Trump Abruptly Cancels Republican Convention in Florida: ‘It’s Not the Right Time’

But the president tried to portray himself as more concerned about public health. “I said, ‘There’s nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe,’” he said of his conversations with advisers. “I just felt it was wrong” to have people “going to what turned out to be a hot spot.”

The president’s sudden focus on health concerns Thursday came after months of playing down the virus. He predicted only three weeks ago that it would “just disappear,” and pushed party officials to proceed with convention plans despite the alarming spike in virus cases in Florida this month. As of this week, Republican officials were still meeting in the state to make the convention a reality.

But as cases surged, voters, donors and elected officials from both parties expressed skepticism about holding a big gathering just several weeks away. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday showed that 62 percent of the state’s voters thought the convention would be unsafe to hold. The poll also showed Mr. Biden leading Mr. Trump by 13 percentage points in Florida; in a Quinnipiac poll in April, Mr. Biden had a four-point lead.

Mr. Trump said that the decision to cancel the event was designed for “safety” and that the news media would have faulted him if he had continued. He said the party might hold rallies that people could join by telephone or video, adding that the actual work of the convention — approving the platform, for instance — would take place in Charlotte, the original site of the gathering.

Mr. Trump’s news conference on Thursday was intended to be about a plan for reopening schools in the fall. But he decided to announce his convention move, overshadowing the other news.

The decision came after some of his advisers pleaded with him to start taking the coronavirus more seriously, to try to revive re-election prospects that have cratered over voter dissatisfaction with his handling of the public health threat. The president held conversations with his new campaign manager, Bill Stepien, and the Republican National Committee chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The decision was made in the last 24 hours, the people said. The discussions were so closely held that some people involved in convention planning learned about the decision from Mr. Trump’s news conference.