DONALD Trump revealed that he’s considering Gettysburg or the White House as venues for his presidential nomination acceptance speech.
On Monday, Trump said he’ll address people from his Washington DC abode or the historic battlefield instead of an arena.
Reports indicate he hoped for a four-day infomercial for his reelection bid, plans which were scuppered by the coronavirus crisis.
Last month, Trump decided to cancel nearly all of the in-person proceedings.
Recently, his aides have been on the lookout for an alternative that could provide some pomp amid the ongoing pandemic.
“We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations – The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, DC,” he tweeted.
Trump said they’ll reach a decision about the August 27 very soon as the US presidential election looms.
However, this has raised legal and ethical issues when it comes to their political use because both are federally-owned property.
Trump isn’t covered by the Hatch Act.
This legislation bans political activity by nearly all federal employees – but White House and other federal officials supporting the event are covered by the act.
The Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania would also appear to be a nod to Trump’s defense of the Confederate monuments being torn down during the George Floyd protests.
Trump held his July 4 event at the National Mall in 2019 and one at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota this year.
In May, he was interviewed by Fox News inside the Lincoln Memorial, which needed special dispensation from his appointed secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt.
Gettysburg is the site of the deadliest battle of the Civil War and inspired President Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”
The battle ended General Robert E. Lee’s second invasion of the North. Often and is often referred to as the “High Water Mark of the Rebellion.”
Trump has repeatedly opposed efforts to remove displays of the Confederate battle flag, however.
The Republican National Convention was initially slated for Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Trump then moved it to Jacksonville, Florida, in June – but as a wave of new coronavirus cases swept The Sun Belt and the midwestern states, he was forced to cancel it.
Most of the convention will be conducted virtually bar a formal renomination vote on August 24 in Charlotte.
There, a few hundred delegates will cast proxy votes for those unable to be there as a result of COVID-19.