US President Donald Trump has said he intended to deliver his Republican nomination acceptance speech from the White House, according to a media report.
Trump, 75, is seeking re-election from the Republican party. Having won the Republican, also known as GOP (Grand Old Party), primaries with historic margins, he will formally be nominated by the party through its virtual convention later this month.
The convention was initially scheduled to be held in Charlotte in North Carolina but was later moved to Jacksonville in Florida, only to be cancelled again because of rising cases of the novel coronavirus.
Both the Democratic convention, where his challenger Joe Biden, 77, would be formally nominated on August 20, and the Republican convention will be held online. Biden is scheduled to deliver his nomination acceptance speech from Delaware.
In an interview to The New York Post on Thursday, Trump said he intends to give his Republican National Convention speech from the White House lawn.
"I'll probably be giving my speech at the White House because it is a great place. It’s a place that makes me feel good, it makes the country feel good,” Trump told the Post and added that it would also be easy for law enforcement agencies and the Secret Service.
“We’d do it possibly outside on one of the lawns, we have various lawns, so we could have it outside in terms of the China virus,” Trump told the daily as he referred to the social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic.
When asked if he had formally accepted the Republican nomination for president with a crowd of supporters, he said, "We could have quite a group of people. It’s very big, a very big lawn. We could have a big group of people."
The speech is expected to be delivered on August 27, according to US media reports.
According to The Hill, Trump originally suggested the idea of making the speech at the White House earlier this month, saying that was “probably” where he would give it.
“But the announcement sparked a backlash from critics and some Republicans, who suggested it may violate the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of federal employees while on duty,” it said.
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