Former President Trump cancels his planned visit to Polish Catholic shrine in Bucks County

Former President Donald Trump canceled his visit to a Polish Catholic shrine in Doylestown, a representative of his campaign confirmed Thursday.

Trump’s campaign announced Tuesday the former president would visit the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa on Sunday, the same day Polish President Andrzej Duda was scheduled to visit the holy site significant to Polish Catholics.

But just two days later, a representative from Trump’s campaign said Thursday the former president would no longer be attending the Sunday event.

Duda, the right-wing leader of Poland, is scheduled to attend a Roman Catholic Mass at the shrine before the unveiling of a monument honoring the anticommunist Solidarity movement. Duda’s staff told the Associated Press that they expected Trump to be in attendance as well, and that the two men would meet if they both attended.

Sunday’s visit was not slated to be a campaign rally. Trump had planned to pray at the church and attend the monument’s unveiling outside the shrine, a spokesperson for the shrine said.

Michael Blichasz, the president of the Polish American Cultural Center in Philadelphia, said Trump and Duda have been friends for years, predating Trump’s rise to the presidency. Trump has also supported the Polish American community throughout the years, he added.

But after Trump was the target of another apparent assassination attempt earlier this week, there had been some concern about the former president being out in the open, Blichasz said.

“Maybe this is OK for everybody’s benefit,” Blichasz added. “In today’s world, you never know what kind of characters are out there. It might be better to be careful.”

However, Trump’s presence likely would have been a message to Polish American voters. Pennsylvania is home to more than 700,000 people with Polish ancestry — 5% of the commonwealth’s population.

During the presidential debate in Philadelphia last week, Vice President Kamala Harris made mention of Polish American Pennsylvanians — a historically reliable voting bloc for Democrats that has moved to the right in recent years as Republicans have also lobbied for their support.

The visit would have been Trump’s second visit this year to Bucks County, a battleground county where Republicans now outnumber Democrats. Earlier this year he hosted a private fundraiser in the county, and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is expected to visit Newtown on Sept. 28.

Trump narrowly lost Bucks County in 2016 and President Joe Biden expanded Democrats’ lead in the county in 2020. The county, however, remains one of the former president’s best chances at regaining support in Philadelphia’s suburbs.

This summer, Bucks County became the only county in the area where registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats. While Democrats control county government, voters have kept U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican with a reputation as a moderate, in office.

Trump is still scheduled to visit the commonwealth next week, with a rally set for Monday in Indiana County in Western Pennsylvania.