Trump Announces Cancellation of Republican National Convention in Jacksonville: ‘The Timing is Not Right’

The Republican National Convention, which was moved from Charlotte to Jacksonsville to combat state guidelines around Covid-19, will be cancelled, President Donald Trump announced in a press briefing Thursday.

“I told my team it’s time to cancel the Jacksonville, Florida, component of the GOP Convention,” Trump said Thursday afternoon.

Trump said the Republican National Convention will consist of tele-rallies and more components not in-person that haven’t been decided yet. His decision comes a day after the Washington Post reported Trump’s company applied for a trademark for the word “telerally.”

Trump began threatening to move the convention away from North Carolina in May because the state couldn’t fully guarantee the capacity — in 2016, 50,000 people attended the event. He even called out Gov. Roy Cooper on Twitter for his Covid-19 restrictions then.

Prior to Florida’s recent surge in cases, Republican picked Jacksonville because the state would allow for massive crowds during the coronavirus pandemic, under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) reopening plan. Still, some low-profile meetings connected to the RNC were expected to take place in North Carolina.

“This afternoon my political team came to me and laid out our plans for the convention in Jacksonville, Florida,” Trump said. “It’s a place I love — I love that state. The drawings look absolutely beautiful, I never thought we could had something that could look so good so fast with everything going on. Everything was going well, a tremendous list of speakers. Thousands of people wanting to be there, in some cases desperately be there.”

“The timing is not right, just not right with what happened recently with a flare up in Florida,” Trump said. “…I have to protect the American people and that’s something I will always do and that’s what I’m about.”

In the last few weeks, Jacksonville required an indoor mask-wearing mandate and increased their restrictions as Covid-19 spread in the area. Over the last week, Florida has averaged around 10,000 new cases a day.

“The GOP convention will be starting in North Carolina for the Monday, that has always been planned,” Trump said. “That’s remaining as it is where they do the nomination.”

“I think we’ll do it well,” Trump continued. “I’ll still do a convention speech in a different form, but we won’t do a big crowded convention per-say, it’s just not the right time for that. ”

Watch above, via Fox News.