华盛顿——在坚持共和党全国代表大会将如期举行数月之后，总统唐纳德·特朗普正在慢慢地接受这一事实，即八月下旬的活动将不是他所期待的四晚竞选电视广告。
地点改变后，扣球冠状病毒案件和严重的经济衰退，特朗普的助手和盟友越来越怀疑这是否值得麻烦，一些人主张完全废除该公约。大会旨在展示候选人对未来四年的愿景，而不是引发数月的勾心斗角健康和与会者的安全。
最终，是否前进的决定将由特朗普自己做出。
2020年的活动已经发生了地点变化——从北卡罗莱纳州的夏洛特市转移到了佛罗里达州杰克逊维尔更有利于特朗普的地区——而且范围已经大幅缩小。由于技术原因，大会将无法正式通过新的政党纲领。通常大会的一大亮点——各州提名总统的点名——将在原主办城市通过代理投票进行。
尽管如此，特朗普和他的助手们还是寄希望于在杰克逊维尔举办一场盛大的正式接受演讲，设想一个挤满支持者、没有面具的舞台。从表面上看，白宫和RNC已经表示，他们正全力推进修订后的计划。
白宫新闻秘书凯丽·麦克纳尼上周说:“我们仍在继续推进杰克逊维尔的计划。”“这将是一个安全的事件。这将是一件好事。”
但私下里，人们越来越担心，计划正在起草中，以进一步缩减活动规模，甚至将其完全虚拟化。几周前，官员们认为该会议是庆祝国家战胜病毒的活动，现在他们把它视为大流行持续存在的有力象征。
“有很多人想这么做。他们想要热情。但是我们可以做到，我们可以安全地做到，”唐纳德·特朗普Jr .说。他告诉福克斯新闻频道的“周日早间期货”说，“这将是一个令人敬畏的事件。”
杰克逊维尔市市长是前佛罗里达州共和党主席。两周前，随着该地区病毒病例激增，该市发布了一项公共口罩令。在大会召开之前，这一授权不太可能取消。此外，佛罗里达州将全州范围内的设施限制在50%的运行能力。
组织者现在计划每天向所有与会者提供COVID-19测试，进行频繁的温度检查，并提供面部覆盖物。即便如此，特朗普的助手和盟友担心，整个场面将被与会者的担忧以及媒体对大会可能成为“超级传播”事件的高度关注所掩盖。
关于此次活动的关键决定，包括特朗普将出现在哪里或是否出现，都需要在未来几天内做出，以便有足够的时间进行空间拓展。
助手们越来越多地敦促特朗普将他的获奖感言搬到户外，以最大限度地降低病毒传播的风险。但特朗普对户外场馆表示保留，认为它缺乏与充满活力的竞技场相同的氛围。
尽管经济不景气，共和党官员坚称他们将拥有召开大会所需的财政资源。副总统迈克·彭斯周六飞往佛罗里达州为该活动举行一次资金筹集活动。
RNC发言人迈克里德说:“大会还有一个半月的时间，所以有时间来调整和作出最适当的决定，关于地点的选择和一系列的健康预防措施，将使我们有一个安全和令人兴奋的活动为所有人。”“在接下来的几周里，我们将继续与杰克逊维尔和佛罗里达州的当地领导进行协调。”
在因病毒导致的三个月中断后，总统尴尬地重返竞选集会，这加剧了特朗普团队的担忧。他在俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨的集会上的空座位给特朗普的竞选活动带来了震动，并重新引发了人们的担忧，即总统将无法在11月选举日之前以传统形式重返他的标志性竞选活动。
周六在新罕布什尔州举行的集会本应是总统第二次尝试重返竞选旅行，但周五被取消，表面上是因为当时的天气问题——热带风暴“费伊”。但助手们承认，他们也担心吸引足够多的人来填满朴茨茅斯飞机库。
杰克逊维尔的挑战可能更加艰巨。当被问及大会是否能安全举行时，政府高级卫生官员表示反对。该党的许多领导人和参加会议的捐赠者年龄较大，这使他们成为冠状病毒的高危人群。
已经有六名共和党参议员表示他们不会参加大会。就连肯塔基州参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔也表达了保留意见。
上周，86岁的爱荷华州参议员查克·格拉斯利在与爱荷华州记者的电话会议上说:“我不会去，也不会因为病毒的情况而去。”
当被问及如果该州的冠状病毒病例继续上升，他是否会限制集会，特朗普回答说，这个决定“真的取决于时间。”
“我们总是在关注不同的事情，”特朗普在接受格雷电视台的采访时表示，“全场紧逼格蕾塔·范·苏斯滕。”
总统继续说:“当我们几个星期前签署时，它看起来很好。”“而现在，突然之间，它又上升了一点点。这种情况会持续下去。这真的取决于时间。我们非常灵活。”
It's Trump's call on what the GOP convention will look like
WASHINGTON -- After months of insisting that the Republican National Convention go off as scheduled despite the pandemic, PresidentDonald Trumpis slowly coming to accept that the late August event will not be the four-night infomercial for his reelection that he had anticipated.
