WASHINGTON: Bragging about his packed rallies that have no social distancing or mask requirements and which health experts say could be coronavirus super-spreader events, US President Donald Trump on Saturday mocked Democrat rival Joe Biden for not holding such meetings, wondering if he’s even alive.
“He is the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics. He doesn’t know he is alive,” Trump said at an airport rally in Nevada, a toss-up state, where his supporters rushed towards his airplane to cheer him jeering Biden and the media, in course of which he claimed a certification of excellence from India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his (Trump’s) handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have the best testing programme in the world by far. We’ve tested more people than India, than many, many big countries put together. India’s second, we are 44 million tests ahead of India. They have 1.5 billion people,” Trump said, claiming, ” Prime Minister Modi calls me and says what a job you’ve done with testing.”
The US has the highest death count in the world and has been universally panned for its poor leadership and dismal record, but Trump, going by his approach to election campaigning with tightly packed in-person rallies, has decided to throw caution to the winds and construct a fictional world for his supporters.
Amid condemnation of the “Trump cult” with its followers being compared to lemmings – a suicidal rodent – the editor in chief of Science magazine Herbert Holden Thorp excoriated the President this week for misleading the American people about Covid-19, saying “these lies demoralized the scientific community and cost countless lives in the United States.”
“Over the years, [Science] has commented on the scientific foibles of US presidents,” Thorp said of the respected 140-year old magazine. “Inadequate action on climate change and environmental degradation during both Republican and Democratic administrations [has] been criticized frequently. … But now, a US president has deliberately lied about science in a way that was imminently dangerous to human health and directly led to widespread deaths of Americans. This may be the most shameful moment in the history of US science policy.”
But Trump continued to mock people taking precaution against the virus as his barely literate cult cheered when he opened up a new front suggesting the election will be rigged unless he wins and cast those who supported him as patriots, his opponents as traitors, and protestors as rioters and anarchists.
“I am running for re-election to bring prosperity to Nevada, to put violent criminals behind bars, and to ensure the future belongs to AMERICA—NOT China. If we win, AMERICA WINS! If Biden wins, China wins. If Biden Wins, the rioters, anarchists, and arsonists win. VOTE!” he later tweeted claiming, “I did more in 47 months as President than Sleepy Joe Biden did in 47 years!”

Pre-election surveys continue to show that despite not holding in-person rallies, Democrat Joe Biden continues to hold a steady six to ten point lead over Trump. But the President and his supporters have been stirring up doubts about an adverse outcome by suggesting mail-in votes, which could be in the tens of millions because of coronavirus, should not be taken into account.
One prominent supporter, Roger Stone, a convicted felon who was pardoned by Trump, went so far as to suggest the President should invoke the Insurrection Act, declare martial law, arrest “seditious” journalist, and seize total power if the election, which he is certain Trump will win, goes the other way.
For a President who claims he played down the seriousness of the coronavirus so as to not panic people, Trump has been invoking apocalyptic scenarios should the Democrats win. Over the weekend his campaign solicited donations with a fearful text warning of impending violent attacks by anti-fascist activists under a Joe Biden presidency: “ANTIFA ALERT: They’ll attack your homes if Joe’s elected. Pres Trump needs you to become a Diamond Club Member. Your name is MISSING. Donate,” the message read.