There's always been a tendency among politicians to stick their head in the sand when confronting bad news, but this might be the worst case we've ever seen.
At his already infamous rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last night, Trump made one of the weirdest admissions yet. That he's ordered less testing for Covid-19 so the numbers won't keep going up.
this is like robert durst’s confession in the last episode of the jinx pic.twitter.com/b2IW2fbTnW
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 21, 2020
Even his audience of zealots found that one a little bit odd.
It's also easy to laugh at when you think of Trump as a clown figure. But this is the actual President of the United Stations of America. He's policy decisions affect millions of lives and the economies of the entire world, and his attitude to a global pandemic is to ignore it and hope it goes away.
Trump's re-election campaign is said to be in trouble with him trailing Joe Biden heavily in most polls.
This is an entire speech about all the ways that Trump is a victim, delivered in the middle of a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a once-in-a-generation moment of racial and cultural upheaval.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) June 21, 2020
Meanwhile, Trump's first rally since the coronavirus outbreak didn't exactly go according to plan. Despite pleas from health experts within Oklahoma, the president insisted on hosting this rally indoors, without the requirement for social distancing or for the wearing of facemasks.
Trump had already drawn criticism for the symbolism of choosing Tulsa, Oklahoma as the scene of the rally. Tulsa was the scene of one of the worst racist atrocities in American history, a massacre of black people in the city in 1921 that bordered on genocide. He was originally also hoping to host the rally on Friday instead of Saturday, or Juneteenth (June 19th), the day that African Americans celebrate their emancipation from slavery. Oklahoma is not close to a swing state for Trump so hosting a rally there at all in an election year was clearly some race baiting from his campaign.
In the end, there was a much smaller uptake than expected with thralls of empty seats in the arena, and an overflow event outside where Trump was supposed to speak after the event was cancelled because nobody was there.
As the program began at Trump’s rally in Tulsa, nearly half the seats in the stadium were empty. pic.twitter.com/0C1hGQnIXk
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) June 20, 2020
Eric Trump doing a live shot on Fox News talking about the incredible enthusiasm for the campaign & how the polls are wrong, with a view of thousands of empty seats behind him pic.twitter.com/OFhjZVyVAd
— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) June 20, 2020
WATCH: Due to lack of attendance, workers have begun to dismantle an outdoor stage that had been setup in an overflow area for a speech by President Trump near the arena in Tulsa tonight.
The president will speak soon in the arena. pic.twitter.com/SekDGR2f2Z— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 20, 2020
As well as all of that, it's been reported in America that six members of the advance team sent to set up the rally from the Trump campaign have tested positive for Covid-19.
This is going very well.
SEE ALSO: Leo Varadkar Continues Pop Culture References In Speeches With 'Mean Girls' Quote
