Trump New Hampshire rally postponed over East Coast storm, White House says

Campaign blames Tropical Storm Fay as it delays event amid nationwide coronavirus fears

Donald Trump's campaign has postponed a rally the day before it was scheduled, blaming incoming storms, as officials have downplayed crowd expectations following disappointing turnout amid a growing public health crisis.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Friday that the campaign's outdoor rally in New Hampshire on 11 July will be rescheduled within the coming weeks as a "big storm" is forecast for the East Coast.

"The rally scheduled for Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire has been postponed for safety reasons because of Tropical Storm Fay," campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement. "It will be rescheduled and a new date will be announced soon."

Weather forecasts show that rain is expected to slow by noon on Saturday. The president's campaign event was scheduled for 8pm.

The rally – his first since a partly empty arena re-election campaign kickoff in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month – was scheduled for a tarmac near an aeroplane hangar, which could fit approximately 10,000 people, roughly half the capacity of Tulsa's BOK Centre. The campaign had expected an overflow crowd but scrapped a planned outdoor portion of the Tulsa event, which the president had boasted could draw 1 million people in a sold-out arena.

But the president's team claimed that protesters scared would-be attendees away from the event, as well as the media, who they blamed for stoking coronavirus fears.

Ahead of Saturday's rally, the president again predicted a "big crowd" though the campaign avoided overselling size estimates, avoiding Tulsa's disappointment, which drew roughly 6,200 people.

The cancellation marks another delay in the president's campaign schedule, while Mr Trump has been anxious to signal that the US is safely reopening amid the public health crisis despite climbing infections, including 1 million new cases of Covid-19 within the last month alone.

His campaign had also cancelled an event in Mobile, Alabama. Instead, the president has relied on official White House events – like his Fourth of July kickoff at the base of Mount Rushmore – to deliver his hostile, campaign-style remarks aimed squarely at his supporters.

Surveys show that a growing number of Americans are concerned about contracting the virus. In the wake of the campaign's Tulsa rally, health officials in the state reported a record single-day spike of more than 200 cases on Monday, likely linked to events surrounding the president's event, where attendees mostly avoided wearing face coverings.

"People will decide whether they want to go," White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox & Friends on Friday. "I think there are so many millions – literally – of Trump-Pence voters who don't want to go to rallies because they are already supporting the president and they're going to do what they can to get other people to support the president, but they don't want to go to rallies because maybe they're older or they have some of the underlying co-morbidities."

Earlier this week, New Hampshire's Republican Governor Chris Sununu said that he wouldn't be attending the event.

"I'm not going to put myself in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people," he said. "I have to be extra cautious as the governor. I try to be extra cautious for myself, my family."