Ford Center expects thousands for Trump's Aug. 30 Evansville rally

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Ford Center manager VenuWorks will squeeze the maximum possible 11,000 seats into the facility for President Trump's rally on Thursday, Aug. 30.

Scott Schoenike, executive director of the organization, said the U.S. Secret Service is charged with providing security for the 7 p.m. rally, but he will work with Trump's campaign staff on the seating.

As a presidential candidate in April 2016, Trump drew some 12,000 people to the Old National Events Plaza for a rally featuring former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight. Schoenike sees no reason not to expect a similar overflow crowd next Thursday.

"I am anticipating that size crowd," the VenuWorks chief said. "I think we have to be ready.

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"(Trump's) staff will really dictate what they want to see. We'll have to work with them on probably a lower stage with seating behind him. If you've seen most of the conferences, he's talking, and there's people behind him. So we'll have chairs behind him, chairs in front of him, maybe some standing room in front."

And if more than 11,000 people show up, as happened in 2016?

"(Trump's team) probably will come with an overflow plan," Schoenike said. "Now, do we know if we need it? Who knows, but we'll have a what-if plan in place."

Trump's planned Evansville rally will happen at 7 p.m. Thursday – next Thursday, Aug. 30 – at the Ford Center. But doors will open to the public at 4 p.m. Tickets can be requested at donaldjtrump.com/rallies/.

"Don't show up at 7 and wonder why you can't run right in," Schoenike said.

New York-based Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., issued a statement to the Courier & Press Wednesday saying the president "is expected to discuss the benefits of his successful economic policies for hardworking Indiana families, the importance for Hoosiers to get out and vote for (Republican U.S. Senate nominee) Mike Braun in his race against (Democrat) Joe Donnelly for the U.S. Senate, and more."

The statement quoted Michael Glassner, chief operating officer for Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

"Evansville is a crossroads for so many great Americans in Indiana and the neighboring states, so it’s an ideal stop for President Trump’s next rally. The President is expected to report on the booming Trump economy that’s lifting up families across Indiana, his tough immigration and trade policies, his new EPA coal rules, and more," it said.

Two local people who would be involved in coordinating the event told the Courier & Press Wednesday they have been told there will also be a fundraiser for Braun. But the Trump organization's message made no mention of a fundraising event.

Steven E. Chancellor, at whose home then-candidate Trump attended a high-dollar fundraiser in 2016, said no such event is set for next week.

But that's not set in stone.

"I can't imagine that we'd be doing anything at the house, because you just wouldn't have enough time to prepare for that," Chancellor said Wednesday. "I would think, if they're going to do that, they're going to have to finalize it in the next one or two days because they've got to have time for Secret Service to do their advance.

"As of now, we don't know anything about (a fundraiser), but I kind of suspect that that's not going to happen. That would be really, really difficult to do with this kind of window."

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The last visit to the area by a sitting president was in October 2014, when President Obama visited a Gibson County company that supplies material to Toyota.

Trump has been hitting the campaign trail of late in anticipation of November's mid-term elections.

In a campaign-style rally in Charleston, West Virginia, on Tuesday night, the president stumped for GOP U.S. Senate nominee Patrick Morrisey and sounded several of his favored themes.

Political analysts believe West Virginia and Indiana’s Senate races offer Republicans their best opportunities to unseat incumbent Democratic senators in November. Morrisey, West Virginia's attorney general, is challenging Sen. Joe Manchin.

Trump’s remarks about Manchin offer a possible glimpse into what he might say about U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly during a rally in Evansville. The Republican president linked Manchin to national Democratic figures closely identified with the party’s liberal wing.

“I like Joe (Manchin), but Joe doesn't vote for us," Trump said during the 75-minute rally. "(A Manchin vote is) a vote for (New York Senator Charles) Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, their new leader, Maxine Waters ... They're not in favor of West Virginia. They don't know that West Virginia exists."

Trump also touched on an assortment of hot-button issues, including national anthem protests by NFL players and the kidnapping and killing of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, allegedly by a man living in the U.S. illegally. The president referred to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, decrying "fake news and the Russian witch hunt."

Trump campaigned for president in Evansville twice in 2016.

Trump’s victory in Indiana’s Republican presidential primary days after the April Old National Events Plaza rally helped him establish an unshakable grip on the GOP nomination by virtue of the sheer size of his lead in national convention delegates.

In the auditorium that day, Trump’s supporters murmured excitedly in anticipation of his appearance, exploded when he walked onstage, laughed uproariously at his jokes and cheered lustily — several times — when he called for a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Four months later, a large and boisterous crowd showed up at Tri-State Aero to greet the then-Republican presidential nominee when he flew in for a fundraiser at Chancellor's home. The crowd began gathering some two hours before Trump’s late afternoon arrival in his trademark black and gold Boeing 757.

They waved flags, planted signs and lined a fence straining to get a glimpse of the candidate stepping into an SUV and departing with a phalanx of law enforcement escorts and accompanying vehicles.

Outside Chancellor's Henze Road house during the high-dollar fundraiser there, a handful of curious neighbors, a few supporters and a mini-caravan of news media vehicles lined a driveway across the street. They watched cars drive onto Chancellor's 20-acre spread under the watchful eye of law enforcement and Secret Service personnel.

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