Trump Tulsa election rally slammed

Campaign set for June 19 end of slavery commemoration at site of race massacre

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump defended his decision to resume election campaign rallies next week on a day marking the end of US slavery and at the site of a black massacre 100 years ago, saying it would be a celebration.

The Republican president drew criticism for scheduling the rally on June 19, known as Juneteenth, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where white mobs attacked black citizens and businesses in one of the country’s bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence in 1921.

The rally will take place amid a backdrop of widespread protests against racism in the country after the death of George Floyd, 46, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, who is accused of murdering him.

Trump has been criticised for trying to militarise the US response to the protests.

“Think about it as a celebration,” Trump told Fox News in an interview broadcast yesterday, in which he then boasted about the size of his campaign rallies.

In the interview, Trump denied the Juneteenth date for the rally was on purpose.

The Fox interviewer, an African-american, later said she was not sure if he was aware of the painful history of Tulsa to black Americans because her questions in the interview, which took place on Thursday, focused on the Juneteenth aspect of the visit.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States in 1865 and is celebrated as African-americans’ Independence Day.

“This isn’t just a wink to white supremacists – he’s throwing them a welcome home party,” Senator Kamala Harris, a contender to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick, tweeted on Thursday.

On Thursday, the Republican Party scheduled Trump’s speech accepting