Phoenix Mayor Asks Trump To Delay Campaign Rally

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton wants President Trump to delay his scheduled campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center next Tuesday. The rally was announced by Trump's campaign on Wednesday.

"I am disappointed that President Trump has chosen to hold a campaign rally as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville," Stanton said in a statement.

"It is my hope that more sound judgment prevails and that he delays his visit."

It will be the president's first trip out West since taking office in January, though he made Phoenix a regular stop on the campaign trail last year.

Watch: Phoenix's Mayor Wants President Trump To Delay A Rally In The City

While the state has been reliably red, it's not clear how welcome he will be. A recent Gallup poll found 52 percent of voters in the state now disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

The president has also been feuding with both of the state's senators — John McCain and Jeff Flake.

His fight with McCain — the Republican standard-bearer in 2008 — goes back to last year when Trump said McCain was a hero because he had been captured during the Vietnam War and Trump prefers people who hadn't been captured.

Things seemed like that might be thawing last month when McCain, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer, flew back to Washington for a crucial series of health care votes. (For more information on this and other Phoenix stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Trump originally praised McCain's return, and the senator cast a key vote to move a bill to repeal Obamacare forward.

But then, when it came time to vote on whether or not to actually repeal Obamacare, McCain — along with Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins of Alaska and Maine, respectively — voted with the Democrats.

It's a vote that clearly still bothers the president, who again brought up McCain's vote at his Tuesday press conference.

As for Flake, the state's junior senator recently published a book critical of the president's policies, drawing ire from Trump, who has said he would provide millions to someone to run against him in the primary next year.

Trump took after Flake on Thursday morning, attacking him on Twitter.

It's expected that Trump will have Ward with him at the rally on Tuesday.

The big question ahead of the rally is whether the president will use the opportunity to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted last month of criminal contempt for ignoring a court order to bring immigration patrols to a halt.

In an interview with Fox News last weekend, Trump said he is considering a pardon for the 85-year-old Arpaio, who was voted out of office last year.

In addition to both professing to want to crack down on immigration, Trump and Arpaio also shared an interest in spreading the lie that President Obama had not been born in the United States.

While Trump repeatedly trumpeted the claim, Arpaio said at one point that Obama's birth certificate was "definitely fraudulent."

Arpaio is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5. He faces six months in jail.

If Trump does pardon him, it will be the first pardon of his presidency.

In his statement, Mayor Stanton said he hopes that Trump is not coming to town to pardon Arpaio.

"If President Trump is coming to Phoenix to announce a pardon," for Arpaio, he said, "then it will be clear that his true intent is to enflame emotions and further divide our nation."

Photo of Mayor Stanton via Phoenix Mayor's Office