PHOENIX—On Tuesday, June 23, President Donald Trump spoke at a Students for Trump event in the Dream City Church of Phoenix, Arizona. This comes after a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20, which had a record-breaking television audience of 7.7 million viewers. According to an official of the Tulsa Fire Department, approximately 6,200 people attended the event.
The Phoenix event was organized by Turning Point Action, which is chaired by conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Turning Point Action holds several national conferences including the Young Women’s Leadership Summit and the Young Latino Leadership Summit. It operates a website called Professor Watchlist that exposes college professors who allegedly target conservative students.
The venue of the church was compact, but held approximately 3,000 people. Standing on stage, President Trump praised the “patriotic young Americans who stand up tall for America and refuse to kneel to the radical left.”
“You are the courageous warriors standing in the way of what they want to do and their goals… They hate our history. They hate our values, and they hate everything we prize as Americans,” said President Trump. He urged the audience to combat the corruption of the election after previously claiming that the expanded mail-in voting will lead to voting fraud.
Outside the event, hundreds of protesters were marching. When the crowd grew louder and aggressive, the protest was declared an unlawful assembly. Officers used flash bangs to prevent protesters from blocking the streets. Two Phoenix Police Department officers were assaulted and protesters were injured from pepper spray and balls. There were no serious injuries and no one was transported to the hospital.
President Trump did not wear a mask during his speech, neither did some of the attendees. While face masks are mandatory in Phoenix’s public sphere, Mayor Kate Gallego did not enforce the wearing of the mask at the rally. Arizona emerged and has remained as one of America’s hot spots for the spread of the coronavirus.
Prior to attending the rally, Trump stopped in Yuma to visit the U.S.-Mexico border and inspect a new section of its structure. He, and state lawmakers, inscribed their signatures on the wall.
