Trump postpones Beaver County visit in wake of mass shootings

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Trump postpones Beaver County visit in wake of mass shootings

Tom Davidson | Monday, August 5, 2019 10:54 a.m.

President Donald Trump, who has postponed his scheduled visit to Beaver County’s ethane cracker plant this week, is shown with First Lady Melania Trump as they arrive at the 171st Air Refueling Wing on Oct. 30, 2018, before visiting Squirrel Hill following the synagogue massacre.

President Trump has postponed this week’s planned visit to an ethane cracker plant under contruction in Beaver County in the wake of this weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, the White House and county officials confirmed Monday.

Trump had been slated to visit the plant site Thursday.

“In light of this weekend’s tragedies, the president has postponed his visit to Monaca, Pa.,” a White House official said.

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo announced Trump will visit the Texas city on Wednesday, according to CNN. The White House had not officially announced the trip.

The El Paso mayor announces President Trump will visit Wednesday. “He is President of the United States, so in that capacity I will fulfill my obligation to meet with him.” Adds he’s received “emails & phone calls” about the visit and “that’s why I’m saying what I’m saying now.”

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 5, 2019

The White House official did not say when the Beaver County visit might be rescheduled.

The president had planned to tour the site of the multibillion cracker plant being built by Royal Dutch Shell along the Ohio River and Interstate 376. It would have been Trump’s second visit of the year to Pennsylvania, a state he won by just more than 44,000 votes in 2016 when he became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Associated Press White House reporter Zeke Miller reported on his Twitter account Monday morning that Trump intended to travel to El Paso and Dayton this week.