‘Feeling great’: Donald Trump tells supporters in first public event since COVID diagnosis

US
President Donald Trump on Saturday held his first public event, nine days after
his COVID-19 diagnosis, as he told scores of supporters gathered outside the
White House that he was “feeling great”.

“I am
feeling great. I want to thank all of you for your prayers,” news agency ANI
quoted Trump as saying.

Trump is currently trailing Democratic opponent Joe Biden by
nearly 10 points in the national polls and maintains that the figures are
misleading.

He has been preparing to host hundreds of bipartisans at the White
House in hopes of reigniting his struggling re-election campaign less than four
weeks from the November 3 election.

“I want you to know our nation is going to
defeat this terrible China virus,” Trump told his supporters, most of who were wearing
masks but without abiding by social distancing norms, AFP reported.

“It’s going to disappear, it is
disappearing,” Trrump said about the coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed
over 210,000 Americans and dented Trump’s re-election hopes.

 “Get
out and vote — and I love you,” Trump said, as the cheering crowd – most of who
sported ‘Make American Great Again’ hats – chanted “four more years” throughout
his 18-minute address.

Trump tested positive for the coronavirus
on October 2, and was since forced to abandon his campaign trail.

Saturday’s campaign-styled White House event
set the stage for his first rally in the critical swing state of Florinda on
Monday, an event slammed by Biden as being “reckless”
in light of the president’s coronavirus concerns.

Unfazed by his critics, though, Trump’s campaign
announced two more events for next week, in Pennsylvania and Iowa on Tuesday
and Wednesday respectively.

Trump’s biggest concern, an overwhelming
dissatisfaction among the American populace over his handling of the pandemic,
has emerged as the primary issue Trump will need to address in the upcoming
campaign events with cases surging nationwide.