TULSA, Okla.—President Trump returned to the campaign stage for the first time since March, pitching a law-and-order message and warning against an attack on “our heritage” as protests over policing and racial injustice continued across the country.
In a one-hour and 41-minute speech Saturday night before a smaller-than- expected crowd, Mr. Trump sought to portray Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, as weak on such issues. “He will always bow to the angry mob, and he will never protect you or your family,” he said. At another point, Mr. Trump said, “When you see those lunatics all over the streets, it’s damn nice to have arms.”
After Mr. Trump left the stage, the scene outside the city’s BOK Center intensified and police shot some kind of chemical agent into the crowd, causing people to cough and scatter. That came as protesters crowded the streets and surrounded several police cars and a bus full of National Guard members. Several fist fights broke out, and people in the crowd rushed to break them up. In response, members of the crowd began chants of “Peace!”
Mr. Trump, who has slipped against former Vice President Biden in polls, was seeking to tap into the excitement of his dedicated base. He invoked a “silent majority” while pledging to uphold tough positions on immigration. He criticized players kneeling at NFL games and called for jailing people who burn the American flag.
Supporters cheered at President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday.
Photo: Leah Millis/ReutersThe president spent much of the speech on other issues, including a statement that he would again seek to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, shielding young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s cancellation of the program.
Mr. Trump talked about slowing down testing for the coronavirus, echoing previous remarks that higher case numbers look bad. The president said he had saved “hundreds of thousands of lives” through actions to combat the virus. Six members of the Trump campaign team preparing for the rally tested positive and weren’t at the event, officials said.
His campaign branded the rally as a way to celebrate an economic comeback. “We were the envy of the world…and then the plague came in,” said Mr. Trump, who has seen a strong economy crippled by the pandemic, which has killed nearly 120,000 Americans. He said it was time to open up the economy and get back to work. “We’re going to go up, up, up,” he asserted.
Soon after Mr. Trump arrived, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the security perimeter surrounding the arena. They occupied a street corner, blocking traffic and holding signs that said “Black Lives Matter” and “Defund the Police.”
As Mr. Trump began to speak, a tense scene was building outside the arena. At one point, a fight broke out, and a man was taken away in handcuffs. Additional National Guardsmen arrived on the scene as Trump supporters chanted, “Four more years,” and protesters responded, “Hands up, don’t shoot!”
By night, hundreds of protesters clogged the streets around the arena, bringing traffic to a crawl. Trump supporters got into loud arguments with the protesters, who chanted, “Go home racists!” Police and National Guard members lined some of the streets, with some wearing face shields.
On stage, Mr. Trump said the protesters were “thugs” and said he tamped down demonstrations across the country and referred to statues that have been torn down. “They want to demolish our heritage so they can impose their new oppressive regime in its place,” he said.
He also continued to focus on testing and how case numbers have grown. “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people,” Mr. Trump said. “You’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’” A White House aide said that comment was meant as a joke.
Mr. Biden’s campaign called it an “outrageous moment that will be remembered long after tonight’s debacle of a rally.”
With a smaller crowd, plans were scrapped for Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to speak to an outdoor overflow audience. As Mr. Trump began to speak, the 19,000-seat arena wasn’t full, with seats in the upper deck remaining empty. Brad Parscale, the Trump campaign manager, had said on Fox News that he hoped to have 100,000 supporters at the rally inside and outside. He said that one million people had requested tickets.
Mr. Trump at length defended his halting walk down a ramp following a commencement speech at West Point earlier this month. “I was on the stage for hours, hours,” he said, noting that the sun was out and baking him “like a cake.” Mr. Trump criticized news coverage speculating on his health, saying that he was wearing leather-bottom shoes and that there was no railing. He explained why he used two hands to raise a glass of water to his lips—throwing down the glass he was holding on the stage to wild cheers.
“It’s so unfair,” Mr. Trump said of the coverage.
Protesters gathered Saturday a few blocks away from the BOK Center, where President Trump held a rally in Tulsa.
Photo: Mike Simons/Associated PressSeveral dozen protesters gathered in the city’s historic Greenwood district, about a mile away from the BOK Center. Hundreds more congregated at Veterans Park, south of the arena.
Rally organizers conducted temperature checks and handed out sanitizer and masks to people as they entered the security perimeter around the arena. Thousands of people in the arena opted against wearing masks, which were provided on the way inside.
Public-health experts have said large indoor gatherings are prime opportunities for the coronavirus to spread widely.
At least one of the organizers told attendees they only had to wear the masks until they got through security. Many people immediately removed their masks upon entering.
“I’m not that worried about it,” Dolores Van Eaton, 82 years old, said while waiting to join the tightly packed crowd.
Daniel McKenzie, 63, of Edmond, Okla., and his brother David, of Tulsa, said they weren’t concerned about the virus.
“I mean come on, we destroyed the economy over this?” Daniel McKenzie said. “It is not the job of the government to make sure I do not get sick.”
In Oklahoma, 368 people have died from Covid-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, out of more than 119,000 fatalities nationwide. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. climbed to more than 2.2 million.
Inside the security perimeter, which stretched several blocks around the BOK Center, attendees bought snacks from food trucks, snapped pictures and listened to a country-music band playing on a stage before the address.
National Guardsmen and police officers earlier lined the streets of downtown Tulsa, and many businesses boarded up their windows.
A woman wearing a T-shirt with the words “I can’t breathe,” a slogan often used by Black Lives Matter protesters, was arrested while sitting outside the BOK Center. “I’ve done nothing, I have tickets to this event,” the woman, who identified herself as Sheila Buck, said on video aired by MSNBC as she was picked up by two officers.
Tulsa police officers take a protester into custody near an entrance to a security checkpoint for President Trump’s rally.
Photo: brendan smialowski/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesMs. Buck was arrested because she was in a private event area in which the Trump campaign can request that people be removed, the Tulsa Police Department wrote on social media.
Outside the security perimeter, Trump supporters argued loudly with a pair of black women.
“All lives matter!” a man chanted into a megaphone.
“All lives can’t matter until black lives matter!” Adriana Laws, 21, of Oklahoma City responded.
“Stop acting like animals, and you won’t be treated like animals,” Stephen Fuhri, 40, of Chicago told the women, as a large crowd of observers, many recording the interaction on their phones, watched.
The Oklahoma event was being watched around the country. “I’m definitely here today because of that Tulsa rally,” said Kuffasse Boane, who took part in a New York City protest of cyclists against racism and police brutality.
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Mr. Trump’s visit to Oklahoma coincides with continued nationwide demonstrations over policing and racial-justice issues and comes a day after Juneteenth celebrations marking the end of slavery in the U.S. The Trump campaign had originally scheduled the rally for Friday but moved it back after the date choice stoked controversy.
The Rev. Kenneth Evans, 54, of Tulsa was among the people gathered at Veterans Park. He expressed frustration about the deep divide between Trump supporters and opponents in the city, and encouraged them to find common ground.
“Love one another,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about. We need to come to the table. We need to talk more.”
Write to Andrew Restuccia at Andrew.Restuccia@wsj.com, Alejandro Lazo at alejandro.lazo@wsj.com and Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com
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