The president, who has pressured other Democratic governors to reopen their states, singled out Gov. Roy Cooper (D) for a guarantee of full attendance in Charlotte in August.
President Trump threatened on Monday to move the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina — while denying that he wants to hold the convention at his namesake resort in Florida even as some state officials started clamoring for the president’s adopted home state to be the venue.
Accusing North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, of being in a “shutdown mood,” Trump — in a string of early-morning Memorial Day tweets — pressured Cooper to guarantee that “we will be allowed full attendance in the Arena” in Charlotte by the late-August convention.
“Plans are being made by many thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and others, to head to beautiful North Carolina in August,” Trump wrote. “They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied.”
Trump continued: “If not, we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is not something I want to do. Thank you, and I LOVE the people of North Carolina!”
The threat singling out a Democratic governor who has followed federal guidelines echoed Trump’s pressure on other Democratic-led states to reopen as the coronavirus pandemic pushes the economy to the worst crisis since the Great Depression, with approximately 38 million Americans filing for unemployment and scores of businesses shuttering.
Trump, who sees a revived economy as critical to his reelection, also has encouraged protests against Democratic governors who have imposed stay-at-home orders consistent with federal health officials’ recommendations.
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Others in the president’s orbit have gone further. In a recent interview, his son, Eric Trump, leveled the baseless claim that the coronavirus will “magically” disappear after the November elections and suggested that his father’s critics were using the pandemic to undermine Trump’s rallies.
Cooper, through aides, declined to strike back forcefully at Trump’s tweets on Monday.
“State health officials are working with the RNC and will review its plans as they make decisions about how to hold the convention in Charlotte,” said Dory MacMillan, a spokeswoman for the governor. “North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our state’s public health and safety.”
The governor, as well as North Carolina health officials, have had ongoing conversations with both the party committee and White House aides about the convention, according to a state official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
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The morning tweet was backed up by the Republican National Committee and Vice President Pence, who in a Fox News interview on Monday mentioned Georgia, Texas and Florida as potential alternate venues for the convention, while stressing that the party wants to stay in Charlotte.
