Donald Trump back in the ring election

special Envoy to Tulsa

The crowd wearing red caps left to see a lot of blue chairs. Saturday night in the precincts of the centre BOK in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump has not been able to fill a 19,000-seat arena, and the upper third of the room remained empty. Outside, a scene prepared in case the crowd would be too large, and where the president was scheduled to make an appearance in the course of the evening has not been used.

This first gathering had been advertised as a major event by Donald Trump in a hurry to turn the page of the epidemic of Covid-19, and find the electric atmosphere of the election campaign, suspended since the beginning of the month of march. The organizers had anticipated a crowd of monster. The main streets of the center of Tulsa had been obstructed by blocks of cement, and the police and the national guard mobilized to ensure the security around the huge room of the BOK (Bank of Oklahoma). From the middle of the afternoon, there were protests in front of the access to the perimeter.

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american politics is now divided into two tribes talking to each other more by exchanging slogans and invective. On one side, the BLM (Black Lives Matter, "the lives of black count"), anti-racist activists in the radical programme, clad in shirts of black and decorated with a raised fist. On the other, the Maga (Make American Great Again, "make greatness to America"), wearing of caps, bright red, supporters of Trump.

Screaming through the speakers, the two camps are measured in a few leads. On fourth street, a crowd quite motley summed up the complexity of the activism of the us. From the roof of an armored car in black with the initials of the site, InfoWars, officine extreme right-versed in conspiracy theories, an activist wearing a cowboy hat warns against "the lies of the media". "The coronavirus is an invention! Joe Biden attack sexually minors in the basements of the Senate!"

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In the street, activists from the Black Lives Matter howl against the spectators who came to attend the rally: "Trump, a racist, go away from here! His visit to Tulsa is a provocation, and a sign of their support for white supremacist!" Some held balloons representing Trump in the infant angry. A row of police officers in riot gear bar the passage.

activists pro-Trump armed with semi-automatic rifles are walking in the crowd. Some wear a shirt hawaïennne flowers over their pants lattice, the sign of the rallying of the supporters of the Boogaloo, violent revolution, according to them, inevitable, if one tries to legislate on the wearing of weapons. But some members of anti-racist groups also have pistols at the belt. The tone rises sometimes. "You exercise your right to the first amendment, we in the second", said a man armed with a militant of the left, referring to the freedom of expression and the right to bear arms. The cleavage is sometimes complex. Nicole Rodgers, a lesbian and prison guard, came to New Mexico to oppose left-wing activists, who "destroy the american company by reducing each to his race or identity group". "I'm gay, but I don't want that someone speaks in my name! These protesters are spoiled children who break everything as soon as you ask them a limit".

A ritual, unchanging

"They like to point the finger at the other and demonize," says David Dick, a chiropractor came to support Trump. "I came here to see if we can meet the challenge set by society today: are we still able to be polite with each other, and in particular with people who are not? I believe that yes, for the time being." A further sign to find: the pro-Trump usually don't wear mask, their opponents, though. "It's a bit ridiculous to impose the same measures throughout the country," says David Dick, "Oklahoma has far fewer cases than elsewhere, and elsewhere, the epidemic is moving".

However, at the entrance to the perimeter where the gathering of the panels remind us that the organization declines any responsibility in case of infection of the Covid-19. Volunteers distribute surgical masks, and nurses in gowns point of the thermometers on the front of the audience before letting them enter. In the day, it was announced that six members of the organization have been diagnosed positive Covid-19.

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The room began to fill up quite early, but the influx had virtually stopped two hours before the start of the evening. The media opposed to Trump, have very quickly started to gloat of this semi-failure, forgetting their warnings earlier against the dangers of holding a public event in a closed space. Rumors were also false reservations that would have led the organizers of the event to overestimate the crowd.

The show, however, was well-oiled. The rallies election of Donald Trump, who contributed significantly to its success in 2016 and had occupied the beginning of his campaign during the first months of the year 2020, to obey a ritual almost immutable.