WASHINGTON -- Like so much else in President Donald Trump's life, it was a decision shaped by financial considerations and, in the end, the hotel business.Trump's abrupt cancellation of the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida -- a big celebration in a battleground state that
WASHINGTON — Like so much else in President Donald Trump’s life, it was a decision shaped by financial considerations and, in the end, the hotel business.
There were other urgent factors involved in the decision, including the health of party officials and delegates coming from across the country, and Trump’s sinking political standing, which was largely attributable to months of inattentiveness to the virus.
The party on Friday was also looking for a new location where it could build a stage and host some of the planned convention programming, including Trump’s acceptance speech Aug. 27, which he still plans to give. State Sen. Rob Bradley, a member of the RNC host committee in Jacksonville, acknowledged on Friday that organizers were facing deadlines from major vendors, including hotels.
But most of the president’s top political advisers, worried that the safety risks from the virus could cause the event to backfire, were in favor of canceling the entire four-day affair in Florida. Trump, officials said, was leaning toward changing his mind by Wednesday. That night, McDaniel, Stepien and Miller had a follow-up conversation among themselves and agreed that it seemed likely that the president would decide to shut it down after all and began preparing for that outcome. But many of them have been operating in Trump’s orbit long enough to know that nothing is settled until the president himself makes his decision public.
In the end, though, the dissolution of Trump’s convention was the latest example of the president bowing to the realities of a health crisis that shows no signs of abating, and the limits of his abilities to bend events to his will.
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