Donald Trump schedules, then cancels, fundraiser in Rhode Island
Update:
Roughly an hour after the Providence Journal reported that Donald Trump would visit Newport, Rhode Island this week, the paper posted an update that the Friday fundraiser had been canceled.
Rhode Island state Rep. Joseph Trillo reportedly called back the Journal, after previously providing the paper a copy of an invitation to the event, to say that a “scheduling conflict” had forced Trump to cancel the event.
Trillo, Trump’s state campaign chair, said the fundraiser would be rescheduled for an undetermined date.
Original post
Donald Trump can’t get enough of coastal New England this summer—or, at least, of its deep-pocketed supporters.
The Republican presidential nominee is set to visit Newport, Rhode Island for a fundraiser Friday, the state’s campaign chairman told the Providence Journal.
“They are trying to keep it as quiet as they can,” state Rep. Joseph Trillo, a Republican from Warwick, told the Journal. “It shows you we have enough people in Rhode Island to generate at least $1 million for him.”
According to the invitation Trillo provided, attendance to the “evening event” will cost a minimum of $2,700, the campaign contribution limit for individuals. The invitation did not disclose an exact time or location, according to the Journal.
The event will be the first time Trump has visited the country’s smallest state since April, when he rallied supporters in Warwick ahead of the Rhode Island primary, which he won in a landslide.
Rhode Island hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate in a general election since 1984, when President Ronald Reagan carried every state in the country, except for Minnesota.
“I think he will do very well here,” Trillo said.
Whatever his electoral chances, Trump hasn’t evaded New England’s steadfastly Democratic-voting states, as his campaign looks to catch to up Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, in the fundraising race.
In early August, the GOP nominee rallied supporters in Portland, Maine, and held private fundraisers on Nantucket and Cape Cod. A week later, Trump drew a collectively raised eyebrow from political observers for scheduling a rally in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Like Rhode Island, Connecticut has not voted for a Republican presidential nominee since the 1980s.
Trump has also twice visited New Hampshire this month, a state that leans somewhat more independent than its deep-blue neighbors (though has voted Democratic in the last three presidential elections).
For her part, Clinton also held fundraisers this month on the island of Nantucket, as well as in Martha’s Vineyard and Provincetown.
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