(CNN)President Donald Trump takes his reopening message Thursday to Pennsylvania, a state divided over how and when to lift restrictions that also happens to be a key electoral battleground and the home state of his political rival.
Trump's quick trip to Allentown will highlight a medical equipment distribution company, where he plans to trumpet his administration's record on ramping up testing and improving supply chains for personal protective equipment and ventilators.
But he's also likely to continue making the case that parts of the country are ready to reopen as cases of coronavirus decline and hospitals return to pre-crisis volume.
His choice of Pennsylvania is hardly coincidental. Republicans in the state are pressuring Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to quickly ease stay-at-home orders and limits on businesses, an effort Trump loudly fanned this week.
"The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that entails," Trump tweeted.
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With few options remaining to revive a virus-stalled economy, Trump has placed almost all of his hopes on states reopening for a growth rebound by November's general election. He narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016 and his political advisers view the state as key to any victory strategy this year.
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Thursday's visit will be Trump's 18th to Pennsylvania since assuming the presidency, an indication of how central the state is to his election prospects. But like everywhere in the country, the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on local economies. Almost two million people have filed for unemployment in the state since mid-March.
As cases steadily decline, Wolf has slowly eased some restrictions in certain parts of the state. But he has proceeded cautiously elsewhere, wary of a rebound. In all, more than 4,000 people have died from coronavirus in Pennsylvania and there have been more than 62,000 confirmed cases -- putting the state high on the nationwide list, though in a better position than some of its neighbors.
The relative improvement has led state Republicans to claim Wolf is slow-walking a reopening, a mantle Trump has adopted in the hopes of rallying people desperate for relief.
"The Democrats are moving slowly, all over the USA, for political purposes," he tweeted.
Ahead of Trump's trip to Allentown, his election year rival Joe Biden accused the President of "trying to split Pennsylvanians into dueling camps, casting Democrats as doomsayers hoping to keep America grounded and Republicans as freedom fighters trying to liberate the economy."
"The issue isn't whether or not to reopen," the former vice president -- who is strongly associated with his Scranton, Pennsylvania, hometown -- wrote in the statement. "We all want to reopen. It's how to reopen safely and effectively."
As he reemerges after a months-long isolation at the White House, Trump has made battleground states his first stops. Last week, he visited Arizona to tour a plant that manufactures face masks.
His trips coincide with partisan battles around the country on reopening, including in states that are key to his election strategy. Trump backed protesters last week in Michigan who opposed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's extension of stay-at-home orders, which Republicans in the state claimed was unconstitutional.
And in Wisconsin on Wednesday, the state's Supreme Court overturned the state's stay-at-home order, ruling it "unlawful" and "unenforceable" in a high-profile win for the state's Republican-led legislature. In a 4-3 decision Wednesday, the court ruled that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration overstepped its authority when the state's Department of Health Services extended the order to May 26.
Trump heralded the decision on Twitter: "The Great State of Wisconsin, home to Tom Tiffany's big Congressional Victory on Tuesday, was just given another win."
"Its Democrat Governor was forced by the courts to let the State Open. The people want to get on with their lives. The place is bustling!" he wrote.
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