For all of the hand-wringing Donald Trump and his allies have performed over changes made to 2020 voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic, there was no concern about the administration’s decision to use the White House as a prop in Trump’s reelection effort.
This, too, was ostensibly about the pandemic; prior plans for the Republican convention were scuttled by covid-19 protocols and case surges allowing Trump to fall back on the executive mansion. But doing so also reinforced the message Trump wanted to present: He was the rightful president and the Democrats since 2016 had been trying to take the White House away from him. Exactly the sort of message that prohibitions about using government resources to campaign — like the Hatch Act — are meant to prevent.
Few moments captured the politicization of the executive mansion better than a naturalization ceremony that took place at the White House complex — and which was televised during the convention’s prime-time programming in late August 2020. It involved acting Department of Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf joining Trump to administer the oath of citizenship to a diverse group of immigrants.
“Mr. President, I want to again commend you for your dedication to the rule of law and for restoring integrity to our immigration system,” Wolf said, as Trump prepared to speak. “Thank you for hosting such a patriotic celebration here at the White House today.” Wolf would later argue that he did not know this event...
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