2024 Election: Donald Trump to hold rally this weekend in Philadelphia
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - JANUARY 27: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump stands on stage during a campaign event at Big League Dreams Las Vegas on January 27, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Trump is campaigning in Nevada a
PHILADELPHIA - Former President, and 2024 hopeful, Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally on Saturday at Temple University's Liacouras Center.
Historically a democratic safe haven, Trump hopes to cull support in Philadelphia to help swing the balance in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Temple President Richard M. Englert explained that the Liacouras Center is "managed and operated by a third-party firm," and Temple is not covering any costs.
"The presence of any speaker on campus is not an endorsement from Temple University, just as the views expressed by any speaker do not necessarily reflect those of the university’s administration, faculty, staff, or students," Englert wrote. "Temple will continue to be a space for open dialogue and the exchange of ideas integral to the election process."
Trump managed to flip Pennsylvania in the 2016 election, which helped pave the way to the White House over democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. Biden regained control of Pennsylvania in 2020, with Philadelphia right in the middle of the vote counting.
Saturday's rally at the Liacouras Center will begin at 7 p.m. with doors expected to open hours before then. The rally comes more than a month after the former president visited New Jersey, another democratic stronghold, and spoke to thousands of supporters who packed the beach.
Trump, 78, has kept his re-election campaign rolling despite being the first U.S. president convicted of more than two dozen charges in a New York hush money case.
"This was a rigged, disgraceful trial," Trump told reporters after leaving the courtroom. "The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people. They know what happened, and everyone knows what happened here."
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in the New York case on July 11, shortly before he is to receive the Republican nomination for president in the November general election. Trump is currently entangled in three other criminal cases, with one out of Georgia, one out of Florida, and one out of Washington, D.C.