Trump touts economy at Pennsylvania truck plant as Senate rebukes Iran deal

Donald Trump used a Mack Trucks plant in Macungie, Pennsylvania, to sell his economic message on Tuesday as the Senate approved a 50-48 rebuke over Iran war powers. The appearance, scheduled for about 2 p.m. at Mack’s Lehigh Valley Operations, came as Trump tried to pull attention back to manufacturing, jobs and gasoline prices after the Iran deal and the conflict it helped ignite.

The setting was built for that message. Mack’s Lehigh Valley Operations, about 10 miles from Allentown in Lehigh County, is a 1.7 million-square-foot facility that has been part of the company’s production network since 1975. It assembles Class 8 Mack trucks for North American and export markets and includes cab and chassis assembly lines, a truck modification center and an engine grooming line. The stop was Trump’s first major public event beyond Washington after he signed an interim Iran agreement, and his fifth visit to Pennsylvania in his second term.

On Capitol Hill, senators adopted the House-passed Iran war powers resolution by a 50-48 vote, a rare and largely symbolic rebuke of the president. The House had passed the measure two weeks earlier by 215-208, with four Republicans, Warren Davidson, Brian Fitzpatrick, Tom Barrett and Thomas Massie, joining Democrats. Lawmakers backing the resolution said Congress had not authorized military action against Iran.

The White House has described the Iran agreement as a memorandum of understanding rather than a final peace deal, and Trump has warned he could resume strikes if Iran does not comply. That uncertainty gave the Pennsylvania visit added force: Trump was standing in a battleground manufacturing corridor while the other side of the split screen was a congressional vote aimed at restraining his war-making authority.

The political stakes extend beyond the plant floor. Recent polling showed Trump’s approval in Pennsylvania at a second-term low, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll found only one in four Americans said the Iran war was worth its costs. In a state Trump carried in both 2016 and 2024, the truck plant backdrop offered a high-visibility stage for a message aimed at voters, workers and lawmakers at once.