Trump to hold rally Friday in Manchester, campaign confirms
Trump campaign announces rally to be held at PeriCohas Hangar; masks required
Trump campaign announces rally to be held at PeriCohas Hangar; masks required
Trump campaign announces rally to be held at PeriCohas Hangar; masks required
President Donald Trump will make a return visit to New Hampshire on Friday in one of his first stops – if not his first – after accepting the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday night.
The Trump campaign on Sunday afternoon confirmed WMUR's Saturday report, which follows this update, announcing that the president will deliver remarks at the PeriCohas Hangar, 202 Perimeter Road, Manchester. The location is at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
The campaign announced that in accordance with Gov. Chris Sununu's recent order requiring masks to be worn at any gathering of more than 100 people, "masks are required and will be provided to all attendees" at the Friday event.
Doors open at 3 p.m., with the president scheduled to speak at 6 p.m., the campaign said.
(This earlier report was first published late afternoon on Saturday. It has now been confirmed by the Trump campaign's official announcement.)
A high-ranking GOP official told WMUR on Saturday that is “99 percent likely” that the visit will be on Friday and will take place in Manchester – possibly at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
Multiple additional sources also confirmed the plans.
On Sunday, the Trump campaign confirmed that the rally will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at a hangar at the airport.
Trump had planned to visit New Hampshire on July 11 but postponed the visit citing an impending tropical storm. He later told an interviewer it was postponed due to concerns over COVID-19.
Trump has long had a special affection for New Hampshire, the site of his first win, in the 2016 first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary. He narrowly lost the state to Hillary Clinton in the general election of 2016 – by about 2,700 votes out of about 750,000 votes cast.
State Republican Party Chair Steve Stepanek said in a statement Sunday:
"The president is always welcome in New Hampshire, a state he is clearly committed to winning, unlike Joe Biden. Our grassroots army is working hard day in and day out to ensure that we deliver the Granite State this November.”
New Hampshire Democratic Party spokesman Will Rasky released a statement on the planned rally Saturday evening:
"It doesn’t matter if New Hampshire voters are hearing it from Donald Trump over the airwaves at his chaos convention this week or from the Granite State itself the next day -- voters can see right through his broken promises and are tired of the circus."
An executive order signed by Gov. Chris Sununu on Aug. 11 requires anyone attending a scheduled event where 100 people or more are in attendance to wear a face covering, unless separate attendee groups stay six feet away from each other.
Political events are specifically included as one of the types of gatherings covered by the executive order.
The governor's office confirmed that the order would apply to the president's event. And in its announcement of the rally, the Trump campaign wrote, "In accordance with State of New Hampshire Emergency Order 63, masks are required and will be provided to all attendees."
In 2020, New Hampshire is again viewed as an important battleground state despite having only four electoral votes.