Trump roars back at raucous return to trail
In first rally since catching virus, US leader goes on offensive over pandemic
SANFORD, Florida — Defiant as ever about the coronavirus, US President Donald Trump on Monday turned his first campaign rally since contracting COVID- 19 into a fullthroated defense of his handling of a pandemic that has killed 215,000 people and infected more than 7,800,000 in the United States.
Trump even joked that he was healthy enough to plunge into the crowd and give voters “a big fat kiss”.
There was no social distancing and mask- wearing was spotty among the thousands who came to see the president’s return to Florida. He held forth for an hour, trying to get his struggling campaign back on track with just weeks left before election day.
Though he was hospitalized battling the virus only a week ago, Trump’s message on COVID- 19 was unaltered since his diagnosis: A dubious assessment that the pandemic was just about a thing of the past. Hundreds of people in the US continue to die of the virus every day.
“Under my leadership, we’re delivering a safe vaccine and a rapid recovery like no one can even believe,” Trump said. “If you look at our upward path, no country in the world has recovered the way we have recovered.”
His voice was perhaps a touch scratchy but otherwise, Trump was, well, Trump.
Boisterous and bellicose, he thanked the audience for their wellwishes and declared he was no longer contagious as he embarked on a frenetic final stretch of the campaign.
Trump insisted that, after being given experimental medication and other VIP treatment, he felt great and was glad he no longer needs to be concerned about infection because he’s now “immune”.
“I feel so powerful,” said Trump. “I’ ll walk into that audience. I’ ll walk in there, I’ ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women ... everybody. I’ ll just give ya a big fat kiss.”
Doctor Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious- disease expert, said on Monday on CNN that those who recover from COVID- 19 are likely to be immune for a limited period, but there are cases emerging of people getting reinfected weeks or months later.
Despite Trump’s battle with a deadly disease, it was striking how little had changed. Threats to smooch audience members aside, the rally felt like so many others during the pitched election battle against Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump returned to his many usual attack lines, slamming Democrats as “engaged and unhinged and out for vengeance”, and hyping “tremendous progress” on virus therapeutics.
He promised that the third- quarter economy would be “record- setting” and claimed that, if he wins in November, “normal life” will resume, while Biden would delay the vaccine and destroy the economy with a “draconian” lockdown.
Trademark dance
And when he was done, with his new exit song, The Village People’s YMCA, blaring over the loudspeakers, the president did what has become his trademark dance, pumping his fists somewhat in time to the beat as the crowd roared.
With three weeks to go before the election, Trump is pushing to correct a stubborn deficit in national and battleground state polling.
That includes in Florida, which is seen as crucial to his reelection chances. Trump narrowly beat his 2016 rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, in the state by just more than 112,000 votes.
Underscoring the importance of Florida, Trump will be back in the state on Friday for another rally, this time in Ocala.
Trump’s Sanford rally was his first stop in a busy week that will include events in Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin.
And it comes amid still- unanswered questions about the impact so much travel so soon could have on the 74- year- old president’s health.
After Air Force One lifted off from Joint Base Andrews, the president’s doctor, Sean Conley, released an update on his health that said Trump had tested negative for the virus — and had done so on consecutive days.