President Donald Trump will deliver remarks at a "Keep America Great" reelection rally in New Hampshire Thursday evening -- a state he narrowly lost to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Trump is likely to bring up his most reliable rally themes, including touting jobs numbers, criticizing his Democratic opponents and defending his stance on immigration. In a state heavily impacted by the opioid crisis, and in the same city where he launched his administration's plan to solve the country's opiate addiction, Trump may bring up his administration's efforts to reduce drug abuse and overdose deaths.
Protests by progressive groups are expected to take place outside the arena where Trump's speech will take place.
Ahead of the Manchester rally, Trump all but endorsed a potential Senate run by his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who has been mulling a run to unseat New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, according to multiple sources familiar with discussions.
Lewandowski is expected to join Trump onstage during the arena event, adding to the intrigue of whether the President will make a formal endorsement.
Trump lost New Hampshire's vote to Clinton by a thin margin in 2016. Trump has claimed in public remarks as late as November 2018 that the state would have swung in his favor had liberal voters from Massachusetts not been bussed in to cast illegal ballots.
However, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office has said no evidence indicates out-of-state voters were ever bussed into the Granite State to vote during the election.
He also described the state as a "drug-invested den" in an early 2017 call with then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, according to a transcript of the call that was published by The Washington Post. Being a "drug-invested den," he told Peña Nieto, was the reason why he won the state's 2016 Republican presidential primary.
