US President Donald Trump has postponed a campaign rally scheduled for New Hampshire on Saturday, citing the looming Tropical Storm Fay, according to the White House.
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the event would be delayed “a week or two”.
It would be Trump’s second campaign rally amid the coronavirus pandemic, following the June 20 Tulsa rally with around 6,200 people showing up.
Gathering his political faithful at a much-hyped rally in Oklahoma, the Republican president sought to reinvigorate his flagging campaign in the face of a crushing health and economic crisis as well as protests against racial injustice that have swept the nation in recent weeks.
Trump was eager to reopen the economy and resume political campaigning even as coronavirus cases have started to rise again, with record increases reported earlier this week in Oklahoma, Texas, and Oregon.
The rally has been controversial not just because of the virus risk. Originally it was scheduled on June 19 — the Juneteenth commemoration of the end of slavery in the US — in a city known for one of the deadliest-ever massacres of African Americans.
Earlier, Trump’s re-election campaign had said in a statement that Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden has “had to adopt most of Bernie’s agenda” — policies that Trump has branded socialist.
Tropical storm Fay is soaking the US East Coast and is expected to make landfall on Friday or overnight, according to local media reports.