

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.


Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

At least 17 people received medical treatment for heat-related illnesses during U.S. President Donald Trump's packed campaign rally in Tampa, Florida on Thursday, October 29, 2020. (Photo: Screenshot/HuffPost video)
"Trump is just going around the country giving people Covid-19, hypothermia, and heat strokes."
That is how one observer summarized the mounting consequences stemming from President Donald Trump's increasingly dangerous rallies following reports of at least a dozen attendees suffering from heat-related illnesses being rushed to a Tampa-area hospital during Trump's packed campaign event on Thursday.
In addition to those who were hospitalized after waiting for several hours in 87-degree heat in a congested crowd, another five people required medical attention and were treated at the scene, according to NBC News.
The Florida debacle came just two days after 30 people who attended Trump's exhibition in Omaha, Nebraska required medical attention, including several taken to the hospital with possible hypothermia, when the president abandoned them in freezing cold weather without transportation from the stands to the parking lot where their vehicles sat, nearly four miles away.
This week's Trump rally fiascos prompted a flurry of reactions on social media.
"Freezing his supporters on Wednesday, baking them on [Thursday], possibly exposing them to the coronavirus on both days," noted journalist Aaron Rupar. "There's truly no place more fun than a Trump rally."
Author Rick Newman pointed out "all the things you can get at a Trump rally: heat stroke, hypothermia, Covid-19."
"Trump's rallies pose a risk not only to participants themselves, but also to others in the communities in which they are held."
--Center for American Progress
The "Trump campaign goes into the home stretch by infecting, freezing, and now burning its own supporters," tweeted economic analyst Patrick Watson.
Even before Trump subjected his backers to Florida's harsh weather, many commentators--including Common Dreams columnist Abby Zimet--had already drawn attention to the highly symbolic nature of this week's campaign events, which demonstrate the president's evident disregard for the nation's public health, and even his own supporters' well-being.
"Trump in a nutshell," wrote Zimet in response to the president departing Omaha on the Air Force One while leaving his fans stranded in dangerous conditions with no plan.
It is important to note that the negative impacts flowing in the wake of these campaign spectacles are not confined to the bleachers where they occur.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this week, Trump's overcrowded campaign rallies are associated with county-level increases in Covid-19 cases, suggesting that the president's in-person events attracting thousands of people may be unnecessarily intensifying the spread of coronavirus throughout the country.
"Trump's rallies pose a risk not only to participants themselves," said the Center for American Progress in a recent report, "but also to others in the communities in which they are held."
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
"Trump is just going around the country giving people Covid-19, hypothermia, and heat strokes."
That is how one observer summarized the mounting consequences stemming from President Donald Trump's increasingly dangerous rallies following reports of at least a dozen attendees suffering from heat-related illnesses being rushed to a Tampa-area hospital during Trump's packed campaign event on Thursday.
In addition to those who were hospitalized after waiting for several hours in 87-degree heat in a congested crowd, another five people required medical attention and were treated at the scene, according to NBC News.
The Florida debacle came just two days after 30 people who attended Trump's exhibition in Omaha, Nebraska required medical attention, including several taken to the hospital with possible hypothermia, when the president abandoned them in freezing cold weather without transportation from the stands to the parking lot where their vehicles sat, nearly four miles away.
This week's Trump rally fiascos prompted a flurry of reactions on social media.
"Freezing his supporters on Wednesday, baking them on [Thursday], possibly exposing them to the coronavirus on both days," noted journalist Aaron Rupar. "There's truly no place more fun than a Trump rally."
Author Rick Newman pointed out "all the things you can get at a Trump rally: heat stroke, hypothermia, Covid-19."
"Trump's rallies pose a risk not only to participants themselves, but also to others in the communities in which they are held."
--Center for American Progress
The "Trump campaign goes into the home stretch by infecting, freezing, and now burning its own supporters," tweeted economic analyst Patrick Watson.
Even before Trump subjected his backers to Florida's harsh weather, many commentators--including Common Dreams columnist Abby Zimet--had already drawn attention to the highly symbolic nature of this week's campaign events, which demonstrate the president's evident disregard for the nation's public health, and even his own supporters' well-being.
"Trump in a nutshell," wrote Zimet in response to the president departing Omaha on the Air Force One while leaving his fans stranded in dangerous conditions with no plan.
It is important to note that the negative impacts flowing in the wake of these campaign spectacles are not confined to the bleachers where they occur.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this week, Trump's overcrowded campaign rallies are associated with county-level increases in Covid-19 cases, suggesting that the president's in-person events attracting thousands of people may be unnecessarily intensifying the spread of coronavirus throughout the country.
"Trump's rallies pose a risk not only to participants themselves," said the Center for American Progress in a recent report, "but also to others in the communities in which they are held."
"Trump is just going around the country giving people Covid-19, hypothermia, and heat strokes."
That is how one observer summarized the mounting consequences stemming from President Donald Trump's increasingly dangerous rallies following reports of at least a dozen attendees suffering from heat-related illnesses being rushed to a Tampa-area hospital during Trump's packed campaign event on Thursday.
In addition to those who were hospitalized after waiting for several hours in 87-degree heat in a congested crowd, another five people required medical attention and were treated at the scene, according to NBC News.
The Florida debacle came just two days after 30 people who attended Trump's exhibition in Omaha, Nebraska required medical attention, including several taken to the hospital with possible hypothermia, when the president abandoned them in freezing cold weather without transportation from the stands to the parking lot where their vehicles sat, nearly four miles away.
This week's Trump rally fiascos prompted a flurry of reactions on social media.
"Freezing his supporters on Wednesday, baking them on [Thursday], possibly exposing them to the coronavirus on both days," noted journalist Aaron Rupar. "There's truly no place more fun than a Trump rally."
Author Rick Newman pointed out "all the things you can get at a Trump rally: heat stroke, hypothermia, Covid-19."
"Trump's rallies pose a risk not only to participants themselves, but also to others in the communities in which they are held."
--Center for American Progress
The "Trump campaign goes into the home stretch by infecting, freezing, and now burning its own supporters," tweeted economic analyst Patrick Watson.
Even before Trump subjected his backers to Florida's harsh weather, many commentators--including Common Dreams columnist Abby Zimet--had already drawn attention to the highly symbolic nature of this week's campaign events, which demonstrate the president's evident disregard for the nation's public health, and even his own supporters' well-being.
"Trump in a nutshell," wrote Zimet in response to the president departing Omaha on the Air Force One while leaving his fans stranded in dangerous conditions with no plan.
It is important to note that the negative impacts flowing in the wake of these campaign spectacles are not confined to the bleachers where they occur.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this week, Trump's overcrowded campaign rallies are associated with county-level increases in Covid-19 cases, suggesting that the president's in-person events attracting thousands of people may be unnecessarily intensifying the spread of coronavirus throughout the country.
"Trump's rallies pose a risk not only to participants themselves," said the Center for American Progress in a recent report, "but also to others in the communities in which they are held."