Trump to hold rally in New Hampshire after calling it a 'drug-infested den'

Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally on Thursday night in New Hampshire, a state he described as a “drug-infested den.”

“I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den,” Trump said in a conversation in early 2017 with Mexico’s then-president Enrique Peña Nieto.

The comments drew criticism from residents of the state when they were publicized.

“I’m horrified, it’s deplorable. He had no business saying that about New Hampshire,” resident Mary Macdonald told CNN. “There aren’t words to say that a president of the United States would talk that way about a state.”

“I think there is more to New Hampshire than the drugs. You don’t know it until you live it. Just depends where you are at the time. We aren’t defined by our drugs,” University of New Hampshire student Cayla Fernandes told the outlet.

Trump will be greeted with protests calling him out.

“People are incredibly upset that Governor Sununu is welcoming Trump to the state with open arms after everything the Trump administration has done and particularly after Trump’s divisive rhetoric has spurred more violence in communities around the country, we don’t want that to happen here,” Linda Rhodes, a New Hampshire member of Indivisible, said in a statement.

More than 20 Democratic presidential campaigns signed on to a statement slamming the “hateful rhetoric” Trump would bring to New Hampshire.

Unlike many of his campaign rallies, which have been in full swing for two years, the New Hampshire location is not friendly ground for Trump. He lost to Hillary Clinton there in 2016 and currently has an approval rating of 40%, down 18 points since he took office.

Despite his comments, Trump has not helped New Hampshire to overcome its problems with the opioid epidemic.

He put a 24-year-old, whose only political experience was working on Trump’s campaign, as a senior adviser at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Trump also put Kellyanne Conway in charge of his administration’s response to opioids, passing over real experts in the field.

Additionally, his efforts to sabotage Obamacare were described by addiction experts as a “death sentence” for addicts in need of addiction services.

Trump’s New Hampshire trip is running into a rough reception before he even sets foot in the state.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.