennifer Partyka, a registered nurse from northeastern Pennsylvania, accused Republicans of "rigging the system to help their buddies who don't want to pay taxes like the rest of us chumps do."

"Medicaid is among the top five payers for most hospitals in the U.S.," she said during Tuesday's press call. "Hospitals are not going to stay open if you cut their funding sources. Can you imagine Pennsylvania with fewer hospitals?"

She added that cuts to Medicaid and reforms that increase work requirements and paperwork are hurting Pennsylvanians like her son, who has Crohn's disease.

Her son receives chemotherapy treatments every eight weeks while working more than 40 hours a week for a local nonprofit that doesn't offer health insurance.

He makes just enough that he has to apply for Medicaid frequently to ensure he qualifies. Partyka said "waste, fraud and abuse" — the reason given for cuts and reforms — "does not exist on the patient side. Anyone suggesting otherwise is lying to you."

"People on Medicaid are not the parasite classes this ... out of touch administration has described," she said.

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