OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – President Donald Trump is expected to visit Oshkosh on Monday. But right now, even the city isn’t quite sure what his actual plans are.
“Just to be really honest with you, I learned this by listening to my radio news in the morning,” City of Oshkosh Communications Coordinator Andy Radig tells WTAQ News, “At this point, we don’t have a lot of details. We’ve been made aware that the president is potentially visiting next week, most likely Monday. Due to security protocols, we don’t have very specific information at this point on the president’s visit. ”
“We don’t know that he, in fact, is coming to the city of Oshkosh…I’d like to be able to tell you more. I’d like to know more myself. I’ve got limited knowledge and our staff has limited knowledge. I’m sure there’s some conversations taking place with some of those folks, but it hasn’t been announced,” says Mayor Lori Palmeri, “We’ve got the Town of Oshkosh, the City of Oshkosh, the Oshkosh area – he might just be driving through off of [Interstate] 41 and everybody’s saying is going to be here…For all we know, he’s saying he’s going to be in Appleton and De Pere and Fond du Lac as well.”
The president reportedly confirmed the visit to Wisconsin himself on a phone call with voters Wednesday evening. The Republican Party of Wisconsin was unable to confirm the visit. But other Republican officials reportedly reaffirmed the plans, according to our media partner Fox 11.
There has been no official announcement released by Trump’s campaign team or the White House.
Oshkosh officials still don’t have information about any specific venue, driving route, or whether he plans to land at Wittman Regional Airport or Appleton International Airport.
The city is working to gather what they can about the visit, but say that the lack of details isn’t particularly surprising.
“It’s been our experience during campaign visits that venues or even sometimes the whole event itself can really change based on political and security reasons during election season,” Radig says, “The Trump campaign would be working with local staff to ensure that there’s adequate public safety involved in the event. That, of course, would be coordinated on the federal level due to Secret Service and other protocols that are in place…Security measures would be put into place regardless and working with our local law enforcement staffing.”
Other than that heightened security presence, Oshkosh residents could expect bigger crowds and busier streets around town – especially in the area the event will be held.
“Just like we have the EAA or Rock USA or any of those events, but I would be very surprised that this would even have that kind of volume attendance,” Palmeri predicts, “Just as any other celebrity or other important dignitaries that draw crowds, I would imagine it would have some impact on traffic temporarily for a short period. I don’t expect he’d be spending an entire day here.”
It also appears that President Trump may be using the rally to make a political chess move against presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden. Monday’s potential visit marks the same day the mostly virtual Democratic National Convention is set to kick off in Milwaukee.
