In addition to being a poorly attended political flop featuring a defensive, bigoted and barely coherent harangue, President Trump’s recent campaign rally in Tulsa was a presidential declaration of surrender to covid-19.

It is not possible to maintain that the United States is in a public health crisis while inviting thousands of people to yell spittle-flinging approval in an enclosed space. The provision of masks at the event was a transparent pretense. The Trump campaign must have known that the hardest core of Trump supporters would follow the example of their dear leader by going maskless. It has become a defining characteristic of MAGA macho to practice unprotected social intercourse.

This means that Trump was willing to put his audience and their community at risk of infection and death. And for what? To bask in adulation? To restart his faltering campaign? Any excuse is ridiculously reckless. And because of the demography of death from covid-19, Trump was being particularly reckless with the lives of older people.