Trump takes the stage in western Pa. as Oz receives mixed reviews

If there’s something Republican candidates want more than an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, it’s to avoid his un-endorsement.

Trump, at his “Save America” rally at a mud-filled Westmoreland Fairgrounds on Friday night, railed into U.S. Senate hopeful Dave McCormick, who has spent millions of dollars in ads sparring with the Trump-endorsed candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz.

“He did want my endorsement very badly, but I couldn’t do it,” Trump told the crowd. “If anybody was within 200 miles of me, he hired them.”

Trump spent more time criticizing McCormick in his 1 ½-hour speech than praising his endorsed candidate for whom he hosted the rally.

“[McCormick] may be a nice guy, but he’s not MAGA,” Trump said.

Trump, however, ensured his supporters that Oz “truly believes in the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement.

“He believes in it 100%, and he’s in love with our country. He’s supported by [Fox News host] Sean Hannity, [former energy Secretary] Rick Perry and, real importantly, he’s supported by someone known as me.”

Wearing his red MAGA hat, Trump pointed to himself with a smile as he spoke those last words.

Still, voters who waited hours in the rain to see Trump weren’t yet wooed by Oz. Most of the voters the Post-Gazette spoke with had not decided whom they’d support in the May 17 primary election, less than two weeks away.

“I want to hear a lot more conservative views,” said Sue Banasiewicz, who drove three hours from Dillsburg in York County to see Trump, before the rally.

“I feel like [Oz] has changed in the past several years, and I want to hear that he really means it.”

Oz has been criticized as a “Hollywood elite” for the relationships he formed during his time as a daytime TV host.

Trump, however, endorsed him and emphasized his electability in the general election.

“Dr. Oz, I’ve known him a long time [and] his show is great” Trump said. “He’s on that screen, he’s in those bedrooms of all those women.”

Trump spent much of his time recalling his time as president.

He boasted about the 2017 tax cuts, creation of the Space Force, low gas prices, reworked international trade deals and more.

Much of Trump’s rally revisited the 2020 election, as the former president and his closest friends try to convince voters that Trump actually won. President Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes.

Each speaker ahead of Trump talked about election integrity efforts, and organizers played parts of a new film that alleges there was an organized effort from left-wing groups to deliver multiple ballots at one time to drop boxes throughout states.

At one point Trump asked state Treasurer Stacy Garrity to come speak to the crowd.

“We know that he won,” Garrity said, who won her election and unseated an incumbent in the same election as Trump’s loss in 2020.

Trump also talked about the phrases he’s coined since he became a politician, such as “fake news,” “crooked Hillary” and more.

“We came up with a lot of great terms,” Trump said as he listened in to the crowd’s “Lock her up” chants about former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Before Trump took the stage at the end of the rainy day, a number of officials spoke, including U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler.

When Reschenthaler mentioned Oz, some of the crowd booed. Reschenthaler said Democratic U.S. Senate frontrunner Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is a “serious threat,” and echoed Trump’s remarks that Oz is the only candidate that could beat Fetterman in the November election.

J.D. Vance, a Republican who won the Ohio primary election earlier this week, credited Trump’s endorsement for his win. He urged the crowd to support Trump’s other endorsed candidates, such as Oz, so voters can show party bosses that Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party.

Oz gave a short stump speech about his top issues such as energy and again flaunted his Trump endorsement. All of his signs had been remade to include a tag that said: “Endorsed by Trump.”

“My whole career has been about helping you,” Oz said, as the rain soaked through his white shirt from the pouring rain.