CLEVELAND, Ohio – Republican President Donald Trump will return to Ohio on Monday for an airport hangar rally near Toledo, just more than a week before he is set to take the stage in Cleveland for the first presidential debate.
Per the campaign, Trump will be at Grande Air at the Toledo International Airport – technically in suburban Swanton – Monday night, with the event slated to start at 7 p.m. It marks his first campaign visit to Ohio since a January rally in Toledo, though he used an official White House visit to campaign in August.
The announcement comes just hours after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine gave Trump the go-ahead to defy state orders mandating masks and social distancing and limiting crowd size to help curb the spread of coronavirus, according to the Sandusky Register.
The campaign did not immediately respond to questions about what sort of precautions they would take. Attendees are required to submit a waiver saying the campaign is not liable for any coronavirus-related risks.
Republican Vice President Mike Pence was in Zanesville on Wednesday, with pictures from the outdoor event showed few wearing masks, though with space set up between chairs.
However, Trump – who before the pandemic thrived on live in-person events – recently held indoor events in Nevada that lacked any social distancing or facial covering enforcement. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat overseeing one of the hardest hit states by the virus, condemned Trump for his “callous disregard for our emergency directives.”
Monday night marks Trump’s first official campaign rally in Ohio since the beginning of the year when he visited Toledo. The Northwest Ohio location is beneficial to the campaign to attract voters in both Ohio and Michigan, two crucial states for Trump’s re-election bid against Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden.
Read More: Donald Trump will hold airport rally in Toledo on Monday