President Donald Trump's visit to the Upstate Monday will be a change of pace from his previously public Upstate appearances which were campaign rallies open to anyone and that attracted thousands.

The real-estate-mogul-turned-leader-of-the-free-world is expected to land at GSP Airport at 5:25 p.m., according to airport officials, and will proceed to a 6:30 p.m. fund-raiser on behalf of Gov. Henry McMaster's reelection campaign at the Embassy Suites on Verdae Boulevard in Greenville.

The fund-raiser is a closed, $250 ticketed event. Anyone interested in going can still visit McMaster's campaign website, henrymcmaster.com, where seats to the event, capacity 1,200, were still available this weekend.

McMaster for Governor

Meanwhile, public viewing of the president at the airport — regardless of your political views — will be limited to a patch of lawn near the fountain out front.

"We don't refer to it as a protest area," said Tom Griffin, the Secret Service's resident agent in charge at its Greenville office on Main Street.

No word yet on whether Trump will step out of the building for a wave or a few words. The media, meanwhile, will view Trump from the back of a flatbed truck parked on the airport's tarmac, Griffin said.

The best bet for anyone wanting to catch sight of the president's motorcade is to stand on Verdae Boulevard near the Embassy Suites — the route up to that point is anyone's guess save the U.S. Secret Service. For security reasons, even the S.C. Highway Patrol is not privy to that information, said the patrol's Cpl. William T. Rhyne.

"We have our officers selected for the visit, and they will be gathering at a staging location Monday morning to receive their assignments," he said

"We don't release that information, as far as what our routes will be," the Secret Service's Griffin said. "The advice you could put out is to avoid any areas around the airport on Monday afternoon."

That is, avoid the whole airport area from around 4 to 6 p.m. if you do not want to see the president or get caught in traffic snarls.

For those more interested in expressing opposition to the president, the state's Democratic Party has organized a protest rally in Falls Park on the Reedy. The annual Fall for Greenville festival wraps up downtown Sunday night, and Angie Foster, Greenville's director of public events, said city personnel will clean up after its 150,000 visitors until the dark early-morning hours of Monday.

A dozen groups have reported plans to appear at the park, though Trump will be well out of earshot six miles away. Foster said anyone can picket or protest in city limits without a permit, but she advised large groups of protesters and counter-protesters to give the city a head's up for safety reasons. Bob Mihalic, spokesman for Greenville County, advised group's demonstrating in unincorporated areas — including the roadway near Embassy Suites on Verdae Boulevard — to also give the sheriff's office notice for the same reasons.

"We want to be prepared," Foster said. "By the law they don't have to tell us, but most people do because they are wanting to help."

Trump's visit to South Carolina is his first since a February stop-over in Charleston to see the launch of the new Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. He will be supporting McMaster, the front-runner in a four-person race for the 2018 Republican nomination for South Carolina governor.

President Trump's visit returns favor for Gov. McMaster's endorsement

Trump's Upstate appearance was announced Oct. 6, a few days before the latest campaign disclosure reports revealed Mount Pleasant Republican Catherine Templeton, former head of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, had out-fund-raised McMaster between July and October — $602,873 to his $567,784.

Other Republicans in the race are Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant of Anderson and Yancey McGill of Kingstree.

McMaster — the first statewide elected official in South Carolina to endorse Trump back in 2016 — is leaning on the president's strong record here, where he received 55 percent of the vote in the 2016 general election, compared to Hillary Clinton's 41 percent. McMaster as lieutenant governor ascended to the governorship in January when Trump appointed former Gov. Nikki Haley ambassador to the United Nations.