President Trump Monday suggested giving his Republican National Convention speech at Gettysburg, a controversial move that would dredge up his opposition to removing the names of Confederate generals from military bases.
Trump tweeted that he was weighing the Gettysburg National Military Park as a possible backdrop for his GOP nomination acceptance speech later this month.
Trump had already mentioned the White House as a potential speech site, but is apparently thinking twice after serious questions about whether doing so would violate laws prohibiting political events there.
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany defended Gettysburg as a potential location for the high-stakes speech, suggesting that Trump has worked hard to unify the country.
“The president has done a lot to bring the American people together … to rise above the divisions,” McEnany said.
Trump at times has stoked controversy with his staunch embrace of monuments to Confederate generals and opposition to the popular movement to remove the names of Confederate generals from U.S. military bases.
Trump critics quickly lambasted his speech announcement, mocking it as a “second try” for supporters of slavery to capture the strategic central Pennsylvania town.
“May it go as badly for you as it did the first time,” Walt Shaub, a former federal ethics czar, wrote on Twitter.
Trump has spoken out against NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag from its bases. He lashed out at racial justice demonstrators’ efforts to remove statues honoring Confederate leaders like Gen. Robert E. Lee, who led the southern troops fighting the Union Army at Gettysburg in 1863.
Most recently, he has threatened to veto a defense funding bill that includes provisions ordering the Pentagon to rename bases that honor Confederate generals. The measure passed both houses with veto-proof bipartisan majorities.
The RNC has already become engulfed in controversy for Trump and the GOP.
Trump angrily ordered the event moved from Charlotte, N.C., after the state’s governor warned that coronavirus restrictions like masks and social distancing would be enforced.
The coronation was moved to Jacksonville, Fla., where a Republican mayor and governor promised a warm and no-corona-hassles environment. But that plan fell apart when the pandemic exploded in the Sun Belt, leaving severe doubt about how many delegates or supporters would even show up.
Trump eventually scrapped the in-person convention, which he had hoped would deliver a major bounce in his flagging bid to recapture the White House.
