Editor’s note – I recently caught up with Trump Jr. to talk about the outdoors, the importance of the upcoming election to hunters and the achievements of President Donald Trump’s administration to benefit hunters, anglers and conservation. – Tom Venesky
Joe Biden may be a Scranton native, but Donald Trump Jr. said his northeastern Pennsylvania roots run deeper than those of the Democratic presidential nominee.
During an exclusive interview, Trump Jr. didn’t question the validity of Biden’s Scranton birthplace, but he did claim to have a stronger connection to the region, and the state. Citing the years he lived in Pennsylvania while attending boarding school in Pottstown and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the eldest son of President Donald Trump said he’s resided in the Keystone State longer than Biden and still frequents the northeast region more frequently than the former vice president.
“Joe shows up here once every couple of weeks because it’s a convenient drive from Delaware, where he’s been a Senator for almost 37 years,” Trump said after a campaign stop in State College on Oct. 20. “I lived in Pennsylvania for years, longer than Joe Biden ever did.”
Biden was born in St. Mary’s Hospital in South Scranton on Nov. 20, 1942. According to Biden’s campaign website, he and his family moved from Scranton to Delaware when he was 10 years old. Biden went on to attend the University of Delaware and held his first political office while residing in the First State, serving on county council in 1970. Biden was elected senator in Delaware in 1973 at the age of 29, and held the post until 2009 when he became vice president.
In addition to attending boarding school and college in Pennsylvania, Trump said his connection to the state remains intact today, in large part due to his outdoor pursuits. An avid hunter and angler, Trump has spent time hunting in Jefferson Township, Lackawanna County, and he frequently fly fishes the Delaware River on both sides of the New York and Pennsylvania border, in Wayne County, sometimes with George Daniel, lead instructor for the Penn State University Fly Fishing Program.
And when it comes to roots in the outdoors, Trump has said he went on his first hunt – for upland birds – while he resided in Pennsylvania in the early 1990s.
Trump added that his connection to northeastern Pennsylvania spans throughout the region.
“I have a farm in Equinunk. My cabin is on the New York side of the Delaware, and the farmhouse is part of the place we have in Pennsylvania,” Trump said. “I shoot long-range there. It’s where I snowmobile, ride ATVs and fish. I’m in Pennsylvania almost every weekend.
“My bona fides in PA are 10 times that of Joe Biden. His are all talk.”
Trump also took issue with Biden’s blue-collar persona, calling it “nonsense.”
While Biden has been in politics for his entire adult life, his father, Joe Biden Sr., worked as a used car salesman in Delaware.
Trump referenced Biden’s lengthy political career and the trade policies he supported as evidence that he’s anything but blue-collar.
“He pretends to be blue-collar Joe from Scranton, but he’s been an elected senator since his 20s. Give me a break. I’ve had more blue-collar jobs than Joe Biden,” Trump said.
When it comes to policies, Trump said that Biden’s support of NAFTA when he was a senator, and his backing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and China’s permanent status in the World Trade Organization while vice president were all detrimental to blue-collar workers.
Those positions likely wouldn’t change if Biden was president, Trump said.
“Joe Biden has done more destruction to blue-collar jobs than any politician in American history,” he said. “There’s nothing blue-collar about him.”
That’s one reason why Trump is actively urging hunters in Pennsylvania to vote on Nov. 3. He said hunters have typically been complacent when it comes to voting, and sportsmen and women in Pennsylvania could be a crucial voting bloc this year.
“A lot of things related to hunting align very well with the conservative side, yet hunters haven’t been a big voting bloc,” Trump said. “It’s not so much voting for a side, but vote your values. I see the hate mail I get for being a vocal hunter and defending that lifestyle, but it’s important to me and I’ll continue to speak up.”
For the time being, however, Trump won’t be spending his days in the woods or on the Delaware River, but rather on the campaign trail. The outdoors will have to wait.
“There’s too much at stake right now and I have to be in the game, so the hunting is on hold until Nov. 4,” Trump said. “But it’s my lifestyle, and I probably haven’t spent a weekend in New York City in probably a decade. I go up to my place in the Catskills or my farm in PA, and that’s what I do.”
- Photos courtesy of Rich Hudgens.
