Trump is giving his main RNC speech from the White House because it 'makes me feel good'

Trump on the South Lawn
(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

"Trailing in the polls and struggling to find a message, President Trump is leveraging one of the most powerful assets he has left — his White House office — in service of his re-election bid, obliterating the lines between governing and campaigning and testing legal boundaries in ways that go well beyond his predecessors," David Nakamura writes at The Washington Post. He has publicly roped the U.S. Postal Service and federal law enforcement into his re-election bid, and this week he will give his main Republican National Convention speech from the White House, pushing past rules or traditions on the use of the White House for partisan campaigning he already tread on during a Rose Garden speech in July.

The RNC, which begins its televised prime time show Monday night, has had to quickly adjust its convention format from in-person to virtual amid the COVID-19 pandemic. After Trump decided to give his speech from the White House, Democrats objected and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel responded that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are exempt from the civil regulations under the Hatch Act, a decades-old law that prohibits government employees from participating in some political activities.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.