Weather pushes prez to postpone at Pease
President Trump postponed today’s rally in Portsmouth, N.H., with his campaign citing an impending tropical storm in the abrupt decision that took several people preparing for the event by surprise.
“The rally scheduled for Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire has been postponed for safety reasons because of Tropical Storm Fay,” campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement.
“It will be rescheduled and a new date will be announced soon.”
Trump tweeted shortly thereafter, “With Tropical Storm Fay heading towards the Great State of New Hampshire this weekend, we are forced to reschedule our Portsmouth, New Hampshire Rally at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease. Stay safe, we will be there soon!”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Friday the event would be delayed by a week or two.
The National Hurricane Center showed the storm tracking well west of the seacoast rally site. But the National Weather Service was predicting a 40% chance of rain during the rally, which was set for 8 p.m. today, and wind gusts of up to 20 mph.
“We’re very disappointed, but the safety of these people comes first,” MassGOP committeeman Tom Mountain said, adding that because Trump’s events here tend to draw people from across New England, “We don’t want to inconvenience people by bringing them all the way there and having them stand in line for so many hours and suddenly having to cancel it.”
Still, the postponement of the outdoor rally set among the airplane hangars at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease took some locals associated with the campaign by surprise.
Several told the Herald they were preparing to forge ahead despite the threat of inclement weather even as news of the cancellation began to spread.
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu’s campaign said he learned of the delay via Twitter.
The rained out rally adds to Trump’s already turbulent reboot of his signature campaign event amid the coronavirus pandemic and unfavorable polling. His return to the campaign trail in Tulsa, Okla., last month drew just 6,200 supporters to a 19,200-capacity arena.
While his team touted 1 million ticket requests ahead of the Tulsa rally, crowd expectations for Portsmouth were less clear.
“I wouldn’t call (Portsmouth) a setback, but it was a disappointment for sure to his support network,” New Hampshire Republican strategist Mike Dennehy said. “He will need to get here soon, and he will need to personally fire up his supporters.”
Coronavirus concerns dogged the Portsmouth rally despite pledges from the Trump campaign to provide masks and hand sanitizer — especially after a top Tulsa health official said the president’s event and the protests that accompanied it “more than likely” contributed to a spike in cases there.
Some Portsmouth business owners, local and state officials urged the Granite State’s governor to issue a mask mandate, but Sununu declined to do so even as he cited public health concerns as reason not to attend the rally.