Head of Palestinian government to speak at GOP convention

Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine, Ohio, is slated to speak at next week's Republican National Convention.

Conaway is tentatively scheduled to address delegates on July 17, the third night of the convention and the same night that the vice presidential nominee will speak. The day of his appearance could change, according to a person familiar with the appearance who was granted anonymity to describe the internal planning.

Trump visited East Palestine on Feb. 22, 2023, weeks after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the northeastern Ohio village. During the trip, Trump accused the Biden administration of treating the blue collar community with "indifference and betrayal" and said it owed them "answers" for how the derailment was being handled. Trump's appearance played into his broader push to appeal to working class voters, who comprise a critical demographic in three Rust Belt battleground states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Trump advisers view the visit as a turning point in his campaign, which had a rocky start. In November 2021, shortly after Trump launched his comeback bid, the former president had dined with rapper and Nazi sympathizer Ye, better known as Kanye West, and prominent Holocaust denier Nicholas Fuentes. Just days after that, Trump published a social media post in which he called for the "termination of all rules …even those found in the Constitution." Both events drew massive scrutiny to the former president and raised questions about his political strength going forward.

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who is under consideration to be Trump's vice presidential choice, played a key role in helping to organize the trip and, along with Conaway, appeared with Trump in East Palestine. Donald Trump Jr., the former president's eldest son and a Vance ally, is also slated to address delegates that evening, Axios reported earlier Thursday.

The mayor has been critical of President Joe Biden and, in the immediate aftermath of the accident, questioned why he had not yet visited. Biden made a trip to East Palestine and met with Conaway a year after the derailment.

"That was the biggest slap in the face," Conaway said during a Feb. 2023 appearance on Fox News, when asked what he thought about Biden's decision to travel to Ukraine while the East Palestine crisis was unfolding. "That tells you right now he doesn't care about us."