• Trump on Saturday is headlining a rally at Temple University in deep blue Philadelphia.
• The former president hopes to make inroads with Biden's base of Black voters.
• Trump has focused his campaign message on the economy. But Biden retains deep ties to the city.

For former President Donald Trump, few states anchor his potential path back to the White House more than Pennsylvania.

The former president lost the Keystone State to Biden by 1% in the 2020 election after narrowly winning the state over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

And a huge part of why Biden won in 2020 was his strong margins in the Philadelphia area — the city and its affluent suburbs — which offset the substantial edge Trump enjoyed.

But Biden has struggled over the past year to reactivate the liberal-leaning coalition that sent him to the White House four years ago. Support among Black and Hispanic voters is particularly shaky.

It's part of why Trump will speak at Temple University on Saturday in Philadelphia. He hopes to woo voters who may not have considered him in the past and may be up for grabs in November. He'll also be joined by Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee David McCormick, who'll face veteran Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. in the fall.

Here's a look at how Trump is looking to win over these voters and the deep challenges that he faces in doing so.

It's all about the economy…

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate has sat at 3.4% for eight consecutive months as of May 2024, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

That's below the current US unemployment rate of 4%.

But similar to most national polls, Trump leads Biden on the question of which candidate would better handle the economy. In the most recent New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College poll conducted in late April and early May, Trump had a 12-point advantage over Biden on the issue among registered voters. And only 21% of respondents said the US economy was "good" or "excellent," while 78% described it as "fair" or "poor."

Trump is banking that many Democratic-leaning voters, who rate inflation and elevated housing costs as major concerns, could give him a lift in Philadelphia — a city where voters gave 81% of their votes to Biden in 2020.

In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by roughly 80,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million ballots cast. And over 604,000 of those ballots cast for Biden came from Philadelphia voters. So any small movement toward Trump, especially among Biden's base of Black support in the city, could have dramatic implications for the statewide results.

… but Biden's Philly ties run deep

There's perhaps no city outside of Delaware that Biden loves to visit more than Philadelphia.

He's lavished attention on the City of Brotherly Love — paying particularly close attention to its Black voters and union workers — before and during his presidency. As a US Senator from Delaware who resided in Wilmington, he was only miles away from Pennsylvania's largest city.

So he has a natural relationship with many elected Democrats and union leaders. He can easily find himself among receptive audiences in the city's numerous Black churches, where a loyal base of older Black voters are overwhelmingly supporting his bid for a second term.

Biden has stumbled with younger Black voters over issues like the conflict in Gaza and student-loan debt relief. And many young voters overall are largely unaware of his work on climate issues. But it would take a huge electoral shift — which can often take several cycles to come to fruition — for Biden to be seriously in danger of losing a large chunk of his Philadelphia base.

So far, many down-ballot Senate Democratic candidates like Casey are outperforming their GOP challengers in critical races across the country. It's something that the Trump campaign is surely noticing as they look to flip Pennsylvania.

Right now, the statewide race is incredibly tight. And Philadelphia is poised to once again have its say in the outcome.

• The Justice Department is cracking down on anticompetitive uses of artificial intelligence.
• The DOJ has been investigating RealPage for using AI algorithms to set high prices since 2022.
• The investigation comes amid the Biden administration's wider antitrust crackdown on Big Tech.

AI can make many things easier for companies, including price fixing.

The Department of Justice is now cracking down on such anticompetitive uses of the buzzy new technology.

That means practices like setting prices above the market rates, colluding with rivals, and striking exclusionary deals are unlawful — whether humans or algorithms are behind them.

The Justice Department has been concerned about AI's impact on antitrust litigation for at least the past few years.

Since 2022, it has been investigating RealPage, a rental property management software company, for instance, for using AI algorithms to set prices above competitive levels.

The Justice Department says the company used sensitive and private data in an algorithm under the expectation that its competitors would do the same. That practice, it says, should be judged under the same guidelines as humans. "Automating an anticompetitive scheme does not make it less anticompetitive," the agency said in a statement from 2023.

This focus on anticompetitive uses of AI comes amid a broader spate of investigations and antitrust lawsuits the Biden Administration has launched against major tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

In the long term, algorithms will likely be even more important to litigate because they can process more information than humans.

"If your AI fixes prices, you're just as responsible," Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter told The New York Times in reference to the RealPage probe. "If anything, the use of AI or algorithmic-based technologies should concern us more because it's much easier to price-fix when you're outsourcing it to an algorithm versus when you're sharing manila envelopes in a smoke-filled room."

