President Donald Trump will travel to Atlanta on Wednesday to headline a summit on the opioid crisis.
The president and first lady Melania Trump will address the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Atlanta. They are set to arrive on Air Force One at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport shortly after noon, and he is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m.
This will be the president's first visit to Georgia in 2019. He made several stops in 2018, including a rally in Macon for Brian Kemp during the governor's race and a tour of damage after Hurricane Michael struck in October. He also attended the national college football title game in Atlanta.
The four-day drug abuse summit attracts about 3,000 participants, and in past years it has featured public health officials and high-profile politicians. Kellyanne Conway, a White House counselor, talked to the group in 2018.
The visit is expected to snarl traffic around downtown Atlanta on Wednesday and attract protesters to the area. One group plans to rally in downtown Atlanta and march toward the hotel as Trump is set to arrive.
Trump has allocated billions of dollars in his budget proposals to combating the opioid crisis, which claimed nearly 48,000 American lives in 2017. The White House said the president and his wife will each speak “about their fight to end the opioid crisis.”
The president is not scheduled to hold any fundraisers or other events while he’s in Atlanta, but he’s set to be welcomed by Kemp and other Republican allies.
Trump carried Georgia by 5 percentage points in 2016, but Democrats hope to flip the state for the first time since 1992. A string of presidential hopefuls have visited the state this year to begin laying the groundwork.
Stay on top of what’s happening in Georgia government and politics at www.ajc.com/politics.
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