Trump forced to take campaign virtual with first tele-rally, says no massive rallies 'until Covid-19 solved'
President Donald Trump conducted his first tele-rally with his supporters in Wisconsin on Friday, July 17, as he relented to the mounting pressure of holding his campaign rally virtually because of "Covid problem." Trump, on Friday, gave a 22-minute speech where he attacked China over the current pandemic and slammed the "radical left" for "indoctrinating our children with hate." The president also warned that if he is not voted for a second term, America will "never recover."
The telephonic rally marked a setback for Trump, who had went ahead with his controversial Tulsa rally last month despite warnings from health experts and local officials to call it off considering the virus spread. Shortly after the rally, top local health officials admitted that the gathering "more than likely" triggered a surge in new coronavirus cases across Oklahoma, the Daily Mail reported.
Trump, during the tele-rally, reportedly told his supporters that he will be holding telephone rallies until the "COVID-19 problem gets solved." The Republican leader also referred to the novel coronavirus as the "China virus" again and denounced Beijing, saying they "could have stopped it [the virus]."
"Hello, Wisconsin. I'm really thrilled to be with you tonight," Trump said during the Friday rally, which played a reel of photos of him on the phone while he spoke. "We have a COVID problem, COVID-19 problem, as you know. I call it the China virus, it shouldn't have happened but it did. They could have stopped it. But I wanted to be with you and this is really replacing our rallies that we all love so much."
"We had great rallies in Wisconsin and all over the country and unfortunately until this gets solved, and we're doing really well with the therapeutics and vaccines, but until that gets solved it's going to be tough to have those big massive rallies," the president added. Trump also told his supporters that his campaign's plan from now on would be to hold "telephonic rallies," which he said will be called "the teleph — the Trump rallies, but we'll do it by telephone."
The Republican, during his speech, also praised his own handling of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming he "did the right thing" and had "saved millions of lives," He also boasted of Covid-19 testing in America, saying: "Our testing program is the best in the world," and added that more than 50 million people in America have been tested so far. Trump claimed that the United States is "close to hitting the jackpot on therapeutics and vaccines."
The president's self-appreciation comes after facing criticism for his handling of the crisis, in particular his initial denial of the seriousness of the pandemic. As cases rapidly spread across the nation in February, Trump had stated that the risk to American live was "very low." The virus, as of July 18, has claimed more than 139,000 American lives. Trump also praised his economic success, saying the US has the "greatest economy in the history of the world," adding that the stock market was at a "all-time high." He said: "Our economy is starting to do really well. We had the two biggest job numbers in history the last two months, we've created more jobs. The stock market is at an all-time high."
"We built the greatest economy we've ever had, the highest stock market, best job numbers for African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic Americans... women... everybody's doing so well," Trump added. "We built the greatest economy in the history of the world not just within our borders." According to the latest data released by the Labor Department on Thursday, July 16, unemployment in the country is at a historically high level in the country.