After a venue change, spikingcoronaviruscases and a sharp recession, Trump aides and allies are increasingly questioning whether it’s worth the trouble, and some are advocating that the convention be scrapped altogether. Conventions are meant to lay out a candidate’s vision for the coming four years, not spark months of intrigue over thehealthand safety of attendees, they have argued.
Ultimately, the decision on whether to move forward will be Trump’s alone.
Already the 2020 event has seen a venue change –- to more Trump-friendly territory in Jacksonville, Florida, from Charlotte, North Carolina -- and it has been drastically reduced in scope. For technical reasons, the convention will be unable to formally adopt a new party platform. And what is normally a highlight of the convention — the roll call of the states to renominate the president — is set to be conducted through proxy votes in the original host city.
Still, Trump and his aides had pinned their hopes on creating the pageantry of a formal acceptance speech in Jacksonville, envisioning an arena of packed with supporters, without face masks. Outwardly, the White House and the RNC have said they’re full-steam ahead with the revised plan.
“We’re still moving forward with Jacksonville,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last week. “It’ll be a safe event. It will be a good event.”
But privately, concerns are mounting, and plans are being drawn up to further scale back the event or even shift it to entirely virtual. Officials who weeks ago had looked for the convention to be a celebration of the nation’s vanquishing of the virus now see it as a potent symbol of the pandemic’s persistence.
“There's a lot of people that want to do it. They want to be enthusiastic. But we can do that and we can do it safely,”Donald TrumpJr. said. He told Fox News Channel's “Sunday Morning Futures” that “it’s going to be an awesome event.”
Jacksonville, whose mayor is a former Florida Republican Party chairman, issued a public mask order two weeks ago as virus cases in the area surged. That mandate is unlikely to be lifted before the convention. Also, Florida has limited facilities statewide to operating at 50% of capacity.
Organizers now plan to provide COVID-19 testing to all attendees daily, conduct frequent temperature checks and offer face coverings. Even so, Trump aides and allies fear that the entire spectacle will be overshadowed by attendee concerns and already heightened media scrutiny on the potential for the convention to be a “super-spreading” event.
Key decisions about the event, including precisely where or if Trump will appear, need to be made in the coming days to allow sufficient time for the build-out of the space.
Increasingly, aides are pushing Trump to move his acceptance speech outdoors to minimize the risk of virus transmission. But Trump has expressed reservations about an outdoor venue, believing it would lack the same atmosphere as a charged arena.
Despite the economic downturn, GOP officials insist they will have the financial resources needed to hold the convention. Vice President Mike Pence flew to Florida on Saturday to hold a fundraiser for the event.
“The convention is still a month and a half away, so there is time to adjust and make the most appropriate decisions regarding venue options and an array of health precautions that will allow us to have a safe and exciting event for all,” RNC spokesman Mike Reed said. “We will continue to coordinate with local leadership in Jacksonville and in Florida in the weeks ahead.”
The Trump team’s worries were compounded after the president’s embarrassing return to campaign rallies after a three-month hiatus caused by the virus. The empty seats at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, brought about a shakeup to Trump’s campaign and renewed fears that the president would not be able to return to his signature campaign events in their traditional form before Election Day in November.
A Saturday rally in New Hampshire that was meant to be the president’s second attempt at a return to campaign travel was called off on Friday, ostensibly because of weather concerns from then-Tropical Storm Fay. But aides acknowledged they also were worried about attracting enough of a crowd to fill the Portsmouth aircraft hangar.
The challenge in Jacksonville may be more daunting. The administration’s top health officials have demurred when pressed on whether the convention could be held safely. Many among the party's leadership and the donors who attend conventions are older, putting them in a higher-risk category for the coronavirus.
Already a half-dozen Republican senators have indicated they won’t attend the convention. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has expressed reservations.
“I’m not going to go, and I’m not going to go because of the virus situation,” 86-year-old Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on a conference call with Iowa reporters last week.
Asked whether he’d want to limit the gathering if the state’s coronavirus cases continue to rise, Trump replied that the decision “really depends on the timing.”
“We’re always looking at different things,” Trump said during an interview on Gray Television’s “Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren.”
“When we signed a few weeks ago, it looked good,” the president continued. “And now, all of a sudden, it’s spiking up a little bit. And that’s going to go down. It really depends on the timing. Look, we’re very flexible.”
