More than 48 hours before President Trump is set to take the stage for his first campaign rally in a while, Trump supporters are lining up outside the venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, awaiting entry.
“So, you are prepared to sit out here for five to six days?” asked a reporter for local television station KFOR, speaking to someone at the front of the line on Thursday.
“We’re here till after the rally,” a woman replied.
Trump’s rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa is the first his campaign has held since the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this week Trump said that the campaign had received nearly a million requests for tickets to the event. The BOK Center holds just under 20,000.
The event, originally scheduled for Friday, was postponed by one day after the campaign was hit with charges of insensitivity toward black people. June 19 is Juneteenth, the annual celebration of the end of slavery in America.
Separately, Trump’s team has been admonished by public health experts, Democrats, and some in the media for creating a potential “super-spreader” event that could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases in the city.
“I think it’s an honor for Tulsa to have a sitting president want to come and visit our community, but not during a pandemic,” Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Bruce Dart told the Tulsa World this week.
“I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event, and I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well.”
The campaign said on Monday that it would give temperature checks, a face mask, and hand sanitizer to every rally attendee.
Photos taken outside the arena show Trump supporters gleeful with excitement for the president’s first rally ever since January.
