2020
ELECTIONS
How Trump went from a massive convention bash to
no party at all
The about-face indicates that the president finally
realizes how serious the coronavirus problem is — for the country and his
reelection prospects.
By ALEX
ISENSTADT, MATT DIXON and GARY FINEOUT
07/23/2020
09:57 PM EDT
On
Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump convened his top political advisers,
including campaign manager Bill Stepien and Republican National Committee
Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, for a conference call to consider a move that would
have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago: Cancel his party’s upcoming
convention in Jacksonville, Fla.
By Thursday
afternoon, with coronavirus raging in the state, the president who all year
envisioned a boisterous send-off to the final months of his reelection
campaign, had made up his mind: It was a no-go.
It was a
stunning reversal for an optics-obsessed president, who'd been so adamant about
a massive convention that he moved it from Charlotte, N.C. to Florida to ensure
it would happen.
But for
Trump, who for months has resisted pleas to take the virus seriously, the
decision reflected a sudden shift in posture. Over the past week, the president
has resuscitated his coronavirus briefings, urged people to wear masks and
conceded that the virus would “probably, unfortunately, get worse before it
gets better.”
Indeed, by
Thursday the president had come to terms with pulling the plug, not betraying
anger or irritation at being forced to retreat, according to a person familiar
with his dealings on the matter.
“The
president made the right decision. With 10,000 new cases daily [in Florida], it
was clear a decision had to be made. It’s not good for his politics,” said
Brian Ballard, a veteran Republican lobbyist and Trump ally who had been
raising money for the convention. “It would have been good for him to have been
broadcast live from Jacksonville for three nights, but he made the decision
that was best for all involved. Not sure what’s next, but this was right call.”
Deliberations
about canceling the convention accelerated in the 36 hours prior to Trump’s announcement
in the White House briefing room Thursday, a person familiar with the
discussions said. The president told reporters covering the latest of his
just-revived coronavirus briefings that it wasn’t “the right time" to hold
a "big, crowded convention."
But behind
the scenes, senior Republicans had been considering the possibility of forgoing
an in-person event for the months. Even before deciding to move the convention
from Charlotte to Jacksonville last month, party officials considered the
prospect of scrapping it. As coronavirus cases spiked around the country, they
considered an array of options for how to stage Trump’s coronation safely, even
as the president and the party plowed ahead with fundraising and planning for
Jacksonville.
Pulling it
off even in the best of times would be a staggering task. Normally, a party
spends years planning a convention; Republicans had just two months to collect
the $20 to $25 million needed, and tapped a veteran party fundraiser, Jeff
Miller, to help them do it. But money would turn out to be the easy part
compared to figuring out the sheer logistics of holding a convention during a
pandemic.
After
huddling with Trump in the White House last week, organizers settled on a plan
to shrink the event. Only delegates and a guest of their choosing would be
allowed to attend Trump’s Aug. 27 nomination speech, McDaniel wrote in a letter
to RNC members.
McDaniel
made four trips to Jacksonville to chart plans, most recently two weeks ago.
Her staff would shuttle to Florida weekly.
Tony
Sayegh, a former Treasury Department official helped to steer the White House
impeachment defense, was tapped to help with programming for the four-day
event.
But as
planning intensified, so were discussions about shutting down the celebration.
Coronavirus cases were spiking in the Jacksonville area. And by this week,
convention officials were confronting another growing problem: Security.
“As we're
talking today, we are still not close to having some kind of plan that we can
work with that makes me comfortable that we're going to keep that event and the
community safe,” Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams told POLITICO Monday
explaining his reasons for not providing law enforcement.
Republican
officials remained confident they could pull the convention off and raise the
money needed. But Trump was growing warmer to the possibility of putting the
kibosh on it. He hinted at his forthcoming decision Tuesday, telling reporters
that “Florida is in a little tough, or a big tough, position.”
By
Wednesday evening, he was placing calls to confidantes raising the idea of
canceling. He finally pulled the trigger Thursday afternoon began informing
close associates of his decision.
The tipping
point, aides said, was an acknowledgment of the overwhelming health risks.
Florida has surpassed 10,000 new coronavirus cases nearly every day for at
least two weeks. On Thursday, the state Department of Health reported a record
173 new deaths. The state’s positivity rate, which hasn't dipped below 10
percent for a month and hit more than 12 percent Thursday.
Hoping to
keep the news from leaking and knowing Trump wanted to break the news himself, aides
kept a tight circle of people involved in the deliberations. Organizers on the
ground in Florida said they first heard of the decision when Trump went on TV
Thursday. Donors were also caught off guard.
Senior
Republican were plainly relieved. They no longer have to scramble to put a
massive event together in the face of a pandemic.
But more
importantly, the announcement showed that Trump finally understood that his
blasé approach to the pandemic was dragging down his reelection hopes.
Organizers
say they're weighing alternative plans for the late-August convention,
including whether it will be in an all-virtual format. Like Democrats, they are
planning to have four nights of programming.
Regardless
of his decision to scrap the convention, Democrats signaled they intend to make
Trump’s coronavirus response central to their general election message.
“I’m glad
Donald Trump took his head out of the sand long enough to realize what a
predictable, preventable disaster he was about to inflict on the city of
Jacksonville,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo said in a statement.
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