Former President Donald Trump will return to Western Pennsylvania on Friday to rally with supporters in Johnstown, his first visit back to the region since an assassination attempt injured him last month in Butler County.
Trump is scheduled to speak late Friday afternoon at 1st Summit Arena in downtown Johnstown. Trump will attack his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on her changing stances concerning the U.S. border and fracking, a key issue in the greater Pittsburgh region, according to a press release from his campaign.
“President Trump knows that Pennsylvania cannot take another four years of a dangerously incompetent and dangerously liberal Kamala Harris,” the Trump campaign said. “A Trump-Vance administration will Make America Great Again by unleashing American drilling to halve energy costs, halting the migrant invasion on our southern border, and restoring America’s rightful standing and respect on the world stage.”
The Johnstown rally comes eight weeks after the Trump rally shooting July 13 in Butler. Trump was grazed by a bullet that clipped his ear, and Corey Comperatore, 50, of Buffalo Township was killed. Two other men, David Dutch, 57, of Plum and James Copenhaver, 74, were injured in the shooting. A Secret Service sniper killed the shooter, Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park.
A congressional task force is investigating the shooting and met Monday in Butler.
Since then, Trump has appeared in Pennsylvania, speaking in Wilkes-Barre on Aug. 17 and two days later in York.
Trump’s Johnstown rally will take place indoors, unlike the Butler rally, which was outdoors at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
The former president spoke in front of a bulletproof glass barrier at his most recent outdoor rally in North Carolina.
Johnstown is less than two hours from the site of the shooting in Butler. The area is one of Trump’s strongholds in Pennsylvania. Cambria County, home to Johnstown, went emphatically Republican in 2020, with Trump getting 68% of the vote compared with Biden’s 31%.
Trump’s visit comes as polling shows a virtual dead heat with Harris among Pennsylvania voters.
Both Republican and Democratic tickets have increased their presence in Western Pennsylvania as of late. Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio visited Lower Burrell this month. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held a bus tour in Allegheny and Beaver counties last week.
Onotse Omoyeni, Pennsylvania rapid response director for the Harris campaign, criticized Trump’s record in Pennsylvania and said he hurt the state’s union workforce. Omoyeni bashed Trump’s tariff plan, which he said would mean thousands of dollars in additional costs for families.
“There’s only one candidate in this race looking out for you and your family, and that’s Vice President Harris,” Omoyeni said.
Doors open for the Trump rally at 12:30 p.m. Friday at 1st Summit Arena at Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown. The former president is scheduled to speak at 4:30 p.m. All tickets are on a first-come, first-served basis and can be found at https://tinyurl.com/3jp7h725.
