President Trump on Tuesday rallied a crowd of largely maskless student supporters in Phoenix, claiming Democrats were trying to keep the country “shut down” during the coronavirus pandemic in order to hurt the economy before the election.
“They are trying to do their best to keep the country shut down and closed because they’d love those numbers not to be good,” Trump told the crowd after insisting the U.S. would see good economic growth during the third quarter, before the 2020 election. “There’s not a lot they can do about it.”
Trump referenced the coronavirus throughout his remarks, repeatedly calling it “the plague” and at one point claiming it was “going away.” Trump also twice referred to the virus as the “kung flu,” a term that was widely condemned as racist when he used it at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla, over the weekend. The term prompted cheers from the crowd Tuesday.
“We are going to be stronger than ever before, and it’s going to be soon,” Trump said of the coronavirus, touting his “swift and early action” to ban travel from China at the beginning of February in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
Roughly 3,000 young attendees were expected to attend Tuesday’s event in Arizona, a state that has experienced significant spikes in coronavirus cases as it has relaxed restrictions to allow businesses to reopen. Arizona reported nearly 3,600 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a record for daily cases.
Few of those in the crowd at Dream City Church in Phoenix were seen wearing masks, which are recommended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The venue was filled with a sea of young Trump supporters sitting close together, though some empty seats were visible in parts of the church. The event was described as an address to young Americans but was sponsored by “Turning Point USA,” a young conservative group run by Trump supporter Charlie Kirk.
Trump used his remarks to tout the strength of the economy before the coronavirus and offer a rosy picture of the path to recovery following a surprising May jobs report that showed employment gains.
“The stock market in the last 50 days is the best stock market in history, and it went up again today, by the way,” Trump said. “This is during, hopefully, the end of the pandemic.”
He also complained about news coverage describing the United States as having the most coronavirus cases globally.
“When you have all those tests, you have more cases,” Trump said. “We want to do testing. We want to do everything, but they use it to make us look bad.”
Trump’s campaign-style remarks came hours after Anthony Fauci, the Trump administration’s top infectious disease expert, told a House panel that rising coronavirus cases in the U.S. marked a “disturbing” trend.
“In some respects, we’ve done very well,” Fauci said, noting New York’s work to contain the virus. “However, in other areas of the country, we are now seeing a disturbing surge of infections that looks like it’s a combination, but one of the things is an increase in community spread. And that’s something I’m really quite concerned about.”
CDC Director Robert Redfield said the outbreak would continue and overlap with flu season in the fall, which “could place a tremendous burden on the health care system.”
White House officials have sought to minimize concerns about the spikes over the past week. Trump has withstood scrutiny for his comments on testing in recent days as he has called testing a “double-edged sword” and suggested expanded testing makes the U.S. look bad. At his Tulsa rally over the weekend, Trump said that he told officials to “slow down the testing.”
The White House has offered shifting explanations for the remarks, with some officials saying the remarks were made in jest. Trump told reporters earlier Tuesday that he doesn’t “kid” about testing. Fauci and other health officials during their testimony said they had not been instructed to slow down testing and underscored efforts to continue to expand testing capacity.
Trump’s speech marked his second campaign-style address in four days following his Tulsa rally, his first in more than three months due to the pandemic. The campaign withstood scrutiny for the decision to stage the rally in Tulsa, which has also seen a spike in coronavirus cases.
The president traveled to Arizona, which is quickly becoming a must-win state in his reelection bid, to tout progress on the structure along the U.S.-Mexico border. The visit allowed Trump to focus on a signature issue of his amid a stretch of damaging headlines and national crises, including the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic downturn.
The president signed a plaque attached to a bollard that marked the 200th mile of the border wall. He admired the construction of the wall, calling it “really foolproof.” He last visited the border in September, when he signed a piece of the wall near San Diego.
Critics note that much of the 200 miles is actually rebuilt or reinforced fencing that already existed, though the new construction amounts to a significant upgrade to deter potential border crossings.
During a roundtable event with federal and state officials to discuss border security, Trump sought to frame the construction of the wall as a political asset for him heading into November against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
“He’s controlled totally by the radical left, as you understand. He’s not controlling it. They’re controlling him,” Trump said. “They want open borders. They want criminal sanctuaries. They want everything that doesn’t work.”
The president suggested Democrats were no longer talking about their opposition to the border wall because it was a winning issue for his administration.
“The wall is never mentioned anymore,” he said. “The reason it’s not mentioned — it’s not that we won the battle. It’s that it’s such a compelling thing to have done.”
A RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Trump trailing Biden by 4 percentage points in Arizona. The president won the state in 2016 by roughly 90,000 votes.
Arizona Senator Martha McSally, who polls show is trailing her Democratic challenger by an average of 10 points, traveled with the president to Arizona on Air Force One. Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks to a group of student supporters in Phoenix later Tuesday after touring the section of border wall.
Securing the U.S. southern border has been a hallmark of Trump’s 2016 and 2020 election campaigns, with his oft-touted wall serving as the centerpiece of his agenda to crack down on illegal immigration. Trump has worked to restrict both legal and illegal immigration during his presidency.
The trip to Arizona came one day after Trump signed an executive order extending limits on certain work visas through the end of the year in a purported effort to boost U.S. economic recovery during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We want to give jobs to Americans right now,” Trump told reporters in Arizona when asked why Monday’s executive action was necessary.
Trump has also pledged to re-file paperwork to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program after the Supreme Court last week rejected his first attempt to do so, saying the administration did not provide adequate cause. The program provides protections for the scores of young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Asked for a message for those “Dreamers,” Trump told reporters, “Put your chin up. Good things are going to happen.”