Read about President Trump’s visit to Treworgy Orchards here.
President Donald Trump will visit the Bangor area today as part of a late addition to his campaign schedule. He will land at Bangor International Airport at 2:30 p.m. and head to Treworgy Family Orchards in Levant, according to a source familiar with the president’s plans.
The Republican president’s visit to the Bangor area will follow a rally he’s been scheduled to hold in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a flight restriction for the Bangor area from 1:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday. He is scheduled to depart Bangor at 3:50 p.m., according to his schedule.
The president’s landing at Bangor International Airport appeared on his public schedule Sunday without the days of notice usually afforded for such visits — including the Manchester rally, which was announced days ago. The president’s campaign didn’t release a public itinerary for his Bangor-area visit — no Bangor-area events were listed on Trump’s campaign website Sunday — but the source familiar with Trump’s plans confirmed the president planned to visit the orchard in Levant.
Jon Kenerson, the CEO of Treworgy Family Orchards, said Sunday morning he did not know about a presidential visit to the farm, but added that the orchard would be open and the president would be welcome to stop by and pick apples.
Later Sunday, Kenerson said the farm was called at 8 p.m. Saturday night to schedule the visit, and Secret Service was on the scene in the morning.
He said the farm stays out of politics and would have said no to a rally.
“If a sitting president wants to come buy some apples, we can do that,” he said.
A presidential visit to the Bangor area less than 10 days before the Nov. 3 election underscores the Trump campaign’s emphasis on winning the electoral vote from Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which he won in 2016. While Trump trails Democrat Joe Biden in statewide polls, the contest is much narrower in the 2nd District.
Trump also visited Bangor in June, when he held a fisheries roundtable at Bangor International Airport before visiting the Puritan Medical Products manufacturing plant in Guilford. Puritan, one of the world’s top two makers of medical swabs used to test for the coronavirus, had recently secured Department of Defense funding to build a new swab manufacturing plant in Pittsfield.
Trump’s Sunday visit to Bangor comes less than a week after Vice President Mike Pence held a rally for the president’s re-election in Hermon, where he touched on a few Maine-specific themes and urged voters to back Republican Dale Crafts in his bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden.
Gov. Janet Mills later criticized the vice president for violating the state’s coronavirus gathering limits, which generally restrict outdoor gatherings to crowds of 100 people. About 800 people showed up to hear Pence speak, and hundreds more appeared to trickle in after the vice president began speaking.
In addition to the president and vice president, Trump’s two sons have also visited Maine this campaign season. Donald Trump Jr. was in Holden last month as part of a campaign swing, where he spoke at Maine Military Supply. Eric Trump had visited Saco just days before.
Biden’s campaign has also dispatched surrogates to the 2nd District. Jill Biden visited Orono and Blue Hill in late September, and the Biden campaign said this weekend that she plans to make another stop in Maine on Tuesday. On Saturday, Doug Emhoff, husband of Democratic vice presidential nominee and California Sen. Kamala Harris, visited Aroostook County.
BDN editor Michael Shepherd contributed reporting.
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