President Donald Trump has now rescheduled two weekend rallies a day after canceling them, adding back in-person events in Iowa and Kansas on Sunday.
Trump’s political team had canceled the events on Thursday, explaining that doing so would allow the president to hold roughly 20 tele-rallies for candidates around the country.
Trump is scheduled to travel to Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday before spending Saturday at Mar-a-Lago. Three people with knowledge of the schedule said Trump will travel to Iowa and Kansas on Sunday for back-to-back rallies, though exact locations were still being finalized.
Trump himself drove the scheduling change, according to people familiar with the decision, who like others cited in this article were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. One adviser said the president was tired after weeks of rallies and wanted to take a day off. Another person said Trump is fascinated by tele-rally technology — in effect, a massive conference call — and strongly believes the calls, which the person said can feature tens of thousands of participants, reach more supporters than in-person events.
The shifting plans have added a sense of whiplash to an already frenetic final stretch of campaigning as Republicans fight to hold their congressional majorities.
The Republican National Committee had said Thursday night that the Iowa and Kansas events were being dropped because Republicans “were in a strong position” in each state. A day later, they were back on.
The president on Thursday told reporters he was not traveling to Kansas because Sen. Roger Marshall was doing “really well” in his race, which polls have shown is competitive.
“I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas,” Trump said, then lashed out at a reporter who asked about the change in schedule and whether it was because he was tired of traveling.
One person with knowledge of the events offered a different explanation, saying the rallies “were rearranged for scheduling purposes to accommodate dozens of additional tele-rallies that were recently added to the president’s schedule.”
Another said the rallies were back on because Trump “loves his supporters.”
Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.
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