Trump stages Arizona rally, teasing surprise guest as campaign spirals

Hours after Kennedy left the race to endorse him, Trump is expected to appear for an Arizona rally

By Griffin Eckstein

News Fellow

Published August 23, 2024 6:24PM (EDT)

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks about immigration and border security near Coronado National Memorial in Montezuma Pass, Arizona, August 22, 2024. (OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images)
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks about immigration and border security near Coronado National Memorial in Montezuma Pass, Arizona, August 22, 2024. (OLIVIER TOURON/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Trump is set to headline a rally in Glendale, Arizona on Friday night, after an overnight spiral on social media and Fox News set off by Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention.

The Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action co-hosted event — which will be held in the same arena that Harris and Tim Walz packed to the brim with nearly 20,000 supporters earlier this month — is slated to start at 4 p.m. local time and feature a "special guest" that many are speculating will be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as he, earlier in the day, suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump.

Per local newspaper AZ Central, confirmed guests include election deniers like Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh, as well as Maricopa County candidates ​​Jerry Sheridan, Shelli Boggs, and others.

Trump’s campaign has entered somewhat of a tailspin amid disastrous polls and a 4-day DNC that locked him out of the press cycle, made apparent by a flip-flop on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who Trump decried for nearly four years for resisting pressure to overturn the 2020 race in his state.

“I think we’re going to have a very good relationship with Brian Kemp,” he told Fox News on Thursday night.

In another reversal, Trump tried to flip the script on abortion in a Truth Social post on Friday morning.

“My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” Trump, who boasted about ushering in the justices who killed Roe v. Wade as recently as June, wrote.

 


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