Trump visit, interactions, security put Kittanning market in limelight

For about a week, Ryan Sprankle knew someone with former President Donald Trump’s campaign would be stopping by his supermarket in Kittanning — a state or local surrogate, he figured.

Details were sparse after an initial text from a member of the local Republican committee.

Trump staffers called Sprankle on Thursday about logistics and security. Two days later, Sprankle met the staffers in person for the first time. Shortly after, he announced to customers that Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market would be closed Monday, but he didn’t share why.

On Sunday, the campaign said Trump, himself, might visit.

It wasn’t until about 3 p.m. Monday — just under three hours before the Republican presidential nominee arrived — that Sprankle learned for certain he’d be meeting “a master business owner,” in his words.

“(Security) started forming and, next thing we know, they’re having everyone evacuated and us go through security checks and have us patted down to go back in,” he said.

Meanwhile, bomb-sniffing dogs scanned the store, and two snipers materialized on a school bus parked by the front entrance.

State troopers already were pacing around a one-by-two-block perimeter surrounding the grocery store, hours before Trump’s arrival, to monitor hundreds of people who gathered to catch a glimpse of the former president.

Security was so heavy that most of the crowd never got a peek at Trump.

Secret Service and other authorities spent most of Trump’s 20-minute visit shuffling vehicles around to obscure sight lines, no doubt on high alert after a second attempt on Trump’s life at his West Palm Beach, Fla., golf course this month.

But for Sprankle, his family and the shoppers allowed inside, it was an intimate look at Trump playing retail politics and his tendency to go off script in the process.

He spent several minutes discussing inflation, “migrant crime” and Sun Belt polling, at one point telling Sprankle, if Democratic nominee Kamala Harris wins, “the whole place is going bust, and I’m talking about not only your store, I’m talking about the whole country.”

Trump also veered twice into claims Venezuela is emptying its prisons to intentionally send violent ex-prisoners to the U.S.

Then, he asked to take a tour of the place.

“Because of what I do, I haven’t been in one of these stores in a long time,” he said in response to a reporter’s question about what he planned to purchase.

As he passed through checkout, he handed a mother of three $100 to cover her grocery bill.

“We’ll do that for you for the White House, all right?” he said, asking for her vote. It was a move that brought some social media criticism, as posters questioned whether Trump violated election law by “buying” a vote.

Sprankle said he was taken aback by Trump’s lingering in the supermarket.

“The plan was for me just to greet him and then for him to talk to whatever media happened to pop in and then talk with some customers and leave,” Sprankle said. “It was supposed to be a maybe 10-minute stop.”

All in all, it was a pretty standard presidential campaign stop — a quick hit on his way to a rally at Indiana University of Pennsylvania that night. Trump took photos with locals, shook their hands and briefly stumped in a down-to-earth setting.

For Sprankle, it was likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, though he’d welcome Harris, too.

“Our company, we have Republicans and Democrats that are very good customers, so we’ve never really gotten political for that reason,” Sprankle said. “If it would have been Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, no matter who it is, if you have the opportunity to have a president or presidential candidate visit your location, that’s pretty special.”

He’s still trying to figure out who recommended that Trump stop there.

The rarity of a presidential hopeful visiting Kittanning wasn’t lost on the outdoor crowd, either.

Several residents said former President John F. Kennedy was the last active candidate to visit the borough, back when the former industrial town was largely Democratic. Former President Bill Clinton stopped at Kittanning High School in 2008 as his wife, Hillary, unsuccessfully vied for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Jack Dunmire, an ex-Armstrong County commissioner who switched his party registration from Democrat to independent when he left office in 2004, recalled the commotion of Kennedy’s visit.

“Everybody was so excited because he was so young,” Dunmire said.

The 79-year-old Ford City resident also decried the modern Democratic Party and said he’s supporting Trump because of his promises to fight inflation, secure the border and allow new oil and gas pipelines.

“I don’t think the election is even going to be close,” he said, predicting a Trump win.

Some people, such as Debbie Earley, who was posted up near Sprankle’s as early as 1 p.m., had to wait almost five hours for Trump’s arrival.

Earley, 64, of Kittanning said she dropped everything to see her preferred candidate after seeing rumors on Facebook, which “went around like a virus.”

Despite all of the preparations by authorities — the barricades, police presence and carefully angled armed agents — it doesn’t seem that anyone thought to bring a bullhorn, except for Ford City resident Robert Gill.

Gill, 40, briefly lent his megaphone to a Secret Service agent who warned the crowd that Trump “will not come unless you guys move” back around 50 feet from the intersection of Arch and North McKean Street.

That never happened, and Gill, wearing a shirt depicting Trump after he was shot in Butler, had his bullhorn back a few minutes later.