That means stricter regulations around the use of AI — and stricter penalties for its misuse — could be coming.

At the American Bar Association's annual gathering on white-collar crime this March, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Justice Department's focus on AI means prosecutors will impose "stiffer sentences" on individuals and corporations that misuse AI for white-collar crime, according to the Associated Press.

And compliance officers, who ensure companies adhere to legal regulations, should "take note," she said. "When our prosecutors assess a company's compliance program — as they do in all corporate resolutions — they consider how well the program mitigates the company's most significant risks. And for a growing number of businesses, that now includes the risk of misusing AI."

• Dozens of Tesla Cybertrucks were vandalized in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this week.
• The Cybertrucks were spray painted with a message attacking Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
• Cybertrucks have become a symbol of ire for Elon Musk's many critics.

Tesla Cybertrucks have become symbolic. But probably not in the way Tesla CEO Elon Musk hoped.

Nearly three dozen Cybertrucks were vandalized this week in Florida with disparaging messages aimed specifically at Musk.

A 35-second viral video showing the aftermath of the vandalism spree in a Fort Lauderdale parking lot first gained traction on Instagram on Friday.

The footage — shared to the Only in Broward account — showed a fleet of Cybertrucks with the phrase "Fuck Elon" spray painted across the metallic exteriors. The man filming the video said Tesla recently leased the parking lot, and Cybertrucks began arriving three days ago.

"Looks like someone doesn't like Elon…" the caption read.

Local authorities told NBC Miami that 34 vehicles had been vandalized within the parking lot, which housed Cybtertrucks and other Tesla models.

The person who called the authorities said the vehicles were in fine condition on Thursday night but were damaged by Friday morning, the outlet reported.

The vehicles were quickly cleaned or taken off the lot.

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Tesla began delivering Cybertrucks to the general public in November 2023. Cybertrucks start at $60,990 for rear-wheel drive and increase to $79,990 for all-wheel drive. The Cyberbeast, which can reach 130 mph and tow 11,000 lbs, costs an estimated $99,990.

While Tesla Cybertrucks have received a decidedly mixed response in the United States, they have been embraced elsewhere.

The Dubai Police General Command added a Cybertruck to its fleet of patrol vehicles this month. Musk and the official Cybertruck account applauded the decision on X.

"Very cool to see — thanks for the trust!" the Cybertruck account wrote.

Tesla has faced a string of bad news in recent months. The automaker slashed 10% of its global workforce in April and laid off more workers in the weeks after. And some traders say the company's stock is overvalued. One short-seller recently called Tesla's stock was one of the "biggest stock market bubbles" in history.

• Apple went big with its reveal of Apple Intelligence, its AI offering, earlier this month.
• But Apple Intelligence is only available on the latest iPhone models.
• And it likely won't be available in some of the company's largest markets anytime soon.

At one of its splashiest product reveals in recent history, Apple unveiled its new AI push, called Apple Intelligence, with great enthusiasm earlier this month.

But the new tech's big rollout is turning out to be a lot more limited than that fanfare implied.

Apple Intelligence is only available on the company's newest and most expensive phones. And it might not even make it to some of Apple's biggest markets.

Apple Intelligence will be "built into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to help you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly," Apple boasts.

But the tech, which will arrive in beta form this fall, will debut only on the "iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later" versions.

It also faces hurdles in China, one of the iPhone maker's most important markets. Apple Intelligence uses ChatGPT, a product of OpenAI that isn't allowed in China as Beijing regulators prioritize Chinese AI developers. Apple is negotiating with local Chinese companies to try and find another way into the market, Business Insider previously reported.

Apple is also postponing its release of Apple Intelligence in the European Union amid regulatory scrutiny. The EU put Apple on notice earlier this year to ensure the company's products comply with the Digital Markets Act, which is the bloc's attempt to hold major tech "gatekeepers" accountable and promote healthy competition. Apple said it is working to "find a solution that would enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safety," CNBC reported.

Beyond regulations, tech companies are also navigating what users do and don't want from AI. Companies like Meta and Google have faced user backlash over the intrusiveness — and usefulness — of their new AI features.

Some Facebook and Instagram users have grown frustrated by Meta AI, for instance, a feature shoehorned into the search bar and impossible to opt out of. Similarly, Google rolled out and then scaled back its AI-generated answers in search after its bot suggested users consume glue.

So maybe Apple's limited rollout is for the best, for now.

