Trump campaign expects 'rock concert' atmosphere for Greenville visit

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- North Carolina is set to re-enter the national spotlight this week with high-profile visits from both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump, who carried the Tar Heel State in 2016, will headline a Keep America Great rally on the campus of East Carolina University in Greenville on Wednesday.

"President Trump makes many things great in America -- traffic isn't one of them," Marc Lotter, Trump 2020 Director Strategic Communications told ABC11. "A presidential rally is a lot like a rock concert. It's going to be loud, there's going to be a lot of cheering."

Vice President Pence will also be on stage with the President, but Pence is also planning visits to speak with soldiers at Fort Bragg and a fundraiser in Fayetteville earlier in the day.

Lotter, who has also worked in the White House, said the campaign is prioritizing North Carolina because of its growing population and its status as a swing state.

"There will be a national audience, but I can tell you the President will be talking about issues that matter to people in North Carolina," Lotter said. "He's going to talk about our military, he's going to talk about our growing economy, rebuilding the manufacturing sector. He's also going to be talking about things like his fight to protect religious freedom."

The President on Wednesday is also likely to take on critics of controversial remarks aimed at four freshman Democratic lawmakers.

"Those Tweets were NOT Racist," Trump wrote Tuesday amid a continued backlash from the left to his weekend tweets that progressive women "go back" to their "broken and crime-infested" countries. The tweets, which have been widely denounced as racist, were directed at Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.