At recent (and probably final) Jacksonville rally, Donald Trump found a punchline in COVID-19
Image via AP.

trump 2 10.1.20
Trump was in Jacksonville a week before his positive test.

President Donald Trump, who tested positive for COVID-19, has what are being called “mild symptoms” as of Friday morning.

But last Thursday, the President was in Jacksonville for a rally, and as has been the case for much of the pandemic, he was glib, seemingly downplaying the virus.

As the September sun set, the President delivered a shopworn series of applause lines, but a relatively new one was a rumination on how COVID-19 sounded like a vacation in one of the initial hotspots for the virus.

“The people call it coronavirus. It sounds like a beautiful place in Italy,” the President quipped to some applause.

The President had flirted with bringing the Republican National Convention to Jacksonville, but ultimately a spiking rate of positive tests for the novel coronavirus dashed those plans.

Trump alluded to that also.

He gave Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry props, saying “we wanted to have our Republican National Convention right here in Jacksonville … but we got hit hard with the China virus.”

Now what the President has called the “China virus” has finally, after months of diminishing the impact of the virus, made it to the President’s own doorstep.

The event, held outdoors, was one of many recent examples this year of Trump and allies persevering despite COVID-19, as if life were more or less normal.

Especially prominent in flouting social distancing and mask guidelines, if photographic evidence is reliable, was Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A photographer from the Florida Times-Union caught the Governor embracing two middle-aged men at the event, leaning in for a cell phone picture.

DeSantis was not the only Republican at the event maskless and in close proximity to revelers. As Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Central Florida Democrat, pointed out, Reps. Cord Byrd and Jason Fischer were photographed also shirking health recommendations.

Others, including Mayor Lenny Curry, spoke at the gathering sans face coverings, addressing coronavirus response.

Curry lauded Gov. DeSantis for navigating “through what is truth as related to COVID-19,” including “getting students back into schools … athletics … summer camps.”

Leah Shields of First Coast News reports that thus far, Curry has not tested positive.

In light of the President’s positive test and other potential complications, such as his advanced age and elevated body mass index, it’s unlikely that Trump comes back to Jacksonville, especially given the virus can take weeks to resolve favorably.

The Cecil Field rally in all likelihood closes what has been a five year run of events, starting at the since-demolished Jacksonville Landing in 2015, when the President’s campaign was still considered an exotic novelty by the smart set, and extending through multiple events ahead of the 2016 victory against Hillary Clinton.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


4 comments

  • Frankie M.

    October 2, 2020 at 11:48 am

    AG…you still wanna knock Biden for not holding pep rallies like Donnie Darko there? Might be time to issue one of your patented mea culpas…lmao.

    When in doubt…play it down.

    On the bright side at least he didn’t catch it here in August…talk about bad PR. But we might’ve got him on the 2nd go round. #karmasabitch

  • Michael

    October 2, 2020 at 11:51 am

    Oh my God the virus is real!

  • James Robert Miles

    October 2, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    PLEASE, go take a permanent vacation where you can play golf and tweet until you die! You will be doing all smart people a favor!!

  • Sonja Fitch

    October 2, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    This just pisses me off! What a damn waste! Desantis shot down Florida ! Curry shut down Jacksonville! Rutherford get a test ! All of you losers go to the damn bunkers and DONT come out!

Comments are closed.


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