Trump says tropical storm reason why NH rally postponed
Tropical Storm Fay – which brought heavy rains to the Northeast on Friday - has already upended the weekend plans of at least one prominent American: President Trump.
A campaign rally set for Trump on Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire has been postponed by a "week or two" due to the storm, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Friday and Trump confirmed in a tweet.
But while the storm is expected to bring rain and gusty winds to southern New Hampshire early on Saturday, it will have weakened and moved out of the area by the afternoon, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.
Trump’s rally was scheduled for the evening.
The Trump campaign’s communications director said that the rally had been postponed for safety reasons because of the storm.
Trump has held a series of events recently with large crowds despite warnings from public health professionals about the dangers of big gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
A Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month likely contributed to a rise in the number of coronavirus cases there, a local health official said this week.
Trump is trying to reboot his struggling re-election campaign amid sliding poll numbers, a pandemic that has killed over 130,000 Americans, its subsequent economic fallout and a national uproar over racial inequalities.
Earlier on Friday, Trump commented on the storm before boarding a plane to Florida.
“Tropical Storm Fay is probably going to be hitting a place called New Jersey, a good place, pretty soon. So we, we are on the watch. We are fully prepared. FEMA is ready in case it's bad - shouldn't be too bad but you never know.”
Coastal areas of Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania have also been affected.
