Donald Trump’s appearance at Arizona GOP event in Phoenix canceled
Jan 25, 2024, 1:40 PM | Updated: 2:36 pm
Donald Trump delivers remarks on Jan. 23, 2024, in Nashua, New Hampshire. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
PHOENIX – Former President Donald Trump’s scheduled appearance at an Arizona Republican Party event in Phoenix on Friday has been canceled.
The update came 10 days after Trump was announced as the keynote speaker for the AZGOP Freedom Fest at Dream City Church.
AZGOP said the event was canceled due to Trump’s court obligations in New York.
“We stand with him during this time and eagerly anticipate welcoming him back to Arizona in the near future,” AZGOP said in a social media post.
U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Eli Crane were scheduled to speak before Trump, along with 2024 U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, congressional candidate Abe Hamadeh and Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Tyler Bowyer also on the lineup.
Trump testified briefly on Thursday as his attorneys began his defense in a New York defamation trial to determine how much he might owe E. Jean Carroll for disparaging her as a liar after she publicly accused him of a decades-old rape in 2019.
The Arizona GOP was already thrown for a loop this week after audio leaked of Chair Jeff DeWit allegedly offering Lake a bribe in March 2023 to stay out of the race for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat.
DeWit resigned Wednesday and accused Lake, a fervent Trump supporter, of setting him up and threatening to release more audio.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
