I feel so powerful: Trump back on campaign trail without a mask
Oct 13, 2020
Florida [US], October 13 : Less than two weeks after the US President Donald Trump was tested positive for the novel coronavirus, he made a comeback to the Presidential campaign trail without a mask on Monday (local time).
The Hill reported that Trump did not wear a mask, and many in the crowd were also mask-less and closely packed together. But prior to his speech, Trump did toss masks into the crowd.
After landing at Orlando Sanford International Airport on Air Force One, Trump took the stage straight, marvelling at the size of his audience and even made fun of his opponent Joe Biden for "getting a small crowd at a socially distanced campaign event in Ohio".
Trump said, "22 days from now we're going to win this state, we're going to win four more years at the White House."
Playing down the coronavirus threat, he said, "I feel so powerful." "I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there, I'll kiss everyone in that audience. I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women... everybody," he said.
The White House, earlier in the day, had released a statement by Trump's physician saying the President had tested negative for the COVID-19 infection on consecutive days.
At the rally, the President said that he was in great shape and that he was not an "old person", labelling the people who criticise this statement as "sickest of them all".
"I am not an old person -- I am very young and I am in such perfect shape... and they said, 'Donald Trump misrepresented today again... These people are the sickest of them all," he added.
Trump is set to address events in Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina, and Wisconsin this week.