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It wasn’t quite one of his signature big-stadium rallies. But President Donald Trump 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. 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. (Lemire and Madhani, 6/24)

President Trump’s most faithful supporters — intensely devoted, but ultimately fewer in number than the campaign had hoped — piled into tents or lounged in lawn chairs, some wearing masks and others dismissing the need for face coverings, as they waited hours and, in some cases, days to join in his return to the campaign trail. By Saturday afternoon, the line of voters waiting for Mr. Trump’s evening rally was bustling with attendees eager to enter the 19,000-seat BOK Center in defiance of public health recommendations — though as the program began in the evening, the arena was far from full and an overflow stage was dismantled. (Glueck an Herndon, 6/20)

Students for Trump includes a waiver similar to the one the Trump campaign gave to attendees of the Tulsa rally, acknowledging the health risks. "By attending this convention, you and any guest voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Turning Point Action, their affiliates, Dream City Church, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury," it reads. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden called the president's trip "reckless and irresponsible" and said it is a "distraction from Donald Trump's failed response to combat the spread of COVID-19." (Sprunt and Wise, 6/23)

[Trump] also went on an extended riff about mail-in ballots, alleging fraud and raising the idea that ballots could be printed by “foreign powers.” There is no evidence of large-scale fraud with mail-in ballots, and some states are turning to them as a safer alternative as the coronavirus continues to spread. “We can safely go to the polls and vote during Covid-19,” Mr. Trump said. (Leary, 6/23)

The trip — more than three hours on Air Force One to a state dealing with a record spike in virus cases — was itself controversial, as Trump and his aides continued to flout public health guidelines at the same time that top administration officials were testifying before Congress about the growing threat of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. (Gearan, Miroff and Olorunnipa, 6/23)

President Trump again referred to the novel coronavirus as “kung flu,” eliciting laughter and wild cheers from a young crowd in Arizona on Tuesday. Trump was listing the different names he has heard for the virus, which has killed at least 119,000 Americans, during a speech for the student Republican group Turning Point Action. (Itkowitz, 6/23)

Phoenix police declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly after protesters started blocking a street. Then officers in riot gear used flash-bang grenades - military-style percussion devices for crowd control - to push protesters well away from the church, a Reuters photographer at the scene said. The city police department said it ordered demonstrators to disperse when the crowd began throwing objects at police, “blocking traffic and moving into an area protected for the presidential motorcade.” In addition to flash-bang devices, police also used “pepper balls deployed into the ground and a burst of pepper spray” against the protesters, the department statement said, adding that no arrests were made. (Holland, 6/23)

The pastors of an Arizona megachurch that is holding an event featuring President Trump on Tuesday is claiming the church's air filtration system can kill "99.9% of COVID within 10 minutes." Dream City Church Senior Pastor Luke Barnett and Chief Operations Officer Brendon Zastro make the erroneous claims in a promo video that has been circulating online this week. The video has been removed from the church's Facebook page. (O'Kane, 6/23)

Now it’s apparent where many of President Donald Trump’s supporters who stayed away from Saturday’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were instead: they were home watching it on television. Fox News Channel, which aired Trump’s speech live, had the biggest Saturday night audience in the network’s 24-year history, the Nielsen company said. During Trump’s address at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Fox had 8.2 million people watching. (Bauder, 6/23)

As America grapples with racism in its past, President Donald Trump lined up squarely Tuesday with those who argue that the pendulum has swung too far in favor of removing statues and other symbols of that flawed history, saying mistakes will be repeated if not learned from and understood. Trump’s campaign also sees the divide over this latest cultural flash point as a way to boost the president’s standing, which has suffered during his handling of the coronavirus outbreak and the protests over racial injustice that followed George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. (Superville, 6/24)