GOP: Trump could visit Mexico border during Phoenix rally visit next week
Aug 17, 2017, 1:34 PM
In this Aug. 15, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump points to members of the media as he answers questions in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. Republican leaders on Wednesday tiptoed around Trump's extraordinary comments on white supremacists. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
PHOENIX — President Donald Trump will pay a visit to the Arizona-Mexico border next week during a trip to Phoenix to host a campaign rally.
“I’m told that he (the president) will be visiting the border,” Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Lines said.
Lines did not say which specific area Trump planned to visit. Emails to the White House were not returned.
The border has been a keystone of Trump’s policies. He promised to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border during the campaign and issued an executive order shortly after taking office to start construction.
In July, the U.S. House passed a spending package that designated $1.57 billion for the wall.
Trump was scheduled to host the re-election rally at the Phoenix Convention Center on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“We hope that we can invigorate the party,” Lines said of the event.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton asked the president to delay his trip on Wednesday, citing violence that broke out between protesters during a white supremacist rally in Virginia over the weekend.
“I am disappointed that President Trump has chosen to hold a campaign rally as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville,” Stanton said in a statement.
Trump has used Phoenix speeches to announce major policies in the past, including his 10-point immigration plan unveiled last year.
It was unclear what he planned to discuss, though it was thought he could speak on an act designed to curtail legal immigration or a possible pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
KTAR News’ Ali Vetnar contributed to this report.
