He despised the virus and the virus is taking its toll on him when he has already given it up. This is the week of President Donald Trump’s contrition. First, he pardoned the mask, protection for which he had shown contempt, and this Thursday he cancelled the Republican convention in late August (24/27) that he insisted on celebrating in Jacksonville (Florida) after the Governor of Carolina North, Democrat Roy Cooper, imposed restrictions and limited capacity in Charlotte, in principle, the chosen city.

The announcement was made by Trump himself at the start of his press conference on Covid-19, the third in three consecutive days after three months of drought. He assured that his advisers had presented him with the plans for the acts of the nomination, but that he himself told them that all this was a dead letter due to the health crisis.

“I have looked at them and told them that it was not the right time for a great event with what is happening recently. The regrowth in Florida makes it inappropriate to have a large convention, Trump said. “It is important to me, I have to protect the lives of Americans, which is what I have always done and always will do,” he added, despite the fact that he has spent months neglecting the disease.

More than four million infected

The United States surpassed the mark of the four million infected this Thursday. Of the three to four million, only 16 days had to pass. In addition, this is accompanied by an increase in the dead, who have spent a couple of days overcoming the barrier of 1,000 deaths, to put the total at 144,000. These are figures unmatched in the rest of the world.

The normal nomination process will continue in Charlotte, as planned. However, the most pompous acts, those provided in Jacksonville are cancelled. One of the elements planned in this city was the speech that Trump must deliver on August 27 in acceptance of the nomination. The president suggested that it be done online, although he did not specify.

“We are going to do something else with tele-meetings and online. We are discussing it and it will be a magnificent thing. It will be fine, it will be a speech in a different way,” he said.

From the party, it was remarked that Trump wants to show that he is focused on the fight against the coronavirus and has convinced himself that this was the right decision. They insisted that this measure can help to increase his popularity, now at one of the lowest points, and far behind in the polls regarding the Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the elections of next November 3.

There were analysts who stressed that Trump has understood that, more than Biden, it is the virus that is leading him to the defeat indicated by the polls, that it is the Covid-19 that is hitting him hard and winning him.

Virtual convention

Democrats will hold their convention in the middle of next month (17/20) in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), it will practically be all virtual and, in principle, only the speech of Biden and the person he chooses as vice president will be performed live. Unlike his rivals, Trump was reluctant to give up on an act in which the masses will cheer him, but he noted the bad press he was receiving for moving on as the virus spreads uncontrollably throughout the country.

“I already saw the media saying, ‘oh, this is very unsafe!’ and I don’t want to be in that situation. It is what they would say and, on the other hand, we can have something nice, we will find it,” he stressed.

Jacksonville adopted at the end of June the measure of everyone wearing the mask at events in closed premises. The party modified its format, doing many more acts outdoors. But this Monday, the sheriff warned about preparedness plans and the ability to supply everything necessary.

“There is nothing more important in our country than making people safe,” Trump argued at the press conference. “I am very concerned about the citizens of Florida and elsewhere.” Also influenced by his decision is the fact that many of the Republican leaders are at an age that places them at risk.