Dozens Already Lining Up for Trump's Saturday Rally in Tulsa

As of Thursday afternoon, dozens of supporters of President Donald Trump gathered outside the Tulsa, Oklahoma, arena that will host his first campaign rally during the coronavirus pandemic.

It's two days before the actual event.

They come from as far away as southern California and as close as the Tulsa suburbs.

Blake Marnell, of San Diego, was among the first in line.

Marnell said this will be his ninth Trump rally. Marnell has gained notoriety at Trump rallies for wearing a suit with a wall pattern—an allusion to Trump's desire to extend more barriers along the US southern border.

"I think that there's going to be some very important themes the president is gonna introduce here and I wanted to be here to support his message which is going to be about law and order," Marnell said.

Some are using hand sanitizer frequently as they hang out in a tailgate atmosphere ahead of the rally, which health officials say is a big risk for spreading COVID-19 with plans to pack 19,000 people together in the BOK Center.

That doesn't faze Tulsa resident Sue Williams, who picked her place in line Thursday afternoon.

"I've been praying and I don't believe I'm going to get the coronavirus," Williams, 72, said, adding she signed a waiver on her ticket application about the risks involved going inside.

Other Trump supporters opined that public health officials' pandemic concerns are overblown.

"If you look at the numbers that have all been produced," Mark Kelleher, of Oklahoma City, said. "It's all just fear porn going on and on and on with the numbers that they were showing us."

He and his wife, Shirley, did bring masks.

Another concern is potential clashes between Trump supporters and protestors outside.

Tens of thousands of Trump supporters are expected in Tulsa Saturday for the first of a series of rallies across the country to rev up his re-election campaign.

The gathering at the 19,000-seat BOK Center, and at a 40,000-capacity convention center nearby, would overlap a two-day local celebration of Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the country.

Both events are in the city's downtown area.

The Rev. Al Sharpton is among the speakers at the Juneteenth observance in the Greenwood district, where several dozen blocks of black-owned businesses were burned in massacre almost 100 years ago.

A separate anti-hate rally is set for Saturday night in a Tulsa park about a 30-minute walk away.

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