President Trump
Donald John Trump, Justice Department, says 18 people face federal charges after Portland’s protests against the U.S. He takes over the former Chinese consulate in Houston. Defense Overnight: Republican Senator Aims to Rename Confederate Base | Trump approves sale of more larger armed drones MOREThe decision to cancel one of the biggest events in his re-election campaign is further evidence of the irritating picture he faces in his bid for a second term.
Trump announced Thursday that the part of the Republican National Convention that had been scheduled for Jacksonville, Florida, would be canceled.
The president reportedly gave his acceptance speech in Florida city on August 27, an option he had initially wanted to exercise after being upset by the social distancing requirements at the original Charlotte, North Carolina location.
Now, the president and his allies argue that the move is evidence of how seriously Trump is taking the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases have emerged in Florida, the largest deciding state in the presidential election.
Still, canceling a traditional acceptance speech in front of a large crowd deprives Trump of yet another opportunity to change the game in a campaign where he lags far behind his Democratic rival. Joe Biden
Joe Biden The Hill Campaign Report: Campaigns Prepare for Election Day Home Run Charlamagne tha God rips Biden: “Shut up forever” Hogan bets on republicanism with big criticism of Trump MORE with just over 100 days to go.
Jacksonville’s decision is also a broader recognition that the large internal protests that were a staple of the 2016 Trump campaign are difficult, if not impossible, to replicate in today’s environment.
Those who know Trump acknowledge that he is encouraged by the flattery of large crowds and that the absence of such events will come at a price.
“At the end of the day, he’s a terrible president, but he’s a reasonably effective theater actor,” he said. Anthony Scaramucci
Anthony Scaramucci Trump’s fight with city leaders intensifies Scaramucci’s fundraising for the Lincoln Project: I hope Trump is ‘humiliated’ in November. The Hill’s 12:30 report. Presented by Facebook., who served in a briefly famous position as director of communications for the Trump White House and has since become a vigorous critic.
“Their state of mind is positively affected by these protests, so not having those protests has a kind of negative impact on the campaign.” Morale hurts, “added Scaramucci.
The president and his aides may also have calculated that the risk of a poorly attended acceptance speech in Jacksonville was too high.
A Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month became an embarrassment. Then campaign manager Brad Parscale
Bradley (Brad) James ParscaleMORE he boasted that there had been around 1 million ticket requests. In the end, there were thousands of empty seats in an arena with a capacity of 19,000. Parscale has since been demoted, with Bill Stepien installed as the new campaign manager.
If the Jacksonville event had gone ahead, there was also a risk of people becoming infected at the site, a prospect that would be substantial and politically disastrous.
Instead, Republicans seek to put the decision to cancel in the context of what they say is a change of tone on the part of the President.
In recent days, Trump tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask for the first time, saying it was “patriotic.” He also returned to the lectern of the White House meeting room to discuss the pandemic for the first time since April.
In the first such briefing on Tuesday, Trump acknowledged that the coronavirus situation “is unfortunately likely to worsen before it improves.”
Critics scoff at Trump’s idea of a change, claiming that tonal changes are irrelevant unless more concrete steps are also taken.
But Republicans say there is a new emphasis on the seriousness of the problem, something they see reflected in the Jacksonville decision.
“I think it positively impacts the president by canceling the convention in Jacksonville,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. “It would simply have created a negative news environment, but canceling shows that he understands the danger of the coronavirus, and that is a concern that the Biden campaign has been using against him.”
In announcing the decision, Trump emphasized that there was “great enthusiasm” among his supporters. But “we didn’t want to take any risks,” he added.
Politically, Trump is caught between a rock and a difficult place.
It might have seemed irresponsible to celebrate the convention in a state so badly hit by COVID-19.
But canceling strips him of a rare opportunity to change the direction of a campaign that has been launched against him.
Plans are underway on both sides to move much of their online conventions. But online events have far less fervor than Trump, in particular, loves.
“Zoom bores him and virtual calls bores him,” Scaramucci said. “Does not like”.
Trump lags behind Biden by nearly 9 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) national poll average.
Their position in the states of the battlefield is not significantly better. In the state PCR averages, Trump fell between 6.4 points and 8.2 points in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as of Friday night.
“There is still just enough time left, but with the spread of COVID again, it just seems like a daunting task for him,” said Tobe Berkovitz, a professor at Boston University who specializes in political communications.
Former Vice President Joe Biden “benefits from running out of time, and time is running out,” added Berkovitz.
The Memo is a column reported by Niall Stanage, focused primarily on the Donald Trump presidency.
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