Trump, who has compared himself to Lincoln, floats nomination speech at Gettysburg or White House
- Gettysburg was the location of a decisive 1863 battle lost by the proslavery Confederate States of America
- Plans for this year’s party conventions have been turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic
US President Donald Trump said his presidential nomination acceptance speech would be held at either the White House or the Gettysburg battlefield, site of the American Civil War’s bloodiest battle and one of President Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speeches.
“We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations – The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington DC. We will announce the decision soon!” the president said in a tweet on Monday.
Either site would be unprecedented, following the cancellation of traditional nomination conventions for both Republicans and Democrats, who had been planning to host thousands of people indoors until the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Trump has previously turned to national parks and monuments to hold politically tinged events, including a July 4 event on the National Mall in 2019 and one at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota just last month.
Having his acceptance speech at either the White House or the Gettysburg battlefield are also sure to stir huge controversy – not that the abrasive and media-savvy Republican businessman is likely to mind the attention.