Trump to hold White House event, Florida rally

U.S. President Donald Trump, eager to get back on the election campaign trail after being sidelined by a COVID-19 infection, will give remarks to supporters outdoors at the White House on Saturday then hold a rally in Florida two days later.

A White House official said Trump will address the crowd on Saturday from a balcony on a "law and order" theme.

A source familiar with the situation said the crowd could be in the hundreds, and all were expected to wear masks.

Saturday's White House event comes just two weeks after a Rose Garden event which preceded a coronavirus outbreak among White House staff and prominent Republicans.

Trump on Monday night will stage his first campaign rally since his coronavirus diagnosis in Sanford in central Florida, a state crucial to his re-election hopes.

The event will take place at an airport, and the campaign did not disclose if it would be held in a hangar with its doors open, as it has in the past, or entirely outside.

The campaign said attendees at the rally will be given a temperature check, masks that they will be encouraged to wear and access to hand sanitizer.

Questions remain about whether Trump, who announced on Oct. 2 he had the virus and spent three nights in a military hospital, is still contagious.

The illness has kept the Republican president away from holding public rallies and attending fundraisers, as he trails Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls with just weeks to go before the Nov. 3 election.