President Donald Trump spoke at a re-election campaign rally in Phoenix organized by Students for Trump on Tuesday night. The rally, held in Dream City Church, was attended by over 3000 students.
Arizona has seen 1,300 coronavirus deaths while cases have risen to an all-time high. In response, the Phoenix City Council adopted a mandate requiring face masks in public on Saturday, but Trump and most of the rally attendees were without a face covering.
During the rally, Trump expressed that he was confused about the meaning of the “19” in COVID-19. "That’s an odd name,” he said.
The name COVID-19 comes from "coronavirus disease 2019", which is the year it was identified.
Trump went on to list several monikers for the virus: “I could give you 19 or 20 names for that, right." “‘Kung-Flu’, yes?” he said before the crowd erupted in cheers.
Trump used the racist phrase “Kung-Flu” last Saturday during his rally in Oklahoma, as well. As we reported, the Tulsa rally had an extremely low turn-out, resulting in Trump lashing out at his team.
The president’s charged word choice in no way helps the coronavirus-related discrimination that Asian Americans have been facing.