COVID-19 has claimed yet another death. This time, it’s the Donald Trump Convention in Jacksonville, Florida.
Politics
Not long ago, Trump heckled Democrats for canceling the huge convention they had planned for Milwaukee (due to COVID-19) and replacing it with a much smaller and mostly “virtual” convention in a smaller venue. He also chided Joe Biden as weak for his penchant to always wear a mask. According to ‘The Donald,’ the coronavirus and masks be damned. His GOP convention in Charlotte, North Carolina was going to be “the biggest” and “the greatest,” while the Democrats were going to be looked at as a political laughing stock.
Although Trump was willing to ignore the threat of the ongoing pandemic in order to get his ego stroked by tens of thousands of adoring GOP fans crammed into a single arena, Gov. Roy Cooper of NC (a Democrat) was not. The governor followed the law and put the same limitations on Trump and the Republicans that he did on any large gathering inside his state. Needless to say, the narcissistic Trump was pissed for not being given his way.
.
Had long planned to have the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, a place I love. Now, @NC_Governor Roy Cooper and his representatives refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena – Spend millions of dollars, have everybody arrive, and…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2020
Unwilling to be outdone, Donald Trump took his “marbles” and ran — to Jacksonville, Florida — where GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis granted ‘The Donald’ permission to do any and everything he wanted in the Sunshine State.
.
However, Florida quickly became the new epicenter of COVID-19, setting a record with more than 400,000 cases, nearly 6,000 deaths, and a staggering 173 deaths in a single day. Soon thereafter, several high profile Republican members of Congress began announcing their intentions to pull out of the Trump Convention. Then, various state delegations announced they too would skip the convention altogether. For Trump, his whopping good-time convention in Jacksonville with the massive crowds he had dreamed of was about to become the Tulsa disaster Part 2.
Fearful of having egg on his face with yet another embarrassing and lackluster crowd, ‘The Donald’ was finally forced to do the unthinkable: he canceled the Trump Convention in Jacksonville.
“I looked at my team and I said the timing for this event is not right. It’s just not right,” Trump said last week. “To have a big convention, it’s not the right time.”
“There’s nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe,” Trump added.
Yeah, right.
.
“Trump has desperately wanted to make sure that Republicans can convene a grand convention on the scale of what other incumbents have enjoyed in the past. He thirsts for a celebration of his term and the public confirmation that he is as successful as he says.” – Julian Zelizer, CNN
Now, the Republican National Committee is left scrambling to figure out some sort of makeshift virtual event in time for their scheduled convention on August 24th. Now, Republican donors are seething mad that nearly all of the $38 million they raised for the Trump Convention has been squandered after Donald Trump canceled the NC convention, booked a new one in Florida, and then canceled that one, too. Now, the Trump team is searching not only for a new stage for their boss to accept his party’s nomination for a 2nd term, but also a way to appease Republicans who have nothing to show for their donations.
“This is the cancel culture run wild,” said one angry top Republican donor.
“I am livid and profoundly disappointed at the convention being canceled,” the donor said. “It should be further scaled down.”
Additionally, delegates who made travel arrangements for Charlotte and then changed them to Jacksonville have now lost money — again. Thanks, Donald!
At this late date, Republican planners now have no idea how they will be able to deliver a convention with the type of pomp and pageantry that Trump craves. All they know is that a dramatically scaled-down number of GOP delegates will attend a meeting in Charlotte to nominate Trump, and that’s it. Officials say other events will not be held in NC and they have no idea how or where they will stage a convention up to Trump’s brass standards.
So much for Donald Trump’s stubbornness by throwing a tantrum to have his way. So much for making fun of Democrats for creating a virtual convention that the GOP is now scrambling to create themselves in a matter of weeks.
Karma wins again!
I think it was Einstein that said lunacy is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. That has been Trump the past few months with the virus. Somebody must have got to him and told him he had to change or he was going to lose. He was about to look stupid again when nobody showed up to his convention he made for Florida too. I know he is doing it for selfish reasons but if Trump can get people to start wearing masks that would be a real good deed.