US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he might give his acceptance speech for a second term nomination from the White House, a breach of longtime tradition.
“We’re thinking about it. It would be the easiest from the standpoint of security,” Trump told Fox News.
The August 27 speech, the biggest formal moment in the candidate’s campaign for a second term in office, was originally planned for a mass gathering of Republican Party faithful in Charlotte, North Carolina.
That had to be scrapped due to the coronavirus lockdown, as did a bid to restage the event at a new location in Florida.
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Incumbent presidents are required to separate their campaigning from taxpayer-funded governing, so it would be at minimum a break with decorum to use the iconic White House as the stage for the acceptance speech.
Trump said on Fox News that logistics and costs were his primary concern.
“It’s a very big operation,” he said. “We’re thinking about doing it from the White House because there’s no movement. It’s easy. And I think it’s a beautiful setting.”
It’s “by far the least expensive from the country standpoint,” he said.
Trump however added that “if for some reason if someone had difficulty with it, I could go somewhere else.”
Republican delegates will meet in a scaled-back session in Charlotte to nominate Trump on August 24.
AFP