President Donald Trump will visit Wilmington on Wednesday to declare it a World War II “Heritage City.”
News outlets report that the visit is timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the end of the war.
Legislation enacted last year requires the Secretary of the Interior to declare at least one city a year to be a World War II Heritage City. Wilmington would be the first.
Wilmington has been home to the Battleship North Carolina since 1962. The ship was active in the Pacific theater during World War II and is now a floating museum.
According to the city’s website, Wilmington was the site of a P-47 fighter plane training area during World War II, and the city also hosted training for all five branches of the military. 248 men from New Hanover County were killed in the war, and two natives – William D. Halyburton Jr. and Charles P. Murray Jr. received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Trump will meet with veterans and tour the battleship, according to WRAL.
North Carolina is also a battleground state in the November presidential election, and this will be the second time in past three weeks that Trump has been in the state. On Aug. 24, he visited a Farmers to Families Food Box program in Mills River, the same day the Republican National Convention began in Charlotte.
Vice President Mike Pence will visit Raleigh on Thursday to attend an anti-abortion event and to tour a pregnancy center. The President’s son, Eric Trump, is also visiting North Carolina on Thursday and is scheduled to speak at The City Church in Huntersville.
