Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

Trumpmania Cools in This Pennsylvania Town

A Democratic mayor invited the Republican insurgent to visit last summer. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

June 25, 2017 at 2:00 PM UTC

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

That was then.
Photographer: Ty Wright/Bloomberg

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A year ago this week, Lou Mavrakis beamed as Donald Trump campaigned in economically-ravaged Monessen, Pennsylvania, promising to bring back steel jobs and punish China for unfair trade practices.

Mavrakis, the mayor of Monessen and a former steelworkers' union official, invited Trump, who then became the first presidential candidate to visit this once-flourishing western Pennsylvania town since 1960, when John F. Kennedy dropped in. By showing up in Monessen, Trump attracted national media attention as a symbol of Republican hopes to appeal to struggling, working-class, white Democrats.