This is why he couldn’t be trusted to use the Insurrection Act judiciously against looters, and it explains how that disgusting spectacle in Lafayette Park a few weeks ago came to pass.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1273972301156016130

When it comes to showing “toughness,” the president doesn’t dwell on distinctions between vandals and peaceful demonstrators. He wouldn’t be much of an authoritarian if he did. I remember him saying in 2016 that he might pay the attorneys’ fees of a fan who got arrested for punching someone who showed up at one of his rallies to protest. His attitude seems to be that if you make trouble then you deserve what you get, with “trouble” defined as anything from out-and-out crime to a protest he disapproves of.

Other prominent authoritarians in the GOP at least pay lip service to the difference between violent miscreants and demonstrators. Tom Cotton’s famous NYT op-ed calling for an “overwhelming show of force” by U.S. troops against looters was careful to condemn the pro-riot left’s “revolting moral equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters. A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn’t be confused with bands of miscreants.” But it’s not just the left that’s “confused,” it turns out. And Cotton surely knew that when he wrote his op-ed, which makes his counsel to Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act that much more dangerous and irresponsible.

Anyway, according to Tulsa authorities, there *are* some lowlifes headed to town tomorrow night in addition to protesters. The mayor issued a curfew order for the area around the arena where Trump will speak:

“I have received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive or violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally,” the order states.

The curfew took effect last night at 10 p.m. and is/was set to last until 6 a.m. Saturday, followed by a new curfew tomorrow night after Trump’s rally until 6 a.m. Sunday. But it sounds like maybe the curfew has been lifted now?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1274056758319874052

It can’t be that the curfew applies to everyone except Trump supporters. The mayor must have canceled it altogether under pressure from the president, presumably because it was inconveniencing fans who were congregating in the area ahead of the rally. Which means that a measure designed to keep the peace between righties and whichever lefties show up tomorrow night is no longer in place, adding to the sense of chaos and danger surrounding the event. Fox reporter John Roberts is analogizing the event to war, for cripes sake:

Yes, I will be going inside – with appropriate precautions. It’s like digging a slot trench to sleep in every night during the invasion of Iraq. You take all the necessary steps to keep yourself safe https://t.co/lXbWws54lK

— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) June 19, 2020

“As someone who is cautious by nature, I don’t like to be the first to try anything,” wrote Tulsa’s mayor on Facebook a few days ago about the COVID risk from rally. “I would have loved some other city to have proven the safety of such an event already.” Local doctors have taken to begging the campaign publicly not to go ahead with an indoor rally for fear of the outbreak that might result. Health authorities are bracing for the fallout:

“I am personally extremely concerned not only for what is going to happen this weekend, but what we’re going to have to deal with two weeks from now,” he told Vanity Fair. “I think we’re in the potential for a perfect storm of disease transmission that Tulsa County does not need.” Calling the risks “horrific,” [health department director Bruce Dart] added, “This could be a Beyoncé concert and I’d still feel the same way.”…

“This shouldn’t be happening,” Karen Keith, Tulsa County Commissioner, told Vanity Fair. “I just have great concerns. There are no ways to do social distancing. People are going to be body to body. It just feels like something that is out of control to me.”

Keith said she’d met an emergency room doctor yesterday who broke down sobbing in anticipation of what lies ahead. “If you look at our numbers, it’s not just a spike,” she said. “It’s straight up.”

When she says “it’s straight up,” she’s not exaggerating. Here’s what the graph of confirmed COVID cases in Tulsa looks like:

The raw number of cases remains small, but there’s never been a greater risk of being infected in Tulsa — or Oklahoma — than there is right now:

New cases of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus skyrocketed Thursday in Oklahoma by double the record-setting number reported two days before.

State health officials reported 450 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, the third straight day of record numbers of cases, double the record 229 reported Tuesday, and a 5.1% increase in the state’s overall total. The actual number of people who have contracted the virus is likely higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick…

Tulsa County continues as the state’s leading COVID-19 hotspot with 120 new cases Thursday to bring its total to 1,945. Second-place Oklahoma County reported 107 new cases, bringing its total to 1,861.

Some locals filed an emergency appeal with the Oklahoma Supreme Court asking them to order the owner of the arena to enforce social distancing guidelines tomorrow night in hopes of limiting the spread. The appeal was denied. All bets are off.

The good news is that, as far as I’m aware, there haven’t been any major outbreaks resulting from a mass gathering since the lockdowns began to lift across the U.S. in May. (Then again, there haven’t been many indoor mass gatherings, period.) Some Trumpers, if not most, will be wearing masks tomorrow to reduce the spread; and an arena is a cavernous space, not a small room where the same air is circulating in a confined area. It’s possible that Tulsa escapes without much damage being done.

Let’s hope so for Trump’s sake because if there’s a wave in the city a few weeks from now he’ll have no choice but to start either canceling future rallies or reengineering them so that they happen outdoors in wide open spaces. It’s not that his fans won’t go if he keeps doing them in arenas. No doubt they’d consider it a patriotic duty to risk deadly infection in order to see the king. But the rest of the country will be so repulsed by him putting their health at risk that he’d lose more public support. He needs things to go well tomorrow night. Wearing the masks that the campaign will be handing out is the biggest favor his supporters there can do for him.

Exit question: Is Twitter going to remove the Trump tweet above for “inciting violence” or whatever? THR wonders.

Update: Nothing surprising here, just … awkward.

Leading members of the coronavirus task force warned White House officials about the health risks of holding large-scale indoor campaign rallies and advised against the mass gatherings, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and task force response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx both vocalized concerns internally in the last week about the safety of holding a rally with as many as 19,000 of people in an enclosed arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday.

I don’t know how the two of them are going to keep warning the public not to tempt fate by holding mass gatherings if Trump’s rally doesn’t cause a major outbreak. “If Trump can do his rallies, why can’t Taylor Swift do concerts?” they’ll be asked. What’ll they say? “Because Taylor Swift cares more about her fans than Trump does about his”? The president won’t like that.

But then, it sounds like the Trump/Fauci partnership might be nearing an end anyway. He noticed Fauci’s warnings about playing football this fall a few days ago and they didn’t go over well, it seems.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1274006223013249026

It’s very on-brand for him to worry more about players protesting during the anthem than guys infecting each other with COVID-19 on the field.