Trump cancels N.H. rally
President Donald Trump made it to the critical battleground state of Florida on Friday to raise campaign cash and tend to issues of high interest there for his base supporters. But his efforts to relaunch travel after a hiatus caused by a surge in coronavirus cases hit a new snag as his campaign canceled a weekend rally in New Hampshire, citing a tropical storm threatening the area.
Press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany told reporters the Portsmouth rally — slated to be held in an aircraft hangar open on one side — would be delayed by a week or two.
The New Hampshire event had been scheduled after aides spent weeks studying what went wrong at Trump’s last rally — a sparsely attended event in Tulsa three weeks ago. That was meant to be a massive, defiant return to the political stage but instead produced a sea of empty seats and questions about the campaign’s ability to attract people to large events in a pandemic.
“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,” Trump tweeted. “Stay safe, we will be there soon!”
Trump opened his Florida visit at U.S. Southern Command, where he got a briefing and spoke about U.S. counternarcotics operations.
He also attended a roundtable in nearby Doral to show support for Venezuelan expatriates seeking the ouster of Nicholas Maduro, and is scheduled to attend an evening campaign fundraiser in Hillsboro Beach, Florida.
At the campaign-organized event focusing on Venezuela, Trump criticized former President Barack Obama’s efforts to lift some sanctions against Cuba and warned that the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, would take a similar approach and even embrace socialism domestically.
Trump reversed some but not all of Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, an ally of the Maduro regime.
“Republicans are the party of freedom and Democrats are the party of socialism and worse,” Trump said.
Saturday’s New Hampshire event was to mark Trump’s first political rally after a multiweek pause caused by a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases.
Even before the storm threat emerged, campaign officials had acknowledged that it was unclear how many people would attend the New Hampshire rally. Conceding that another sparse crowd would raise questions about the future of Trump’s rallies, the campaign had taken additional steps to make attendees feel safe.
Rain was forecast for early Saturday in Portsmouth, and rally-goers often gather hours ahead of the event to get a good view of the president. For the rally’s scheduled start time Saturday evening, Weather.com forecast the weather would be partly cloudy with a 15% chance of rain.
There was strong opposition to Trump’s rally among some prominent New Hampshire Republicans. Judd Gregg, who previously served New Hampshire both as a governor and senator, bluntly called Trump’s appearance “a mistake.”
“New Hampshire has been extremely aggressive under the governor in containing the virus,” Gregg said in an interview with The Associated Press, confirming that he had not planned to attend either. “People are concerned about folks bringing the problem to us.”
Trump, trailing in the polls, is eager to signal that normal life can resume despite a rampaging virus that has killed more than 130,000 Americans.
His visit to Florida takes him to terrain where COVID-19’S surge threatens his hold on a must-win state and raises questions about Republican aims to hold their nominating convention in Jacksonville next month.
Unlike the rally in Tulsa, which was held indoors where the virus more easily circulates, the rally in Portsmouth was to be partially outdoors, held in an airplane hangar open on one side with the crowd spilling out onto the tarmac before Air Force One.