MIAMI: President
Donald Trump
is postponing his planned rally Saturday in
New Hampshire
,
the White House
said, citing a tropical storm threatening parts of the mid-Atlantic and southern New England.
Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters traveling to Florida with the president on Friday that the event slated to be held in an aircraft hangar in Portsmouth would be delayed by a week or two. She cited the threat of Tropical Storm Fay, which is expected to bring rain to the region.
“The rally scheduled for Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire has been postponed for safety reasons because of Tropical Storm Fay,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement.”It will be rescheduled and a new date will be announced soon.”
The event was to mark Trump’s first political rally after a multiweek hiatus caused by a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases and after his planned comeback in Oklahoma turned into a debacle.
Trump, trailing in the polls, is eager to signal that normal life can resume despite a rampaging virus that has killed more than 130,000 Americans. He is to hold his first in-person fundraiser in a month on Friday in Florida.
The Portsmouth rally was scheduled after aides spent weeks studying what went wrong in Tulsa three weeks ago. It was billed as a massive, defiant return to the political stage but instead produced a humiliating sea of empty seats and quest