ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A video that captures an argument between Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk and a member of Donald Trump’s campaign staff has gone viral on social media.

In a statement, Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Tuerk of trying to “disrupt the buildout of President Trump’s rally, despite the campaign having proper permitting and approved road closures.” Tuerk said that the encounter has been widely misinterpreted.

The video has been reposted several times by different accounts on X, formerly Twitter, and has garnered thousands of reposts and likes. In it, a Trump campaign staffer, who is not identified by name, argues with Tuerk about road closures and barricades in anticipation of the Trump rally. Trump visited Allentown for a rally at the PPL Center on Tuesday evening, which brought thousands to Allentown.

In the video, the Trump campaign staffer appears to read from an official city announcement about road closures in the city: Allentown announced on Monday that Seventh Street from Linden to Walnut streets and Hamilton Street from Sixth to Eighth streets would close starting at 5 p.m. Monday.

Tuerk’s responses are harder to make out — he is speaking softly — but the Trump campaign staffer says to him, “We’re not blocking off the voting booth man, what are you talking about?”

“He’s scared that we are going to vote for Donald Trump on Nov. 5, that’s what he’s scared about,” the campaign staffer said in the video.

Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said, “We appreciate local law enforcement’s assistance in ensuring the rally was a major success!”

In a follow-up interview, Tuerk said he was concerned that the bicycle barriers — which the campaign used to organize the line to enter the rally — could have blocked off access to early voting at the Lehigh County Government Center.

The Lehigh County government building — located just diagonally across the street from the PPL Center — was originally slated to offer its last day of on-demand early mail voting on Tuesday. But a judge agreed with the county’s request to extend the deadline by one day in light of the event, which made traffic and parking near the government center difficult. Lehigh County voters were given until 5 p.m. Wednesday to request an on-demand mail-in ballot in person.

During the videotaped encounter, another man who identifies himself as staff with Trump’s campaign, asks Tuerk, “What can we do to make this situation better?” which Tuerk and that staffer discuss, as the first staffer continues to interject.

Commentary on social media accused Tuerk of attempting to shut down the rally. Tuerk said those comments are false.

“This idea that I want to shut down a rally is just like bonkers. I said, what you can hear in the video — look, I want everybody to be able to peacefully congregate in the downtown,” Tuerk said. “Our job is to make sure Allentown is a place that is welcoming for everyone.”

Tuerk said the city’s health bureau cited one of the food vendors on Seventh Street — which are not connected to the Trump campaign — for improper serving. He said he thought the rally went smoothly overall.

“The rallygoers and the protesters did a really nice job of making their voice heard attending the event. It seems everything went well,” Tuerk said.

Tuerk, a Democrat, has been a vocal supporter of the Harris-Walz campaign, and appeared at an event at the Democrats’ campaign headquarters in the city Tuesday morning with actor Martin Sheen to criticize Trump’s candidacy.

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