Nigel Parry—Tonight in Lowertown, Saint Paul, Second Lady Karen Pence, and Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, are hosting a “Women for Trump” event in the Union Depot.

“Women for Trump” was formed by TV producer and Trump daughter-in-law and re-election campaign senior adviser, Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump. It is unclear whether Vice President Mike Pence will be in attendance.

Starting at 6pm, according to the Trump Pence 2020 website, the event takes place in the Union Depot’s Red Cap Room (Suite 300) and requires pre-registration.

An October 7th article by the Pioneer Press’ Dave Orrick reports that:

Vice President Mike Pence will visit a sign company in Lakeville on Thursday ahead of President Donald Trump’s Minneapolis rally that evening, Pence’s office said Monday. Pence’s afternoon stop at Safety Signs will follow his wife, second lady Karen Pence, and presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump hosting an event for the group “Women for Trump” at St. Paul’s Union Depot on Wednesday evening. The events are part of a multi-pronged thrust this week as Trump makes a serious 2020 campaign push to be the first Republican presidential candidate to win Minnesota since 1972.”

Tomorrow, at Trump’s rally at the downtown Minneapolis Target Center arena, Twin Cities activists are organizing a “Dump Trump! Trump not welcome in Minneapolis!” event at 5:30pm.

The Minneapolis protest is being cosponsored by a staggering roster of immigrant, social justice, and peace groups including the Anti-War Committee, Black Lives Matter St. Paul, CAIR-Minnesota (CAIR-MN), Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB), Immigrant Worker Solidarity, Minnesota Indivisible Alliance, Minnesota Protests community, Minnesota Workers United, MIRAC – Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, MSP NOW, Native Lives Matter, No Cages Minnesota, People’s Justice Coalition, Queer Revolutionary Workers Syndicate, Racial Justice Network, Superbowl Anti-Racist & Anti-Corporate Coalition, TakeAction Minnesota, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), and Women’s March Minnesota.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

There are no reports of any planned protests at the Union Depot “Women for Trump” event in Lowertown, as of 1pm local time.

With all the attention directed at Thursday’s Trump rally in Minneapolis, tonight’s event in Lowertown is virtually invisible on the media’s radar. Dave Orrick from the Pioneer Press first wrote about it briefly two days ago but the details he had—even at such a notably late date for such a major event—were sparse and vague.

The simple reason Orrick’s article, published online on October 7th at 7:41pm, was light on both details and advance warning was that the MN GOP had only itself announced the event five hours earlier with a brief post on Twitter at 2:46pm and Facebook at 2:48pm. The posts linked to a minimalist registration page on DonaldJTrump.com that gave little more information than the names of participants, the location, date, and time.

Possible traffic and security impacts

All of the above considered, especially considering that the event could involve unannounced appearances by the Vice President or even the President, there is a likelihood of both traffic and security impacts on Downtown and Lowertown residents and visitors as they go about their business.

Across the river, Minneapolis Police Chief Arradondo explained how his city is approaching tomorrow’s Target Center event, “Because we expect larger than normal crowds for this Thursday’s events, both vehicular and pedestrian traffic will be significantly reduced around the Target Center in order to increase the public safety for all.” (Facebook)

To complicate things, rotating street resurfacing has closed roads across Lowertown over the last week. As far as many residents are concerned, the pre-Saint Paul Art Crawl weekend construction closures have been ‘unannounced appearances’ of a different kind.

Update: As of 6:30pm outside the Union Depot, half an hour after the posted doors open time, there are no crowds of supporters or protesters nor any visibly elevated security presence, presumably due to the late event announcement and overwhelming focus on Trump’s rally at the Target Center in Downtown Minneapolis tomorrow evening.

Report back from inside – added October 11

Posting on a Downtown Saint Paul Facebook group, Lisa Burke gave a sense of the atmosphere inside with around 240 in attendance.

Lisa Burke: They, mostly Lara Trump, said it just leaked out that 18% of Democrats are socialists, and if a Democrat wins we’ll go the “terrifying“ way of Venezuela, that our borders would be open, and the government will take over every aspect of our lives, including our healthcare and the education of our children.

They said all of our money would be pooled together and people would have no incentive to go to work, and that everyone would have less cash in their wallets. I’m not sure how we get there with 18% of Democrats being socialists!

They appealed to the 240-some loyal followers who were present (in a room that had a capacity for 211) to speak with their neighbors about all the good things that Trump has done to create a bright future for our children. That we can continue the “incredible prosperity“, and fix the problem on the southern border or “it’ll be the downfall of the country“.

Trump “boldly fixed the problems facing our country”, like denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, “Taking back regulations“ because he wants to run the country like a business, and creating an even playing field regarding trade. And he saved the VA and the veterans.

Karen Pence said he doesn’t have to do this because he “has a lot of zeros” and that he’s doing this out of the goodness of his heart, because he loves his country, and “knew he would be our last shot at saving the country”.

Regarding the current problems he’s facing Lara said “The swamp does not go down without a fight; that’s how we know he’s winning.”