Trump reverses course, reinstates cancelled campaign rallies

A day after announcing he would cancel a pair of campaign rallies, United States President Donald Trump has reversed course, opting to put those events back on the calendar.

A source close to the Trump administration told Al Jazeera on Friday that Trump will be headlining, in person, the previously cancelled rallies in Kansas and Iowa ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.

“Rallies are BACK ON!” the source said. “No one works harder, fights harder, or loves the American people more than President Donald J. Trump!”

Previously, Trump was due to travel to Kansas on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday. But now both rallies will take place on Sunday.

The source said the events were rearranged to include more tele-rallies, which allow Trump to attend virtually.

Republican officials have also not ruled out that an additional campaign event could be added to the president’s schedule before the midterm election.

The decision marks a sharp reversal after Trump told reporters on Thursday, “I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas.”

“We are going to have a strong ⁠Tuesday night,” Trump said of the midterms.

Iowa and Kansas are states that are normally friendly to the president’s Republican Party. Not since 1932, for instance, has Kansas elected a Democrat to a full term in the Senate.

But according to early polling data, voters in both states have trended more towards Democratic Senate candidates this campaign cycle.

In Kansas, for instance, Republican Senator Roger Marshall is in an increasingly competitive race with his Democratic challenger, megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton.

A poll from Emerson College on Friday found Hamilton in the lead, with 49 percent support compared with Marshall’s 45 percent.

Analysts have warned that Republican candidates could feel backlash at the polls over issues like the cost of living, with fuel prices higher than normal due to the US-Israel war on Iran.

Prior to Friday’s reversal, Marshall defended Trump’s decision to cancel his Kansas rally.

“They think that I’m doing so well in the polls that he’s probably got better places to spend his time,” Marshall said Thursday.

Democrats, however, were quick to accuse Trump of abandoning Republican candidates with less than four days remaining until the vote.

David Axelrod, who served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, described the cancellation as a “strategic retreat” in a post on social media.

The Republican National Committee argued the virtual appearances would be more efficient, allowing Trump to reach more voters.

Trump is expected to speak at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday to help boost two of the state’s Republican candidates: US Senate nominee Ashley Moody and gubernatorial hopeful Byron Donalds.