Trump and the Republican Party’s vote to nominate its presidential candidate this month will be held in private, without press in attendance.
A Republican National Convention spokeswoman gave coronavirus health guidelines as the reason, the Associated Press reports.
Delegates are due to gather in North Carolina to formally renominate President Donald Trump.
The 336 delegates will meet on 24 August in the city of Charlotte.
They will cast proxy votes for some 2,500 official delegates. Mr Trump is the party’s sole remaining nominee, and his renomination will officially launch his re-election bid.
The party was “working within the parameters set before us by state and local guidelines regarding the number of people who can attend events”, the spokeswoman said.
The decision marks a significant change for the convention, which historically has worked to draw media attention to spread party messaging to the public.
Mr Trump had switched the location of the convention to Jacksonville, Florida, after the Democratic governor of North Carolina insisted in May on limiting the crowd size at the convention, on the grounds of social distancing.
But Mr Trump later scrapped the Florida convention, blaming the state’s coronavirus “flare-up”.
Meanwhile, Herald.ng earlier reported that Unknown Gunmen invaded a community in Nassarawa State and killed the traditional ruler, Mr. Amos Ewa Obere before escaping.
The traditional ruler of Odu Community in Udege development area of the state was killed by the gunmen who invaded the community on Friday night.
According to a report by Punch, the gunmen shot sporadically into the air to scare away residents when they stormed the community before heading to the home of the traditional ruler.
Mr. Obere sustained a gunshot wound to the stomach and was rushed to the Maraba Udege General Hospital where he gave up the ghost.
See Also: Unical Graduate Connives With Gang To Kidnap, Murder Boss For N100,000
According to an eye witness account;
“When they stormed the community, they went straight to the palace and dragged the traditional ruler out and told him that your days on earth are finished, then they fired bullets on him. Before people could rush down to know what was happening, they had run away.”
The late traditional ruler was a former Assistant Superintendent of Police, and the ward head of several communities before his death.