Trump Decides Against Gettysburg Speech

President Trump has decided against accepting the Republican nomination with a Gettysburg address. The president tells the New York Post that he will deliver his acceptance speech on the White House lawn and visit the Civil War battlefield at a later date. "I’ll probably be giving my speech at the White House because it is a great place. It’s a place that makes me feel good, it makes the country feel good," Trump says. He adds: "We’d do it possibly outside on one of the lawns, we have various lawns, so we could have it outside in terms of the China virus." Trump said giving the speech at the White House would result in a "tremendous saving in cost" and expressed concerns that it would be too hot at the Pennsylvania site on Aug. 27.

"We’re going to be doing something terrific at Gettysburg but when it gets a little bit cooler," he said. After Trump said earlier this week that he would give the speech at either the White House or Gettysburg, ethics experts said that while the president is exempt from the Hatch Act restricting the use of federal property for political activities, it still applies to other White House employees. Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, tells the Wall Street Journal that the Hatch Act's goal is that "public office is not supposed to be used for private gain," and Trump's speech plans are "consistent with his repeated use of federal authority for his own benefit." (More President Trump stories.)