Trump hopes to get back on road with trip to Arizona
President Donald Trump said he expects to visit Arizona next week, as the administration forges ahead with its effort to urge states to reopen their economies.
The tentative visit to Arizona, which is expected to be a key battleground state in November, could include a tour of a manufacturing plant that is making protective masks, people familiar with the matter said. But no final decisions have been made and the White House has not chosen an exact date for any trip.
“I think I’m going to Arizona next week,” Trump said during a roundtable with industry executives to discuss a plan to reopen the U.S. economy.
Trump has been confined to the White House for more than a month because of the coronavius pandemic. He has not left Washington since March 28, when he traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, to see off the Navy hospital ship Comfort before it sailed to New York City. His next planned trip is on June 13, when he is scheduled to address graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
The president has longed to hit the road in order to show the country is reopening for businesses after widespread shutdowns battered the economy. He is particularly eager to visit people on the front lines responding to the virus outbreak, a White House official said. A series of recent trips by Vice President Mike Pence to manufacturing sites and health care facilities have laid the groundwork for future presidential travel. Pence this week visited the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after traveling to Wisconsin to visit a General Electric Co. factory making ventilators needed to treat critically ill virus patients. Later this week, he is scheduled to visit a General Motors Co. plant in his home state of Indiana.
It’s no coincidence Trump’s aides are considering getting the president to Arizona soon, people familiar with the matter said. The state is a former Republican stronghold where presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden now leads Trump by more than 4 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. No new surveys of the state have been released in several weeks, however.
Republicans also view the state’s Senate race as critical to maintaining their slim majority in the upper chamber. Senator Martha McSally is trailing her Democratic opponent, Mark Kelly, by an 8-point margin, according to the RealClearPolitics average. Kelly’s $11 million fundraising haul in the first quarter of 2020 almost doubled McSally’s total, according to Federal Election Commission data.
On Sunday, the president will hold a two-hour virtual town hall on the Fox News Channel. The prime-time event will be televised from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the White House said.