By Canadian Press

In tension-filled Tulsa, Trump tempting fate in more ways than one

Jun 20, 2020 | 3:28 PM

TULSA, Okla. — In the city that bore witness to the Black Wall Street massacre of 1921, the twin epicentres of America’s seismic shift on justice, race and social disparity found themselves in close proximity Saturday as President Donald Trump prepared to re-engage the engines of his bid for a second term.

Supporters, undaunted by either the prospect of contracting COVID-19 or the possibility of clashes with Black Lives Matter protesters, poured into Tulsa’s fortified downtown core to see the man himself back in his element: blasting back with both barrels at his legions of political enemies and detractors.

Many Trump devotees had already been camped out on the street, some of them in line for nearly a week, for a chance to witness the president’s first “Keep America Great” rally in nearly four months.

“I just want him to know that we all still support him, even with all this craziness going around,” said Jonathan Johnson, 30, who made the 90-minute drive from Oklahoma City for the chance to see Trump in person.

“People need to open their eyes. He’s not as bad as people make him out to be, and they’ve just got to give him a chance. He’s gonna get four more years and we’re excited about it — Trump 2020, baby.”

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Like many other rallygoers milling about the BOK Center, Johnson was unmasked and unconcerned about the prospect of catching COVID-19. So too was Gary Stanislawski, an Oklahoma state senator and devout Republican supporter of the president.

“We accomplished what I think the goal was, and that was to flatten the curve,” Stanislawski said.  

“I still want to be smart, protect myself, watch for others — if there’s people who suddenly start coughing around me or something, we brought our masks, we’re ready to go. But no, I’m not concerned.”

It was clear, however, that the prospect for infection was real: the Trump campaign confirmed Saturday that six members of its advance team in Tulsa had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. None of them, nor anyone who had contact with them, would attend the rally, a spokesman said in a statement.

The threat of infection didn’t seem to bother Johnson.  

“I don’t think it’s as dangerous as what they make it out to be,” he said. “Not going to get one of those swabs, that’s for sure, I’ll tell you that much — heck, no.”  

Protesters, meanwhile — their momentum unabated after nearly a month since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis — were gathering in locales throughout the city, a place infamous for historic racial tensions, to press for an end to the systemic, institutional repression of people of colour.

A group of about five counter-protesters took up positions right inside the lion’s den: a street party outside one of the entrances to the venue, where vendors hawked the usual assortment of pro-Trump memorabilia, including flags, T-shirts, “Make America Great Again” hats and even face masks and shields.

The interlopers silently brandished placards and Black Lives Matter messages as the Trump crowd milled about, largely uninterested. Nearby, a crowd gathered around two men at an Infowars kiosk as they took turns on the mic, insulting Democrats and mocking mask-wearing liberals.  

“This is important,” said one of the protesters — a man wearing a Black Lives Matter flag as a cape who identified himself only as Ryan — when asked why the group chose such a provocative spot to set up camp.

“It’s no coincidence that Donald Trump chose the city of the Tulsa massacre to come and do this, on the weekend of Juneteenth, and we wanted to send a message.”

Soldiers and police officers stood guard at every corner, and a two-metre steel barrier, the same used to ring the White House at the height of the protests earlier this month, circled a wide area around the arena. Many downtown streets were closed to vehicles — all the more room for Trump-friendly visitors and merchants to mingle.

“Shame on you,” one woman bellowed from her car window at the scene on the sidewalk.

The president’s rally was originally scheduled to take place Friday, which happened to be Juneteenth, the day Black Americans gather to mark the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when slaves in Texas were told that slavery had been abolished — two and a half years after the fact.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he changed his mind on the advice of one of his Secret Service agents — then promptly took credit for giving the occasion some badly needed publicity.

“I did something good; I made Juneteenth very famous,” Trump told the newspaper. “It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”

For someone who grew up in racially diverse New York City, the president is either lying or woefully ignorant of Black history, Black firebrand Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday.

“When was America great?” he asked. “Was it great when we took two and a half years to tell people in Texas that they were free? Was it great when white women couldn’t even vote until 1920?”

“It was great for white men with property, but it wasn’t even great for their wives. It wasn’t great for Blacks and Indigenous Americans, it wasn’t great for those that were immigrants.”

If nothing else, the Trump rally has trained the world’s gaze on this city in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, and kindled public interest both in Juneteenth and the Tulsa massacre, both of which spiked a hundredfold in Google searches last week.

Interest in COVID-19 was tepid by comparison — although with several states showing alarming spikes in their active caseloads, that could be about to change.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request to require everyone attending Trump’s rally to wear a face mask and stay at least six feet apart from everyone else in the arena.

And on Saturday, the city lifted its curfew, imposed amid fears of a resurgence of the looting and vandalism that marred the early days of the protests, after Trump said he’d spoken with the mayor.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2020.

— Follow James McCarten on Twitter @CdnPressStyle

James McCarten, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said Tulsa was in northwest Oklahoma.