Guardian UK: Donald Trump sows division and promises 'greatness' at Tulsa rally flop

[marmar]

Donald Trump sows division and promises 'greatness' at Tulsa rally flop
US president’s much hyped return turned to humiliation when he failed to fill arena in Republican stronghold of Oklahoma

David Smith in Washington
@smithinamerica
Sat 20 Jun 2020 23.21 EDTLast modified on Sun 21 Jun 2020 09.17 EDT


Donald Trump declared “the silent majority is stronger than ever before” at his comeback rally on Saturday, but thousands of empty seats appeared to tell a different story.

The US president’s much hyped return to the campaign trail turned to humiliation when he failed to fill a 19,000-capacity arena in the Republican stronghold of Oklahoma, raising fresh doubts about his chances of winning re-election.

“The Emperor has no crowd,” tweeted Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama.

The overwhelmingly white gathering at Trump’s first rally since March was dwarfed by the huge multiracial crowds that have marched for Black Lives Matter across the country in recent weeks, reinforcing criticism that the president is badly out of step with the national mood.

The flop in Tulsa was an unexpected anticlimax for an event that seemed to offer a combustible mix of Trump, protests over racial injustice and a coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 120,000 Americans and put more than 40m out of work. ...........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/20/donald-trump-tulsa-rally-crowd-division-greatness