President Donald Trump addressed a friendly crowd of around 200 at a Guilford manufacturer on Friday applauding workers for their efforts in producing swabs used in coronavirus testing in an address that often veered into a campaign speech.

President Trump will visit one of Maine's least populous towns and its most conservative county when he tours a factory producing medical swabs for coronavirus testing on Friday. Conspicuously absent during the trip will be the state's only Republican member of Congress, Sen. Susan Collins.

A federal judge on Friday denied an activist’s attempt to keep the U.S. Secret Service and Maine law enforcement from shutting down roads in Guilford during President Donald Trump’s visit to a medical swab manufacturing plant.

All eyes will be on Guilford on Friday, June 5 when President Donald Trump flies up from Washington, D.C., to visit the town of 1,500 people. He’ll be touring the local plant where Puritan Medical Products has been cranking out the medical testing swabs that have grown critically important during the coronavirus pandemic.

First, protesters started demonstrating against business shutdowns Gov. Janet Mills has ordered to slow the coronavirus’ spread. Over the past week, protests opposing racism and police violence have occurred throughout the state, with the largest protests drawing hundreds of people. And on Friday, President Donald Trump’s visit to Bangor and Guilford is expected to draw crowds in both places.

An activist filed a last-minute lawsuit on Thursday asking a federal judge to block plans by the U.S. Secret Service and Maine law enforcement officials to close roads in Guilford as President Donald Trump visits a manufacturing facility there on Friday.

At least one activist group is warning protesters to stay out of Guilford for President Donald Trump’s visit on Friday, instead planning a protest in Bangor due to fears of conflict with Trump supporters.

“People should avoid the Guilford area as early as 9 in the morning til 5 in the afternoon,” a dispatcher with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office said. “We don’t know exactly when he’s going to be visiting the Guilford mill.

Photos of the region’s National Honor Society chapter members.

President Donald Trump will make an official White House visit to a medical manufacturing plant in Guilford on Friday, June 5 his first trip to Maine since taking office and a seismic event for a town of 1,500 in the state’s least populous and most conservative county.

President Donald Trump will hold a roundtable discussion with parties involved in the commercial fishing industry during his visit to Maine on Friday, according to a White House official. The president is slated to come to the Pine Tree State to visit the Puritan Medical Products facility in Guilford, which manufactures medical swabs used in coronavirus testing. The Guilford company is one of the two largest swab manufacturers in the world and is opening a new swab manufacturing facility in Pittsfield this summer to meet the surging demand for swabs.

The 133rd edition of the Piscataquis Valley Fair in Dover-Foxcroft has been postponed until next year due to factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fair, originally scheduled for Aug. 27-30, will be held next on Aug. 26-29, 2021.

Maine police agencies are planning for President Donald Trump’s planned Friday visit to a medical swab manufacturer that could involve a complex and costly transfer from the Bangor airport to the Piscataquis County town roughly 45 miles away.

Next month citizens of the region will be voting on the $145,000 -- plus interest -- purchase of the former Key Bank location in downtown Guilford to be the new home of the sheriff’s office patrol and investigation divisions when they head to the polls on Tuesday, July 14. Before the referendum, county officials will be holding several late June information meetings across the region on the bond question.

President Donald Trump will visit a medical swab manufacturer in Guilford on Friday despite pushback from Gov. Janet Mills, who told the president his trip could create unrest and later said he is failing to assert leadership as protests rage across the country.

Without overnight service, residents suffering urgent medical issues past normal business hours in one of the most remote areas in Maine and all of the northeastern U.S. would have to travel at least 50 miles to hospitals in Skowhegan or Greenville on their own or in an ambulance.

“People were here camping and fishing,” said Craig Watt, vice president of the Indian Hill Trading Post in Greenville. “The numbers weren’t quite on par with previous years, but there were people here.”

Maine's top election official is encouraging people to vote via absentee ballot during the July primary election to limit the exposure voters and polling workers have to the coronavirus. The state will still hold in-person balloting July 14 with new social distancing protocols, but it's easier -- and safer -- to vote via absentee ballot, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said this week.