October 01, 2024 10:45 AM UTC

Poll: Is Trump Coming To Aurora Or Not?

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s Seth Klamann reports, we’re coming up on two weeks since ex-President Donald Trump promised to visit what he describes as the war-torn streets of Aurora, Colorado, where roving Venezuelan “supergangs” are eating the dogs and cats…

Sorry, we got the details mixed up. It’s Haitians eating the pets in Springfield, Ohio, and Venezuelan gangs “taking over” Aurora, Colorado with the whole state not far behind. In reality, of course, neither of those things are happening, and local officials in both locations including Aurora’s Republican Mayor Mike Coffman have been trying urgently to get this word to Trump’s campaign so they can update their talking points accordingly. Mayor Coffman, who helped spread misinformation about the situation in Aurora before trying to meekly walk it back, says he would “welcome” Trump to Aurora to disprove the crazy stuff Trump says about his city–based on the naive assumption that Trump cares about the truth and therefore would want to be corrected.

But as the Post reports, there’s no sign as of now that Trump actually plans to visit Aurora before the election:

In mid-September, former President Donald Trump said he planned to visit Aurora “in the next two weeks” as he stoked a national firestorm about immigration and an alleged Venezuelan gang takeover in the city.

On Monday — 12 days after those rally comments — there didn’t appear to be any plans developing for the Republican presidential candidate to visit Colorado’s third-largest city. The only Trump event in the offing is a campaign fundraiser in Denver next week that is set to feature Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate…

Trump voiced his apparent desire to visit Aurora after he’d inaccurately described the immigration and gang situation in the city, including on a prime-time debate stage earlier in September. The city drew national attention in recent weeks amid claims that several dilapidated apartment buildings had been overrun by Venezuelan gang members. At times, Trump has claimed that the entire city of 400,000 has been taken over.

Newsweek reported last week that plans for a Trump campaign visit to Springfield, Ohio have been shelved after the state’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine advised against it. In theory Mayor Coffman’s more welcoming posture would make an Aurora campaign stop more likely, but that again raises the question of whether Trump wants what is now a well-worn stump speech chestnut proven false. In a state Trump has no realistic chance at winning, we’ve never seen the incentive for Trump to make good on his promise to come to Aurora and see for himself that the city has not been overrun by marauding foreign gangs.

With all of this in mind, here’s another one of our totally unscientific reader polls, and as always tell us what you honestly think will happen rather than what you want to happen:

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