During his rally in Tulsa on Saturday, the first one since the pandemic, Donald Trump had to put effort to handle the crowd that gathered on the arena, but was not sufficient for filling it all.
The President strongly criticized protests that swung the USA this month, degraded Democrats and praised the way his Administration dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic in an attempt to revive his re-election campaign.
However, his first rally after the lockdown was not as epic as he had predicted. There was not any public on many seats in the BOK Center arena with the 19 000 capacity.
Trump’s aim was to regain the expectations of Americas after his position became less beneficial because of slow reaction to coronavirus pandemic and protests that have swung the country after the death of George Floyd, an African American who died in the custody of Minneapolis police.
It is interesting to note that Trump came under the fire for having chosen to run the rally (the first one since March 2, all due to pandemic) in Tulsa, which was the city of the USA’s bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence against Black Americans some 100 years ago.
While being blamed for expressing not enough sympathy to the burden of Black Americans, the President revealed multiple vices of a certain group of protesters, criticizing them for their illegal actions that does not correspond to moral norms as well:
“The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments – our beautiful monuments – tear down our statues and punish, cancel and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control. We’re not conforming”, – Trump told cheering supporters.
The next statement he made was rather shocking and evoked mixed feelings. Highly appreciating his reaction to the pandemic, he claimed that increasing rate of testing caused finding out more coronavirus cases and this consequently led to vexation.
“When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more cases. So, I said to my people, slow the testing down, please”.
Later a White House representative assured the President was “obviously kidding” with that statement. Subtle humor.
Hours before the rally, Trump’s campaign announced six members of its advance team had tested positive for COVID-19. Only a handful of attendees wore masks inside the arena.
Trump soberly appreciated his own speech on the arena, saying that so far that night, he was “average”.
While Trump campaign officials said prior to the event that demand far outstripped the capacity of the venue, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence canceled speeches to an expected “overflow” crowd after a few dozen supporters showed up to a space prepared for thousands. Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said protesters had “interfered with supporters” trying to enter the rally.
Trump also assured the Americans that a big threat awaits them all if he was not elected as President again. According to his words, all the US citizens would experience the “chaos you’re seeing in our Democratic-run cities”.
“When you see those lunatics all over the streets, its damn nice to have arms”, – he said, vowing to protect Americans’ rights to bear arms. “Our people are not nearly as violent, but if they ever were it would be a terrible, terrible day for the other side”.
Tulsa Police reported one arrest of a woman wearing a T-shirt reading “I can’t breathe” after she refused to leave a private event area.
The country’s racial divide remains a political vulnerability for Trump. His “law and order” reaction to the protests triggered by Floyd’s death has put him at odds with the views of most Americans.