Former President Donald Trump cancelled plans to host a rally in Mobile, Alabama marking the Fourth of July after town officials denied a rally permit over concerns about it turning into a political event.
Local NBC affiliate WPMI reported on Tuesday that commissioners of the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park denied the permit under a longstanding ban on political events at the park which began in 2012.
Mr Trump, who left the White House in January, has continued to push conspiracy theories about his election defeat and claimed that he actually won the election in the months since his term ended. At private events, he has even pushed the idea that he could be reinstated as president, according to The New York Times.
Commissioners told WPMI that the park ceased hosting political rallies after former Pennsylvania Sen Rick Santorum hosted a presidential campaign rally at the site in 2012.
The local Republican Party, they added, indicated that the event would be more geared towards Mr Trump’s political interests than a celebration of Independence Day.
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“After the request was made, then there was contact with the Republican Party, they contacted us and then it became apparent that it was going to be a partisan political event, rather than just a patriotic event planned for that evening,” chairman Bill Tunnell told the news station.
A spokesperson for the local GOP organization told NBC 15 that the party was disappointed by the park commission’s decision.
The park is owned by the state of Alabama and managed by an eighteen-member board referred to as the USS Alabama Battleship Commission, which is appointed by the state’s governor, a Republican. The park was opened in 1965 as the permanent home of the USS Alabama, a decommissioned warship.
As Covid-19 restrictions around the country have begun to end, Mr Trump has returned to his rally circuit, hosting smaller events for his diehard fans in various states as he extolls conspiracies about his election defeat and hints at the possibility of running in 2024.
