New York: With elections looming just 21 week away, President Donald Trump is planning to hold rallies again this month in a move to boost his sagging support.
Trump will be holding “full rallies” with safety precautions, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told a Fox News TV programme on Tuesday.
She said that he could resume his rallies now that states are relaxing restrictions that were imposed to combat COVID-19, but did not say when he would.
Politico said that the rallies could start as soon as two weeks.
It quoted Trump’s campaign chief Brad Parscale as saying, “Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump. The great American comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous. You’ll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of.”
Biden, a former vice president who will be the Democratic presidential candidate, is leading Trump by 8 percentage points according to the latest aggregation of poll numbers by RealClear Politics.
He has consistently led Trump in the RealClear Politics averaging of major polls with his lead fluctuating between 4.4 per cent and 8 per cent since January.
Of the so-called battleground states, which can swing either way, Trump is expected to concentrate on six of them, which he won in 2016 but where he is now trailing Biden.
Trump is in his elements at the massive rallies he addresses and his fiery – and down-to-earth – oratory are his strongest bet to draw votes. But COVID-19 — which he calls the “China Virus” — has bottled him up for about 90 days.
A man with an obsession for superlatives, Trump boasts of the 100,000 attendance at the “Namaste Trump” rally in Ahmedabad in February, although probably only a handful of audience were American voters.
McDaniel said that there would be temperature checks and other safety precautions similar to those proposed for holding the party’s convention in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Holding of the convention at which Trump would be formally anointed as the party’s presidential candidate is up in the air because Roy Cooper, the Democratic governor of North Carolina, has refused to say whether because of the COVID-19 restrictions he would allow it to be held in Charlotte as planned.
The RNC had said it was expecting 50,000 people for its convention and is looking at alternative sites.
Not being able to hold the convention, a national tradition that gets three days of national attention and TV time, or scaling it down will be a set-back for Trump to get his message out.
The Democrats, who have been cautious about loosening the pandemic restrictions and criticised Trump for advocating restarting the economy and society, have yet to decide if they will hold the convention scheduled for August in Milwaukee. But they have made provisions in their rules for virtual voting by convention delegates to formally nominate Biden as the party candidate.
If Trump holds rallies, it will create a dilemma for Democrats, who oppose a full opening of the country but will have to counter Trump.
But the tens of thousands of its supporters who have participated in the protests against police brutality have flouted social distancing – and even mask – guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19, which may make strictly holding on to them for the convention moot.
Trump initially had a propaganda advantage after suspending his campaign rallies in March because he held centre-stage in the daily briefings on the coronavirus crisis along with experts.
But the briefings are now only held intermittently.
Trump’s campaign web site has not listed any live events as of Tuesday, but has schedules for virtual meetings but none mentioned Trump’s participation.
When Trump holds his rallies, he will face several logistical problems such as how to maintain social distancing among the tens of thousands of his supporters.
