Former President Donald Trump is coming to North Philly

Former President Donald Trump is coming to Philadelphia next weekend.

The Republican presidential candidate will host a campaign rally in North Philadelphia at the Liacouras Center on Temple University’s campus on June 22 at 7 p.m. Doors will open at 3 p.m.

Trump and President Joe Biden have both focused considerable campaign effort on Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state in each candidate’s quest to win in November.

Trump rarely visited Philadelphia during his 2020 presidential campaign, usually choosing to visit more rural — and white — parts of the state for his campaign rallies.

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As statewide polls show Biden’s weaknesses here, Trump’s camp believes he has a shot to make inroads with swing voters in Pennsylvania — even in a deeply Democratic city.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, whose district includes Temple’s Main Campus and who has been a staunch Biden supporter since early 2020, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that North Philly had helped remove Trump from the White House, “and we’re ready to keep him out.”

Trump briefly stopped in Philadelphia in February to announce his new sneaker brand at Sneaker Con at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Last month, Trump held a rally in Wildwood while he was still on trial in Manhattan for falsifying business records in relation to hush money payments, the first of Trump’s criminal cases to go before a jury. Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts.

In announcing the upcoming Philadelphia visit, Trump’s campaign said in a statement Friday: “The great people of Pennsylvania are feeling the effects of Biden’s failed policies where it hurts the most — their wallets.”

The statement added: “Not only are the people of Pennsylvania hurting financially, but Biden’s pro-criminal and open birder [sic] polices are putting families in harms way.”

The Biden campaign responded with a statement from Kellan White, senior adviser for the Pennsylvania Democratic Coordinated Campaign: “Donald Trump is a convicted felon and failed president who spent years running racist campaigns, implementing a racist agenda, and hurting Black communities in Pennsylvania every chance he got.”

Earlier this month, the Trump campaign opened an office in the Holmesburg section of Northeast Philadelphia and held an event labeled as part of a “Black Americans for Trump” initiative. Later that same day, two Black congressmen who support Trump held a “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” event near Northern Liberties to “garner the black male vote.”

One of the congressmen, Byron Donalds (R., Fla.), came under fire afterward for comments he made at the event suggesting that Black families were better off during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.

With less than five months until the general election, Trump leads Biden narrowly in most polling of the critical state.