At an event in Bethlehem on Wednesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro was critical of the first 70 days of the Trump Administration, while also admitting that he is hoping for the president’s policies to work.

Speaking at Fegley’s Brew Works in the Lehigh Valley to highlight his Administration’s investments in Pennsylvania’s small businesses and main streets, Shapiro responded to a question regarding President Donald Trump’s policies.

“Let me just say, in general, I hope the President’s policies work, because I’m always cheering for America,” the governor said. “I want to see America succeed. I want to see Americans be better off.

“But what I’ve seen over the first 70 days of his administration is chaos that has resulted in higher prices, fewer rights, and more worry from so many people that I meet all across Pennsylvania. Yesterday, I was in Mifflin County, a rural area in Pennsylvania where hardwood is the biggest industry. They dealt with these tariffs back in 2018 when President Trump was first in office.

“The entire hardwoods industry lost, as a results of these tariffs, a billion dollars,” he continued. “They haven’t climbed back from the hole that President Trump put them in, and now he’s going to hit them with even more significant tariffs. So while, of course, I’m rooting for America to succeed, I’m rooting for our president to succeed, because that means we all succeed.”

His visit came hours before the anticipated presidential announcement of further tariffs on ‘Liberation Day,’ that Shapiro described as threatening to put Pennsylvania jobs and economic growth at risk.

“We have seen enough from him over his first four years and over these first 70 days, the chaos, the confusion, the higher prices to know that the direction he’s heading in right now is really reckless and really dangerous. My job is to protect the good people of Pennsylvania. I’m doing my best every single day. I wish I had a partner in the White House who wanted to do the same for our small businesses, our students and everybody in between

Shapiro also mentioned his recent visit to Voith, a company that manufactures turbines used to produce hydroelectric power, in York County. The largest manufacturer of hydroelectric parts in North America, Voith sources all of its steel to build the turbines from the U.S.

“Yet, they’re seeing their prices go way up because of the chaos that Trump has injected into the marketplace,” said Shapiro. “I’m all for bringing jobs back to Pennsylvania, back to America. What we’re seeing is a White House that’s now actually making it harder to accomplish that. I’ve seen the devastating effect of trade deals that were bad for Pennsylvania, bad for America in the 90s and the early 2000s. That’s not going to spur American manufacturing. I’ll tell you what will spur American manufacturing, investing in businesses here in America, not cutting money that’s supposed to go to them, and raising their costs.”