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© Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesPresident-elect Donald J. Trump wishing supporters a “merry Christmas” at the start of a rally in Hershey, Pa., on Thursday.
President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that the United States would create "safe zones" in Syria, his first reference to such an American role in the war there since he was elected, and one that comes as the Syrian government has all but recaptured the rebel stronghold of Aleppo.

"When I look at what's going on in Syria, it's so sad," he told a crowd here. "It's so sad, and we're going to help people." Mr. Trump said he would ask the Persian Gulf nations to put up money for the project, adding, "We'll build and help build safe zones in Syria, so people will have a chance."

Mr. Trump talked during the campaign about building safe zones, presenting them as a way to stem the tide of refugees into Europe. But this was the first time he had repeated the proposal since he began receiving intelligence briefings. Some analysts and military commanders have warned that it would be a significant and potentially dangerous undertaking on a complex battlefield over which Russian planes have been flying raids.

The president-elect coupled his plan with a familiar promise to restrict entry into the United States by people from countries with a history of Islamic extremism.

It was Mr. Trump's second rally of the week, in what has become an extended "thank you" tour of states he won. And it featured a familiar mix for him: a lovingly detailed recap of his victory on election night, along with campaign appeals to populism, economic nationalism, and anti-immigration and anti-free-trade sentiment.

"From now on, it's going to be America first," he declared. "There is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency, a global flag."

"We salute one flag, and that is the American flag," Mr. Trump said. "We're going to make sure the American flag gets the respect it deserves," he added. "We're going to maybe have to do something about that" — an apparent reference to his earlier suggestion that people should face penalties for burning the flag, despite a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that found that such actions were protected speech.

Mr. Trump also repeated his campaign promise of a multibillion-dollar plan to rebuild roads, bridges and airports — something for which the Republican leadership in Congress has shown little appetite. Even his designated chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has emphasized other priorities, like a tax overhaul and repealing the Affordable Care Act.

"Merry Christmas, everybody," Mr. Trump said by way of greeting, drawing out his words in a cheerful rebuke to what he would call political correctness. His raucous supporters, many wearing Santa Claus hats rather than the usual red "Make America Great Again" caps, whooped appreciatively.

In Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by a razor-thin margin of 44,292 votes, out of a total of 6.1 million cast, according to the final certified count.

Nonetheless, he described his victory as a landslide and, as he has before, offered a detailed recollection of election night, as CNN called Florida, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina for him.

Mr. Trump also marveled at his ability to continue drawing big crowds. "It's hard to get a big crowd after the election," he said. "If somebody else — a normal person — came after an election, even after a victory, and had 15 people, they would say we had enough."

The president-elect has settled into a comfortable routine in the last two weeks: half a day of meetings at Trump Tower, where the world's rich and powerful flock to his doorstep, followed by a quick flight to one of the swing states he won, where thousands of ordinary people wait for hours to cheer him.

Thursday's spectacle was typical: He packed Giant Center (named for the supermarket chain), which sits next to the Hershey chocolate factory. Mr. Trump drew a similar crowd in the arena the week before the election; many people were repeat visitors.

More than an hour before the rally began, the crowd began a warm-up chant of "Lock her up." In the background, a country singer proclaimed, "We're all American," a campaign soundtrack standard, along with "God Bless the U.S.A." and "Heart of Stone" by the Rolling Stones.

In the rosy glow of victory, some of the call-and-response chants seemed more perfunctory than passionate. When the crowd broke into "CNN sucks" on Tuesday in West Allis, Wis., for example, an older man leaned into the press pen and assured the reporters, "We don't really mean it."

Many people at the Hershey event seemed satisfied with how Mr. Trump was conducting his transition, including his very public search for a cabinet. "I like how he's shown us the people he wants to hire, versus the total secrecy of the last eight years," said Dennis Egbert, 63, a retired electrician from York, Pa.

Asked what he thought of Mr. Trump's attraction to billionaires and Goldman Sachs bankers, Mr. Egbert said: "When I was a young person, I didn't like rich people. But you know, I've never gotten a job from a poor person."