The coronavirus has killed 220,000 Americans this year, 100,000 of which died after President Trump’s June 20th campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he decided it was safe enough to resume large in-person campaign rallies. Since then Trump has held 65 rallies in 16 states, most if not all of which ignored his own administration’s guidance and defied warnings and restrictions put in place by state and local officials.
The blatant disregard for public health is obviously nothing new for Trump who repeatedly disparages his hand picked CDC Director Robert Redfield who stated that wearing a mask will do more to protect the public than a vaccine and reportedly called Dr. Anthony Fauci the nation’s leading infectious disease expert who has worked under six different administrations from both parties an “idiot.” He’s hosted rallies in states and communities amid case spikes like Arizona and Wisconsin both of which were classified as “red zone” states at the time of the visits according to the White House’s own internal reports.
Crowds ranging between 500–23,000 people practicing little to no social distancing and a small minority wearing masks are the norm at these rallies placing them in the CDC’s “highest risk” category for the spread of the virus. After contracting the virus himself in early October, Trump has continued this practice holding over 37 rallies since he was released from Walter Reed Medical Center as of October 25th. The president’s wife, son, daughter in law, staff, advisers, and close allies have contracted the virus, which resulted in an ICU stay for former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie and possibly the death of former presidential candidate Herman Cain after he attended the June 20 Tulsa rally.
According to a recent Cornell University study, Trump is the single largest spreader of coronavirus disinformation making false claims of miracle cures, rates of spread, and the seriousness of the disease on TV, radio, Facebook, and Twitter. As crowd sizes increase at his events, he may also become one of the largest transmitters of the disease itself, a feat the campaign seems to admit at rallies where they regularly play the REM staple “Everybody Hurts.”
Below is a comprehensive list of Trump rallies since his return to the campaign trail with estimated crowd sizes for each:
