Trump in Arizona: What to know about former president's town hall in Phoenix
Former President Donald Trump will visit Arizona this week for a town hall event in northern Phoenix.
Trump will take questions from voters on Thursday afternoon in an event hosted by Turning Point Action, the Arizona-based conservative group founded by MAGA personality Charlie Kirk and its political action committee.
There he will “take live questions from the audience with authenticity, strength, and compassion for the plight facing everyday people under Joe Biden’s failing policies,” Turning Point announced Monday.
The news of his visit comes the week after Trump was found guilty of 34 charges related to a “hush money” scheme during the 2016 election, making him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony.
Trump is already in the unprecedented position of seeking re-election to the country’s highest office after making efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.
In a written statement announcing the event, Kirk emphasized Republicans' two top issues in the 2024 election: the economy and immigration.
“Now is exactly the right moment for the President to speak directly to voters in state 48, and around the country, in this unique town hall format where the President shines so brightly,” Kirk wrote.
"Watching President Trump take live questions from the audience with authenticity, strength, and compassion for the plight facing everyday people under (President) Joe Biden’s failing policies, is exactly the contrast we are all hungry to see."
Arizona was one of Trump's favorite places to campaign during his past bids for office. He visited the state seven times during his 2016 run for president, seven more times while running for president in 2020, and four times since he left office in early 2021, according to an Arizona Republic tally.
His most recent visit was in October 2022, when he urged Republicans to support then-gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, then-U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters and the rest of his GOP picks in the midterm elections during a rally in Mesa.
Since then, rumors and announcements that Trump would visit Arizona haven't panned out. In January, the former president was scheduled to hold a rally in northern Phoenix. He abruptly cancelled it as a feud between Lake and former GOP chair Jeff DeWit roiled the Arizona GOP.
Trump’s field presence has also been minimal in Arizona so far, lagging significantly behind his pace during the 2020 election cycle and Democrats’ investment in the Grand Canyon State this year. Turning Point is putting together a field mobilization effort in swing states like Arizona, which could make up for the deficit.
Biden's re-election team cast Trump as absent in the state and nodded to Turning Point's involvement in the efforts to undermine the 2020 election.
“After months of canceling visits to Arizona, Trump is coming back to the state to campaign alongside Charlie Kirk, an extremist who paid for January 6 insurrectionists to travel to the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results," Arizona Democratic Party spokesperson James Martin said in a written statement. "Since 2018, Arizonans have — over and over again — rejected Trump’s MAGA extremism of abortion bans, election denials, and economic failures."
Turning Point Action sent seven buses of students to Washington to participate in the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"Turning Point Action and Students for Trump had zero to do with the march and condemns the violence and thinks these people should be … prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Turning Point spokesperson Andrew Kolvet told The Arizona Republic at the time.
One of the students told local media that he returned to the bus after the rally and violence "wasn't part of the plan."
The event will be held at Dream City Church at 2 p.m. on Thursday. Doors open at 10 a.m. Registration is open online.
Trump previously appeared at Dream City Church in 2020. Another Trump event was planned at the venue for January but was canceled.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Donald Trump to appear at a town hall at Dream City Church in Phoenix