PHOENIX — Air Force One is expected to touch down at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Wednesday just before 6 p.m., bringing President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign along with it.
Trump will speak to what will likely be a crowd of tens of thousands packed into the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, as well as an overflow area located on the State Fair grounds. Even Tuesday, more than 24 hours prior to the event, ABC15 spoke with people lined up outside the event from California, Utah, Idaho, and as far away as Canada.
Rallies have become a pivotal strategy for Trump’s reelection campaign. Several themes have emerged as dominant when he takes the stage.
Here are five things that Trump may bring up:
Border Wall
If there is one policy theme that is near certain to make it into the President’s remarks, it’s the border wall. In 2016, it was a pillar of his campaign and there is no sign that this will change, particularly when talking to his throngs of supporters in the southwest. Poll after poll have shown that immigration enforcement is a top issue for Arizona republicans. The president will be able to tell his supporters that 100 miles of the new border wall system have been completed in the Yuma sector of the border, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release. Environmental and Indigenous advocacy groups in Arizona expressed outrage at the construction project as portions of the Organ Pipe National Monument are being cleared in preparation for the wall.
Jobs/Economy
By nearly every major metric that is used to measure the US Economy, there is one thing that is for certain: times are good. The president is more than happy to take credit for this, at times boasting that the US is in the greatest economic period in history. Some of the points he has relied on in the past are the Dow Jones Industrial Index nearing 30,000, as well as unemployment falling to a 50-year low. His democratic opponents, who will be debating in Las Vegas on the same night of the Phoenix rally, would argue that while the economy has grown, the effects have not been evenly distributed among income classes.
Gun Rights
With a ban on “assault weapons” narrowly failing in the Virginia legislature and a bill being introduced in by Arizona Senate Democrats asking for a similar ban, the gun control versus gun rights debate has flared up again across the country. President Trump has fashioned himself as a champion of the Second Amendment and will likely reiterate his position on holding the line against congressional Democratic efforts to expand gun control.
The US Senate Race in Arizona
Senator Martha McSally is likely to win her primary election in August and move on to face astronaut Mark Kelly in perhaps the most hotly contested senate election in the country. McSally has proven herself to be a reliable Trump ally, siding with the president 95 percent of the time in the senate, including her recent votes to acquit the President on both articles of impeachment. Trump would be expected to give rousing praise to Arizona’s junior senator and may even make disparaging remarks about her opponent, Kelly.
His Democratic Opponents
The Democratic primary enters its third contest in Nevada this Saturday with no clear front-runner. President Trump has recently shifted his focus on fellow New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg, a move that has coincided with Bloomberg’s steadily rising poll numbers. The president has, in the past, also directed his ire toward the other major democratic contenders such as Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg.
Donald Trump’s rally takes place at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum today at 7 p.m. ABC15 will have live streaming coverage of the event.
