It should come as no surprise that, during his campaign rally Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump drew big crowds. Trump also predictably made big, fat, ridiculous promises to the thousands of people who turned out to support him.

Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul and reality television personality-turned politician, has been doing this for months. But this time it happened at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, where Trump set about vigorously attempting to pander to the crowd and, in the process, created one heck of an awkward moment.

“How’s Joe Paterno?” Trump asked. “We’re gonna bring that back? Right? How about that whole deal?”

A couple things here: why was Trump pandering to Penn State fans in Pittsburgh — home to the University of Pittsburgh and the Pitt Panthers?

City residents, regardless of their college sports affiliation, also likely know that the iconic college football coach died in 2012. And lest we believe that bringing the former Penn State icon back to life is a keystone of his strategy to make the country great again, a Trump spokesman subsequently said that the candidate was referring to a statue of Paterno that the university took down in 2012.

Fair enough; the syntax of Trump’s statement actually supports that argument, so this might be the first time reading Trump’s words closely actually clarifies something.

But, as they say, the best was yet to come. Back on track — “We love Penn State, but we love Pittsburgh, right?” he asked the confused crowd — Trump doubled down and made a rare promise. In fact, he made it a number of times: if he’s elected president, The Donald is going to revive Pittsburgh’s steel industry.

“Steel, we’re bringing back,” he said. “Coal — clean coal, clean coal. We’re bringing it back.”

Of course, the candidate failed to say how he would make it happen. Because it won’t be accomplished — by him or any other president.

Like so many of Trump’s promises — Mexico will pay for that border wall; we can deport 11 million people — it’s nothing but sound and fury.

One might be able to forgive Trump an enthusiastic stumble over the legacy of a college football legend many Pennsylvanians believe was greatly wronged near the end of his life. It’s more difficult to turn the other cheek when he proceeds to exploit decades of economic and social pain for his own political gain.

America’s steel industry, and particularly the steel industry here in southwestern Pennsylvania, has been decimated since the 1980s. Free market pressures, hostile labor relations and competition from southern states with non-union workers combined with a myriad of other issues to cause an implosion that rippled throughout the region. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs. Entire communities were irrevocably changed.

What little of the industry that remains is battling international product dumping by countries such as China, a strong U.S. dollar, and a crisis that threatens the jobs of thousands of steelworkers. Just last week, U.S. Steel announced that it might lay off up to one-third of its non-union employees.

That Donald Trump is willing to wade so nonchalantly into this complex crisis is no surprise. But that doesn’t make it any more believable.