Trump caves to the coronavirus reality — yet again — in a particularly personal way
At a White House news conference, Trump announced that the portion of the convention that had been abruptly moved from Charlotte, to Jacksonville, Fla., just last month will be canceled. He acknowledged it was dangerous to ask people to gather in-person in such large numbers — just like North Carolina had indicated was its hang-up about giving him free rein.
“I looked at my team and I said the timing for this event is not right — just not right with what’s happened recently,” Trump claimed. “The flare-up in Florida to have a big convention is not the right time. It’s really something that for me — I have to protect the American people. That’s what I’ve always done. That’s what I always will do. That’s what I’m about.”
Trump’s repeated claim at the news conference that this was his initiative is highly dubious — especially given he’s lagged behind health advisers when it comes to how to handle such gatherings during the outbreak, and given GOP allies have previously raised doubts about the Jacksonville convention. Trump opted to hold a rally in Oklahoma last month despite national health officials like Anthony S. Fauci and local health officials cautioning against putting people in arenas. The overwhelmingly mask-less scene was a preview of potential things to come. Trump has increasingly urged masks — which he had resisted for months — but packed arenas is just not something we’ve really seen outside of what happened in Tulsa. And there is evidence that it contributed to an uptick in cases in Oklahoma.
But more than that for Trump, it’s a telling capitulation.
Even when Trump announced the move — when Florida was, at the time, dealing with a much smaller outbreak, and the country was on a better trajectory — there was much skepticism about the ability to actually pull it off.
Trump, though, plowed forward, decrying Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper for not allowing him the latitude he wanted to pack crowds.
“Had long planned to have the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, a place I love,” Trump tweeted June 2. “Now, @NC_Governor Roy Cooper and his representatives refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena.”
Trump added at another point: “We would be spending millions of dollars building the arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space.”
Vice President Pence soon added, in response to Trump’s tweet: “There are states around the country … we think of Texas, we think of Florida, Georgia — the last two states I visited last week that have made tremendous progress on reopening their communities and reopening their economies.”
The idea that Trump would demand full capacity so recently now seems quaint. But it’s also indicative of his approach to the virus. He has consistently suggested it’s not as bad as the experts say and that the media’s warnings about the deteriorating situation are overblown. His efforts to push through that and continue to hold rallies — which he holds so dear for the adulation they involve — epitomized his posture.
His retreat earlier this month on holding an event in New Hampshire presaged what we see today. The White House very questionably blamed it on a weather pattern that allegedly endangered the state. It’s safe to say Trump’s announcement Thursday betrays the real reason.
It also betrays the continually overly optimistic posture of a president who has repeatedly been dragged into a more serious and reality-based response to the threat.
One wonders how many times that has to happen before he’ll heed the warnings of the health officials he’s made a point to disregard and occasionally undermine. Having to cancel an event he clearly thirsted for would sure seem to be a reality check, but such reality checks haven’t always been perceived as such by the president.
