US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump is reportedly planning to have a presence at each of the four days of the Republican convention this coming week.
Following the Democratic virtual extravaganza earlier this week, the GOP will also be holding much of the convention remotely.
Despite this, the party is promising that the “official business” will be conducted in the host city of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The main businesses will of course be nominating Trump as the party’s candidate in the upcoming election. That formality is due to take place on Thursday.
Much of the build up to the Republican convention has focused on where and how Trump would accept the nomination.
The president had said he had “narrowed down” the location of his acceptance speech to either the White House or the Gettysburg battlefield.
Both symbolic locations had given rise to ethical questions over the president using federal property for political events.
The president is not covered by the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by nearly all federal employees, but White House and other federal officials supporting the event are.
Earlier this week Trump confirmed that he would not be going to Gettysburg to deliver the speech and would instead accept the nomination from the White House.
Of the speech, Trump said he would be “doing it live” on Thursday and that: “It’ll be Thursday night – it’ll be at the White House on the South Lawn.”
While that will be on the fourth day of the convention, Politico reports that Trump plans a presence each of the four days of the convention, “either by video or through an appearance by one of his family members”.
Unlike the Democrats, who announced the keynote speakers on each night of the convention a week ahead of the event, the 2020 GOP Convention website has been slow to list who’ll be speaking each night.
In fact, CNBC said as of last week that a spokesman for the Republican National Committee did not respond to questions from the network about the who the speakers will be on the convention schedule
CNBC nonetheless reports that speakers will include Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday and “several of Trump’s adult children”, and his wife Melania, on Tuesday.
It’s thought that much of the secrecy surrounding the Republican speakers is due to organisers waiting to see how the Democratic convention played out before finalising their own schedule.
Politico reports that Trump aides have been keen to give more airtime to more “normal” speakers who are not involved in politics.
It follows the appearance by Kristin Urquiza at the Democratic convention who blamed Donald Trump for the death of her 65-year-old father from Covid-19.
Similar emotive guesses are being planned by Republicans including Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was killed in a Florida school shooting; Abby Johnson, a former director at Planned Parenthood who has become an opponent of abortion; and Nick Sandmann, a student who sued media outlets after footage of a confrontation with a Native American activist
Other so-called normal speakers are reportedly Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the Missouri couple who drew guns during a Black Lives Matter protest near their home.
Much like the Democrats this week, the convention should be easy to follow via various live streams.
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