Showbiz

Scrambling, Planners of the Republican Convention Put ‘Showbiz’ Off to the Wings

By JONATHAN MARTIN and JEREMY W. PETERS

Donald J. Trump was told, no, it was not sensible to have Don King, the flamboyant boxing promoter, address the Republican convention. But Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly boasted of having Mr. King’s support, kept pressing the matter.

Finally, officials including Reince Priebus, the Republican national chairman, firmly explained to Mr. Trump why Mr. King should not be invited: He once stomped a man to death and was convicted of manslaughter. The party could not associate itself with someone convicted of a felony.

Mr. Trump eventually relented. Mr. King, a Cleveland native, will not take the stage.

But the exchange, relayed by three Republican strategists familiar with the conversations, highlights the difficulties that planners have had building a program for a presidential candidate who is as much an entertainer as a politician. After months of saying he wanted a convention that would feature the sort of “showbiz” that past party conclaves lacked, Mr. Trump will arrive here Monday for a more traditional gathering than he may have envisioned.

It may be more provocative than past conventions — more Fox News than PBS, with conservative causes célèbres like Benghazi and the botched “Fast and Furious” operation in Mexico highlighted from the podium — but it will not be the “Wrestlemania”-like spectacle that some Republicans feared.

Luminaries whose names Mr. Trump bandied about most frequently — Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback, and Bob Knight, the former Indiana University men’s basketball coach — are not scheduled to appear, though Mr. Knight has recorded a video.

The biggest celebrities other than the nominee will be a star of “Duck Dynasty” and actors from “The Young and the Restless,” “General Hospital” and “Charles in Charge.”
It also is shaping up to be somewhat tamer than some in Mr. Trump’s orbit had wanted. The idea of giving a speaking role to Kathleen Willey, who in the 1990s claimed that President Bill Clinton had fondled her in the Oval Office, was rejected — though Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman, said some speakers would mention what he called Mr. Clinton’s “harassment” and Hillary Clinton’s “enabling.”

Such decisions have been made with little time to spare.

As late as Friday — three days before the start of the convention — some marquee speakers had not been given guidance by the campaign about writing their remarks or asked to submit their speeches for vetting. And some state party chairmen said they had been refused when they asked to see the week’s schedule.

Mr. Manafort, who has worked on conventions since the 1970s, insisted that while he had “moved some people around,” the planning for this convention had differed little from previous ones.

“It’s no more chaotic and no less chaotic than before,” he said.

Still, the impatience to release the names of speakers has backfired, most glaringly when planners initially listed the rabbi of Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as among the speakers. The rabbi, Haskel Lookstein, was scheduled only to give the invocation, but when his name was released without specifying his role, he backed out of the convention entirely, saying he feared a backlash.

To be sure, Mr. Trump’s new campaign leadership has been fighting a three-pronged war, trying to plan a convention, stave off delegate uprisings and quickly build out a reed-thin operation after a staff shake-up last month. But people who were involved in planning past Republican conventions said this one was coming together far more haphazardly.

Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, one of the first statewide officials to endorse Mr. Trump, was notified this month that he would speak in prime time, according to one of Mr. McMaster’s advisers, Trey Walker. But he was tersely informed last week that he would not have a speaking role.

And a Kentucky state senator was told for the first time last week that he would not only be speaking, but in prime time, one of the lawmaker’s advisers said.

Four years ago, by contrast, Mitt Romney had a team of three people in Tampa, Fla., who were reviewing speakers’ remarks — even reading them aloud — to make sure they were consistent with the themes the campaign wanted to project.

And at most conventions, the problem is not that people do not want to be seen publicly with the nominee; campaigns are more usually faced with having to rebuff overeager politicians seeking the exposure and prestige of a speaking slot.

“Usually the problem at conventions is having too many who want to speak,” said Russ Schriefer, who planned Mr. Romney’s convention. “You’re turning a lot of people away.”

Convention lineups are also typically put together to project party diversity. But Mr. Trump’s roster is notably lacking when it comes to the party’s most prominent, nonwhite officeholders. Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina were both sought out, but made clear they were not interested. Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada was not invited.

The most notable Hispanic speaker on the schedule as of late Sunday was Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

The lackluster cast has not gone unnoticed by delegates.

“In 2012, it was just speaker after speaker of the best and brightest stars in the Republican Party,” said Tommy Valentine, a delegate from Virginia. “This is not what I’d call A-list.”