JACKSONVILLE, Fla. _ President Donald Trump announced Thursday he was canceling the Jacksonville portion of the Republican National Convention.
"I told my team it's time to cancel the Jacksonville, Florida, component of the GOP convention," he said in an early evening news conference Thursday.
He praised Mayor Lenny Curry, who had been boosting the event even as a majority of Jacksonville residents polled said they didn't want the event here.
He said he would still give a speech, but that the event will convert to "telerallies."
"I just felt it was wrong," the president said about hosting an event like this during a pandemic. " ... We didn't want to take any chances."
The convention was originally scheduled for Charlotte, North Carolina, but Trump canceled that event after that state's governor couldn't guarantee that the president could have large in-person events without a mask mandate. The president said they'll do a "relatively quick" event in North Carolina now.
This week, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams announced he could not keep the event safe, given the short time frame to secure the event.
City Council President Tommy Hazouri announced Wednesday night that he opposed the event and didn't think a bill appropriating federal funds would pass, particularly after Curry wouldn't commit to answering questions at a Friday council meeting.
Legislation filed Wednesday with City Council shows the city was expecting to get a $33 million grant to cover security costs for the convention slated to run for four days in late August.
In comparison, the city of Cleveland needed $41.5 million in federal grant money for security when it hosted the Republican convention in 2016, and Philadelphia spent $46 million for security costs at that year's Democratic national convention.
Milwaukee has a $40 million budget for security costs at this year's Democratic convention, which has been scaled back greatly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jacksonville was expecting a smaller pot of money because the federal government awarded up to $50 million to the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, which had been planning for two years to host the Republican convention.
The Republican National Committee moved the convention to Jacksonville after a rift between Trump and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper because Cooper would not guarantee a packed arena for the convention.
That meant the $50 million for security costs would have to be split between Jacksonville and Charlotte, which still would have some convention events and had already spent money for security-related costs.
The legislation with Jacksonville City Council said the 2020 Jacksonville Host Committee would pay for any costs beyond the federal security grant.
The host committee has said in the past it will raise "tens of millions of dollars" in private contributions to underwrite the cost of the convention, but it has not responded to questions about how much money it actually has raised so far.
