Aurora police, local law enforcement agencies prepare for Trump visit

Aurora police have begun preparing for former President Donald Trump's visit to the city Friday, though security details are scant.

Trump is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. on Friday at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center near Denver International Airport. He will be visiting Colorado amid heightened concerns over security following two attempts on his life.

Aurora Police Department spokesperson Matthew Longshore said the department cannot give details about their preparations for the Friday rally.

"We will continue to work with and support our local and federal law enforcement agencies for the upcoming visit," Longshore told the Denver Gazette Tuesday.

Aurora's new police chief Todd Chamberlain will be at the event Friday, but whether or not he will meet with the former president is unknown, Longshore said.

In the last month, Trump has cited Aurora to attack the Biden administration's immigration policy, claiming that a Venezuelan gang has "taken over" the Colorado city of nearly 400,000 residents.

Aurora officials, who initially denied the claims of intense gang activities, have since acknowledged that members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang known as TdA, have been responsible for crimes at a group of apartment buildings. City officials and the police maintained that the gang's influence is limited.

When Trump originally declared he to visit Aurora, Mayor Mike Coffman, a former Republican congressman, said that he welcomed the chance to clear up Trump's misconceptions about the city.

“I’m very excited that the former president wants to visit our city to see for himself that the narrative that we are being overrun by TdA gang members is false and for our police chief to have the opportunity to brief the former president on our successful efforts to identify and arrest TdA gang members," Coffman said.

The Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas County sheriffs' offices all said the Aurora Police Department has not reached out to them for assistance. The Denver Police Department also did not immediately provide any details on if and how it will assist its neighboring city.

Following an attempted assassination of the former president at a rally in July in Pennsylvania and another attempt on his life in Florida last month, Trump now speaks from behind bulletproof glass at his rallies.

The Secret Service often relies on local authorities to help secure bigger events for individuals like Trump.

Last month, the members of a bipartisan House task force investigating the Trump assassination attempts emphasized during their first hearing that the Secret Service, not local authorities, was responsible for the failures in planning and communications that led to a gunman being able to open fire on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

Lawmakers repeatedly questioned why the agency tasked with protecting the country’s top leaders didn’t do a better job communicating with local authorities during the July 13 rally, particularly when it came to securing the building that was widely agreed to be a security threat but that ultimately was left so unprotected that gunman Thomas Michael Crooks was able to climb up and open fire on Trump.

“The communication between the Secret Service and local and state partners was disjointed and unclear,” said U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, the ranking Democrat on the panel, who also praised the local law enforcement. Crow, a Colorado Democrat, represents Aurora.

It will be Trump's first public event in Colorado since early 2020, when he packed an arena in Colorado Springs. Trump attended a private fundraiser in Aspen in August, and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is scheduled to headline a private fundraiser in Denver on Tuesday.

Recent polling shows Harris holds a double-digit lead over Trump in Colorado, whose voters haven't delivered the state's electoral votes to the Republican nominee since George W. Bush carried the state in 2004.