Trump Sentencing Looms Over RNC Planning

Rendering of stage for Republican National Convention. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Republican National Convention is preparing a launchpad for former president and presumptive nominee Donald Trump. But will he ever see it?

The former president’s recent criminal conviction in the State of New York hung over a press conference in Milwaukee Wednesday, as RNC officials unveiled the renderings for a grand convention stage, complete with Trump’s visage looking down from the main screen.

Trump’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for four days before the start of the convention. Right now, a stage 26 feet tall and 16 feet wide is being assembled at Fiserv Forum. But the president may never walk across it, as the possibility remains that he will be incarcerated at the time of the convention.

“We will obviously make contingency plans if we need to,” Michael Whatley, RNC chair told reporters, “but we’re not going to cross that bridge until we get there.”

The stage — the centerpiece of the convention — will include more than 1,200 HD LED panels, said Anne Hathaway, Chair of RNC Committee on Arrangements. Whatley assured reporters, the RNC is expecting Trump to walk across it in person.

“We expect President Trump will be here to accept the nomination,” he said, “we’re very excited about that.”

Trump will be sentenced on July 11 for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a six-figure hush money payment to porn access Stormy Daniels intended to protect his 2016 campaign for the presidency.

Whatley indicated the criminal trial and conviction has been great for Trump’s campaign.

“What we have seen over the course of the last year — certainly within the last six, eight weeks that we had this trial up in the New York — it has absolutely galvanized his support among the Republican Party,” Whatley said. “We, right now, we’re showing 90 to 95% of all Republicans support President Trump, and what we saw, in terms of support for him coming out of the trial and the verdict, was absolutely massive.”

Whatley touted $140 million in donations from two million donors during the month of May, while the former president’s criminal trial was playing out.

“The Republican Party is absolutely unified,” Whatley said. “And we’re very excited about being here, in Milwaukee, on that stage to nominate President Trump and have him be the standard bearer going into the general election.”

The RNC is excited to bring the world stage to Milwaukee for the convention, Whatley said. They are expecting 50,000 delegates, politicos and members of the media to converge on the city for the event. But the question remains: will the former president be among them?

RNC Stage Renderings

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