PHOENIX, AZ — President Donald Trump addressed young Americans during a rally in Phoenix Tuesday afternoon at the Dream City Church auditorium on Cave Creek Road where some rally goers waited outside the auditorium for hours to get in.
It wasn't quite one of his signature big-stadium rallies.
But the president drew something closer to the jam-packed audience of political supporters he's been craving as hundreds of young conservatives filled a Phoenix megachurch Tuesday to hear his call for them to get behind his reelection effort.
His visit to Phoenix was only his second campaign rally since March, when large gatherings were restricted because of the new coronavirus.
The Tuesday rally in Phoenix was organized by Turning Point Action, a conservative nonprofit "whose mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom," according to its website.
The crowded Dream City Church for the gathering of Students for Trump offered a starkly different feel compared to Trump's weekend rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his first of the coronavirus era, which drew sparser attendance.
Trump hailed 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," he told the boisterous crowd. "They hate our history. They hate our values, and they hate everything we prize as Americans."
His address was chock-full of typical Trump lines — boasts about television ratings, ridicule of his likely Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden and sharply worded resentments over China's handling of the coronavirus crisis. As he did in Oklahoma over the weekend, Trump referred to the virus as "kung flu," a pejorative term that Asian-Americans say is racist.
But unlike his return to campaign stage before thousands of empty seats in Oklahoma, Trump seemed to revel in the energy of a packed — albeit smaller — venue. He also offered his supporters a dark warning.
"This will be in my opinion the most corrupt election in the history of our country," said Trump, who has in recent days stepped up claims that expanded mail-in voting will lead to voting fraud. "And we can not let this happen."
But throughout his daylong trip to Arizona, which included a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, the COVID-19 pandemic shadowed Trump.
On Tuesday, Arizona reported 3,591 new cases of COVID-19 across the state, as well as 42 additional deaths. In Maricopa County, where the rally is to be held, 2,233 new cases and 29 more deaths were announced.
As of Monday, the most recent data available, only 16 percent of the state's ICU beds remain open to treat new COVID-19 cases, and only 17 percent of general inpatient beds were available.
Before the rally, Trump made a visit to Yuma to see the border wall and engage with local leaders and the surrounding community, KTAR reports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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