• Sen. Ted Cruz has an issue with signage touting projects funded by the 2021 infrastructure law.
• Construction sites across the US note that projects were made possible by the Biden-signed law.
• "These displays are nothing more than campaign yard signs," Cruz argues.

Across the United States, scores of construction sites are emblazoned with signs that read: "Project Funded By President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law."

For many people, it's an innocuous notation of the thousands of projects financed by the sweeping $1.2 trillion infrastructure law Biden signed into law in 2021 and was backed by both Democrats and a sizable contingent of Republicans.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was not one of them.

Cruz is now pushing for a government probe into whether the Biden administration has run afoul of the Hatch Act by using taxpayer funds to promote the law's impact, according to Politico.

In a letter obtained by Politico, Cruz argues that the Biden administration has "highly politicized" the infrastructure law, pointing to the signs that explicitly state that projects were made possible by the legislation and include the president's name.

Cruz, in the letter, then argues that Biden "unilaterally rebranded" the bipartisan infrastructure law as "President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law," which passed the House by 228-206 votes and the Senate by 69-30 votes.

"I write to refer this to you for investigation as a possible violation of the Hatch Act, federal law that broadly prohibits using taxpayer dollars for campaign activity," Cruz said in the letter addressed to the Office of the Special Counsel's Hampton Dellinger. "Congress, not President Biden, wrote [the infrastructure law], and it did not do so to aid the President's reelection campaign."

"These displays are nothing more than campaign yard signs courtesy of the American taxpayer," the senator added, according to Politico.

Cruz vociferously opposed the law and voted against its passage.

White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson told Politico in a statement that the project signs "promote transparency and inform taxpayers how federal dollars are being spent."

"If Senator Cruz were half as concerned about Texas kids getting safe drinking water as he is about signs, he might have voted for the Infrastructure Law and to send $31 billion to tackle essential infrastructure needs across Texas," the statement added.

According to Politico, Cruz also said the "Investing in America" logo was "purposefully designed to look like the Biden-Harris campaign logo."

The infrastructure law — by far Biden's signature domestic accomplishment — is being touted by the president himself and Democratic candidates on the campaign trail as one of their biggest legislative wins.

The law provided federal funding for long-awaited upgrades for bridges and tunnels, highways, and rail infrastructure, among other projects.

Biden aims to set himself apart from former President Donald Trump on the issue. In 2016, Trump ran on enacting a broad infrastructure plan, but during his term in the White House, he never proposed a workable bil for lawmakers.

Still, Biden has hit a wall on the issue ahead of the November election, as some voters remain skeptical of the law's effectiveness — while a significant slice isn't giving him much credit for it at all.

A Politico-Morning Consult Poll conducted in April showed that 40% of registered voters gave Biden the edge on infrastructure upgrades and job creation, while 37% of respondents gave Trump the advantage. And in the seven battleground states, Biden's edge over Trump on the issue was just six points (42% to 36%).

• Russia launched a "massive" attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight.
• Russia has increasingly targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure as the war has progressed.
• This latest attack marks the eighth since March, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

Russia launched a "massive" attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight as it continues to target the country's energy infrastructure, Ukraine's energy ministry announced on Telegram.

The latest attack marks the eighth time Russian forces have targeted Ukraine's power grid since March, the ministry added.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 16 missiles and 13 drones in the attack, which targeted a number of different regions.

While the air force said Ukraine's air defense systems were able to take down 12 of the missiles and all of the drones, two workers were injured in strikes in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, and some equipment was damaged.

Russian targeting of Ukrainian energy infrastructure has also caused mass blackouts across Ukraine this year.

Russia has switched up its tactics from previous attempts to attack the power grid, aiming to strike energy generation infrastructure instead of electricity substations.

"We urgently need to close our skies or Ukraine faces a serious crisis this winter," Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK, a Ukrainian energy company, said following the latest attacks, per the BBC. "My plea to allies is to help us defend our energy system and rebuild in time."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine's allies to provide more air defense systems as his forces attempt to repel such attacks, saying they required at least "seven more 'Patriots' or similar air defense systems."

Ivan Fedorov, the governor of Zaporizhzhia, echoed this in a post on Telegram following the latest attack.

"At night, Russians attacked Zaporizhzhia region again," he wrote. "The enemy will not stop. Ukraine needs air defense systems."

In April, Business Insider reported that Ukraine's low stocks of air defense missiles were leaving even the country's best-protected cities increasingly vulnerable to attack after Russia was able to strike a major power plant near Kyiv.

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the US had agreed to send a second Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, citing two US officials.

Business Insider contacted Ukraine's energy ministry for comment.