“Is anybody in the room supporting Trump? Maybe. I don’t know,” said Gene Barr, president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Industry and Commerce. (Marc Scaringi, a Harrisburg lawyer organizing for Trump on a volunteer basis, did attend.)

Inside the room, attendees received Trump warmly, giving the businessman standing ovations at the beginning and end of his speech, as is customary for speakers at the state party’s Commonwealth Club Luncheon fundraiser, a mainstay of the annual rite in which Pennsylvania’s political elite descend on Manhattan for a weekend of socializing and strategizing.

Trump stuck mostly to his standard stump speech, putting added emphasis on trade deals — a nod to the erosion of Pennsylvania’s industrial base under free-trade policies like NAFTA — according to attendees. He also praised Pennsylvania for embracing fracking and characterized New York State’s ban on the extraction method for oil and natural gas as a mistake. But it was impossible to ignore the furor surrounding Trump’s candidacy, as multiple protests disrupted the closed session.

Even before Trump issued his latest proposal, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who faces a tough reelection battle next year, announced he would not be attending, citing a scheduling conflict. Pennsylvania’s Republican House members steered clear of the event, and state legislators remained in Harrisburg, working on a budget, a circumstance that multiple attendees described as “convenient.”