Donald Trump arrived in Pennsylvania this week, insisting that Americans are enjoying what he proudly calls an “A+++ economy.” But in Mount Pocono, where small businesses are straining and households are slipping deeper into financial distress, locals say that claim lands somewhere between tone-deaf and delusional.
Trump is launching a statewide economic tour meant to reassure voters that his policies have eased the burden of soaring prices. Yet in conversations with residents and business owners, the story from the ground is bleak, and in some cases, heartbreaking. For many of these Pennsylvanians, the economic miracle the former president keeps touting is nowhere to be found.
MS NOW Senior White House reporter Vaughn Hillyard spent time talking to residents, and he said the disconnect hits immediately. Walk into a business, ask people what they think of the economy, and the answers come fast. And none of them resemble what Trump is promoting.
One woman told Hillyard that Trump is “devastating the economy” in her small community of roughly 3,000 people. Her 74-year-old mother is stuck in a brutal bind, unable to find a job and unable to retire. She needs a hip replacement, but her health insurance is so inadequate that the surgery is out of reach. There is no cushion, no safety net, no path forward.
A second woman, who runs a local business, said she is preparing to drop her health insurance entirely next year because her premiums on the federal exchange have doubled. December 15 is the enrollment deadline, and she simply cannot absorb the cost. The message was the same: the economy feels punishing, and health care is one of the worst pain points.
Donald Trump just finished an hours long rally telling Pennsylvanians not to believe what they can see with their own two eyes – the skyrocketing cost of living and rising prices at the grocery store.
Pennsylvanians aren’t buying the BS he’s selling.
— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) December 10, 2025
A third resident, who works in ambulance services, said the number of people coming through her billing department without insurance or without enough money to cover emergency services has “jumped significantly.” She did not bring up health care after being asked about it, Hillyard noted. She brought it up immediately because it has become impossible to separate medical costs from the rest of the economic picture.
Local business owners echoed that anxiety. Pam Watkins, co-owner of a Mount Pocono bistro and bakery, said health care is now eating what little profit her shop makes. “Our margins just keep shrinking and shrinking and shrinking,” she said, explaining that her premiums this year were more than twice what she paid before. Her business has been open for six years, but this, she said plainly, is their worst year on record.
Watkins employs ten people, all of whom buy their coverage through the ACA exchange. Each of them, she said, is now worried about how they will keep their insurance at all. With the cost of raw ingredients rising, fewer locals stopping by, and tourism declining over the summer and winter seasons, Watkins is barely breaking even. But she refuses to cut staff, because she does not know where her employees would even go.
So when Trump calls this economy spectacular locals like those interviewed are not living in his fantasy. The polls have been damning for Trump but he has failed to address the criticism and continue to insist the affordability crisis is a myth. At the same time, his administration has blamed the economic issues on Joe Biden so that is in some way an admission without accepting responsibility.
