Trump says he may accept the nomination from the White House; RNC will be open to press

CHARLOTTE –

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s considering accepting the GOP nomination at the White House because it would be the “easiest ... and by far the least expensive.”

Trump also said the media would be allowed to witness his nomination in Charlotte. GOP officials said Sunday that no “final decision” had been made on whether to ban reporters from the convention.

The convention starts

Aug. 24 in Charlotte. It’s scheduled to run through Aug. 27 when Trump would accept the nomination. It was unclear where he would do that but he told Fox & Friends that the White House was a likely location.

“It would be the easiest from the standpoint of security,” he told Fox News. “We’re thinking about doing it from the White

House. ... It’s the easiest alternative. I think it’s a beautiful alternative. I love the building. ... Spend a lot of time here. A lot of people didn’t spend as much time. I like it. ... It would be by far the least expensive from the country’s standpoint.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot back during an appearance on MSNBC, accusing the president of trying to politicize the White House.

“It’s very wrong,” she told

MSNBC’S Andrea Mitchell. “For the president of the United States to degrade once again the White

House as he has done over and over again by saying he’s going to completely politicize it, is something that should be rejected right out of hand. ... It won’t happen, let’s put it that way.”

Trump said the first night of the convention would be in Charlotte and feature the nominations of him and Vice President Mike Pence.

Convention officials had said it would take place the morning of Aug. 24.

“(W)e were really wanting to go to North Carolina, and so what we are doing is we are doing one night there,” he said. “And it’ll be a nomination night and it’ll go very well. We’re going to let the press go in and watch it, but socially distanced and lots of things are happening.”

GOP officials sought to explain the potential media exclusion by blaming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

“We want the press there but this isn’t an RNC decision, this is a Gov. Cooper of North Carolina decision,” party chair Ronna Mcdaniel told CNN Tuesday. She alluded to Cooper’s order prohibiting crowds of more than 10 from gathering indoors in this phase of pandemic response.