Former President Donald Trump is marching on with a major public campaign rally on Wednesday, his first appearance since President Joe Biden was pushed aside by Democrats and forced to exit the 2024 race.
Trump, who chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance to be his running mate, will speak at 6 p.m. before a packed Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A focus on the recently anointed Democrat nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is expected as the state will be an important battleground in the Nov. 5 election.
Trump has blamed her for the Biden administration’s litany of failures, particularly on security along the porous U.S.-Mexico border.
The rally will take place just 11 days since an assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president was shot in his right ear. One person was killed and two others were injured in the attack.
Trump is expected to turn his full focus on Harris in the swing state that Trump has carried in the past, but Democrats have seen as pivotal.
The Charlotte rally, like the one over the weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan, will be held in an indoor arena.
Trump will stride into the spotlight to address his supporters two hours before Biden addresses the nation on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
The octogenarian is expected to talk for between eight and ten minutes and try and defeat the tag of “lame duck” already defining what remains of his tenure.
