This archive report was first published on 9 July 2020.
As President Trump prepares to hold a rally in New Hampshire, the state where Hillary Clinton narrowly won in 2016, the Trump campaign is facing a daunting task: predicting the turnout for the event.
With the state's governor, Chris Sununu, a Republican, declining to attend, and other Republican officials uncertain about their participation, the campaign is bracing for a potentially low turnout.
However, the campaign is also taking steps to prevent the kind of ticket prank that helped turn Mr. Trump's rally in Tulsa, Okla., into a far smaller event than expected.
According to Tom Rath, a well-known Republican and former New Hampshire attorney general, the state has been fortunate in its handling of the coronavirus crisis, with a relatively small number of deaths.
But the looming threat of the coronavirus spreading in a crowd where attendees will be in relatively close quarters, despite being mostly outdoors, is a major concern.
As the Trump campaign attempts to reboot its rally strategy, which fizzled out just a few weeks ago, the event in New Hampshire is being seen as a potential prototype for future events.
With the campaign selecting a mostly outdoor venue and encouraging attendees to wear face masks, officials are aware that they cannot force people out of their homes and into the venue.
As the campaign navigates the challenges of staging large social gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic, the difficulty in giving Mr. Trump the kind of adoring rallies that he seeks has been growing more and more apparent to White House officials and campaign advisers.
