Trump Throws Mask-Less, Thought-Less Rally; Disaster Ensues
On This Day In 2020
It was a Trump event like no other. Trump went to Tulsa for his first rally since Covid. It was plagued by problems of his own making from the beginning; tragically, those problems persisted for weeks afterwards.
Trump’s first huge mistake was choosing to throw it in Tulsa on Juneteenth. Probably the worst racial attack in the nation’s history happened in Tulsa, in 1921, when a white mob killed nearly 300 Blacks. They threw Molotov cocktails which burned and destroyed the “Black Wall St,” which may then have been the country’s wealthiest Black-owned district.
So, to hold an event there, on that particular day? “This isn't just a wink to white supremacists – he's throwing them a welcome home party,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) noted. Under enormous pressure, Trump did eventually change the date.
His second huge mistake was to ignore the advice of local health authorities who said it was unsafe to bring so many people together during the pandemic. (This was well before vaccines became available). Regardless of which date he picked. A local newspaper ran an editorial begging Trump not to hold his rally. He ignored them all.
He even brought sick colleagues down to Oklahoma with him. On the day of the event, it was revealed that six staffers on his campaign tested positive. And, of course, most Trump supporters were maskless.
His third mistake was overestimating his own popularity. Beforehand, he had talked up his rally incessantly, even booking the 19,000-seat BOK Arena for it. After all, as Trump said: “I go and I just say, 'Give me the biggest stadium and we fill it up every time.'" He even bragged that more than a million tickets had been sold for the rally (which was, of course, impossible).
It became a disaster on every possible front. The arena ended up having huge swaths of empty seats. Outside, a large “spillover” area for MAGA supporters was completely empty. Trump was furious.
But most importantly, a short time later, OTDI 2020, Oklahoma health officials reported a record number of Covid cases in the state. As Time noted, “In the following weeks Tulsa County has seen a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the area.”
Note: The sad, pitiful, Part II of this tragic story will be told in the OTDI of July 30.
Btw: President Biden, ever the healer, proclaimed Juneteenth to be a national holiday.
Dive Deeper
USA Today chronicles Trump’s efforts to justify the date
USA Today also has the quote from Kamala Harris
Time covers the Covid count aftermath
Time covered the poorly-attended rally
Pic: Photographer unknown; Courtesy of Beryl D. Ford Collection, Tulsa Historical Society and Museum