FULL COVERAGE
● We will bring you updates from Vice President JD Vance's West Pittston visit in this space. Check back throughout the afternoon. Vance is scheduled to speak at Don's Machine Shop at 1 p.m.
● WVIA News political reporter Borys Krawczeniuk will have a full recap of Vance's speech and reaction later today here at WVIA.org. Listen for updates on our WVIA-FM local news broadcasts this afternoon and tomorrow during Morning Edition.
11:25 a.m.: Both sides gathering
Matthew White arrived outside Don’s Machine Shop at 4 a.m. He wore a suit, a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap and a tie that says "Trump."
The Allentown resident was the first in line to see Vice President JD Vance speak in West Pittston. He came to town to celebrate the Big Beautiful Bill and hoped to meet Vance.
“It’s going to help Americans big time,” he said of the bill. “My mother’s a bartender, so no tax on tips. No tax on overtime, my father does overtime with construction companies … more money for us,” he said.
Buses drove supporters and media to the shop throughout the morning and early afternoon from a remote parking location in Exeter.
Just after 10 a.m. a line of around 40 people waited down Elm Street to see Vance during his first visit to Northeast Pennsylvania. He campaigned for President Donald Trump in Williamsport in October.
Vance is expected to tout Trump's Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Kristen Walsh lives a few houses away from the machine shop. Her children sold lemonade, iced tea and cookies with American Flags on them.
“I think this is the most exciting thing for West Pittston .. It's historic. It’s not often you have a president, vice president, come to a town let alone your hometown, your street that you live on,” said Walsh.
Her sister-in-law came up with the lemonade stand.
Walsh and the children agreed it would be pretty amazing if Vance stopped by for lemonade.
Up the road from the Walshes, Robin Williams hung a sign that asked “where the list is,” referring to an alleged client list kept by the late Jeffrey Epstein. Supporters of President Trump are divided on the topic.
“I’m excited for people that are excited to see the vice president, I personally don’t like him,” she said.
She doesn’t like the Big Beautiful Bill.
“A lot of people are going to get hurt, especially the elderly with the cuts that's going to be made to Medicare and things like that,” she said.
Her neighbor, Steven Taylor, is a truck driver. He’s divided on the bill.
“It has its ups and downs,” he said. “I like the border money, I think that’s really important. I don’t think we should be giving any money to any foreign country right now, any country, we need to take care of ourselves,” he said.
His message to Vance is to help truck drivers.
“Help us. Get rid of being paid by the mile,” he said.
On Exeter Avenue, Bikers for Trump set up their motorcycles a block away from protestors with Action Together and other advocacy organizations. State police have roads blocked off as the area anticipates the vice president’s visit.
Vance is expected to speak at 1 p.m. at the machine shop.
— Kat Bolus
12:30 p.m.: Protestors criticize immigration policies, education and healthcare cuts
Around 50 people chanted slogans like “Immigrants are welcome here” and “No Hate, No Fear” along Exeter Avenue beside West Pittston Park.
Many said they feel afraid under the current administration for their children’s futures.
Layla Graham, a teacher from Luzerne County's Back Mountain, said she worries about the world her students and children will inherit from the Trump Administration. She said she is protesting against Vance because America “is a country of immigrants.”
“Everybody came here from somewhere, and it's completely un-American to treat people like they're disposable,” Graham said.
Graham is also a member of Action Together NEPA, the organization that organized today’s protest.
Earlier in the day, Jessica Brittain, its Organizing and Communications Director, asked the crowd to hold up their hands if their families had once immigrated to the United States.
Nearly everyone in the crowd put up their hands.
Luzerne and many surrounding counties have strong contingents of residents with Italian, Irish and Polish heritage. Many have family members who came to the United States from abroad.
Judith Soroka of Shavertown said she “can’t verbalize how horrified” she is by Trump Administration policies. She criticized the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department (ICE) for what she described as “grabbing random people because of the way they look and the color of their skin” to enforce strict immigration policies.
She said she was protesting because “human decency is not part of our national fabric because of the administration we have in place now.”
Several attendees said they fear that democracy in America is at stake and could be lost through Trump Administration policies.
Doris Koloski, a Scranton resident and member of Action Together NEPA, said she first worried for America’s democratic institutions after she read Project 2025. She added that she sees Vance as the Republican Party’s likely choice for president in 2028 and that he concerns her more than Trump.
“Vance is intelligent. And if he takes over for Trump, now you have a smart, young person [in power].”
She said she sees that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren have less protections from the government than she had as she was growing up. Koloski specifically mentioned the right to an abortion, which was overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022.
“I lived through the 60s, and we fought for everything for women, and all the rights that we fought for are being dissolved. Women cannot go back to being a second-class citizen … women have to stand up and fight,” she said.
“I can't believe that I'm fighting this fight again when I fought it so hard in the '60s,” Koloski said.
Koloski also said she doesn’t want the government to limit what books her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can read in schools and to allow discrimination against LGBTQ+ youth.
“I feel like we're losing democracy,” Koloski said.
Graham echoed that.
“My daughter has less rights than I did when I was born. That's unacceptable. America is built on civil rights and equality and justice. What's happening now is a travesty,” Graham said.
Protestors also criticized SNAP and Medicaid cuts.
— Isabela Weiss
12:40 p.m.: Plane spotted, different guests
What appeared to be Vice President JD Vance's plane was spotted flying over Jenkins Township toward the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport at 12:40 p.m.
Vance is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m.
Guests already observed at the venue include Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak, Wyoming County District Attorney Joe Peters, and state Rep. Jamie Walsh from Luzerne County.
— Staff Report
1:30 p.m.: Vance speaks for about 21 minutes, praises Big Beautiful Bill
Vance began speaking at about 1:30 p.m. and spoke for 21 minutes and 48 seconds.
His main focus was on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and he said it will provide Americans with lower taxes and keep jobs in the country.
Vance praised the bill’s elimination of taxes on tips and overtime. He said the 36 employees of the machine shop will greatly benefit from the bill.
He said business owners will be rewarded with tax breaks for investing and building in America, and those who outsource will be penalized with tariffs.
Vance also said the country will reward oil and gas companies for investing in America … and “finally drill baby drill.”
Vance talked about immigration, praising Trump’s success in securing a “closed border.”
He also said inflation is under control and wages are going up for blue collar workers.
And Vance encouraged those attending to talk to their neighbors about how much of a win the Big Beautiful Bill is.
Watch for a full report on his speech later at WVIA.org.
Pittston visit after the speech
Vance and his motorcade made a stop in the City of Pittston after the speech, Mayor Michael Lombardo and a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan confirmed.
Lombardo himself was in Cincinnati — somewhere Vance formerly lived — while the VP was in Lombardo's hometown.
Vance visited Majestic Lunch on South Main Street, where he and Second Lady Usha Vance greeted diners.
— Staff Report
