It's lonely at the top
Trump ignores covid risks to stage Oklahoma rally... but rows of empty seats and falling polls suggest his fans may finally be deserting him
PREPARED to let his supporters dice with death, Donald Trump refused to postpone his long-awaited return to the campaign trail. Despite the fears of medical experts and a lawsuit attempting to ban his return amid the covid pandemic, the President was immune to their pleas.
So desperate was he to get out of his White House bunker and back into fighting mode, his team had planned a rally that they promised would re-energise his flagging support.
But following a racism-fuelled grievance-filled address, it was Trump who left Tulsa, Oklahoma feeling sick.
Days before his appearance, he boasted and bragged about the enthusiasm for his rally.
“We’re going to be in Oklahoma, and it’s a crowd like, I guess, nobody’s seen before,” he said.
He then claimed one million people had signed up to see him speak, forcing organisers to create an overflow area for those who weren’t lucky enough to make it inside the 19,000-capacity BOK Center.
But in a state that only four years ago overwhelmingly voted for Trump, he was made to feel as welcome as a fox in a chicken coop.
Just over 6,000 of the supposed million who signed up to see him speak showed up, while only 20 of the 40,000 predicted attended the overflow area.
The low numbers, his campaign falsely said, were due to “radical protestors” preventing his supporters entering the venue.
Untrue. I know, I watched. Others claimed an army of Zoomers – people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s – had made fake ticket reservations with no intention of showing up. Either way, his lack of drawing power raises serious questions about his prospects for a second term at a time when his poll numbers are falling.
His address did nothing but add to the concerns.
Rather than speak to Americans who say they are concerned about systemic racism and police violence, he continued to use racist language, describing Covid-19 as “Kung Flu” after blaming China for the pandemic.
During his address, Trump did not once mention George Floyd, whose death at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis last month spurred global demands for racial justice. Nor did he pay tribute to Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the States and fell just a day before his rally.
Instead, Trump went to his old playbook, attacking his political rivals and the media.
He criticised protestors who recently marched against police brutality, before praising officers who “get injured, they don’t complain. They’re incredible”.
Once again he shrugged off the threat from coronavirus while gloating he had done “a phenomenal job” fighting a pandemic which has already killed 120,000 Americans.
He even suggested he’d purposely manipulated the country’s testing because the growing number of infections made the US look bad. “So I said to my people, ‘slow the testing down”.
Unlike 2016, gone were the queues of people who would camp out all night, come rain or shine to see him. The poor attendance suggests that enthusiasm for his leadership is on the slide.
And this is a time when he desperately needs to reset his re-election campaign as I, and many others, think he’ll suffer a landslide defeat come November’s election.
It doesn’t sit well for Trump, who believed his supporters were so loyal they would brave the risk of catching the coronavirus to see him in person.
But rather than a shot of energy, Trump got a dose of reality.
Just over 6,000 of the supposed million who signed up to see him speak showed up.