Hundreds of people line the Rockville Pike outside Walter Reed Military Medical Center, and they got what they wanted today as President Trump took an ersatz victory lap around the hospital’s campus in the back seat of a Secret Service SUV.
As the Washington Post reports, the crowd has become something Trump craves: a political rally that came to him. Trump supporters are flocking to Bethesda to show support for the president who should be isolated given that he has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
An interchange between two people, both from Pennsylvania but strangers before they met on Rockville Pike, characterizes the emotions of the people at the de facto rally:
“My heart pulled me here,” Carri said.
“I wanted to see the emotion,” John said.
John wondered why all of Trump’s people suddenly got the virus — his campaign manager, the chairwoman of the party, a few Republican senators — all in quick succession.
“Sounds like a conspiracy,” John said.
Trump’s drive-by in a Chevy Suburban today gave him a view of a large crowd of his supporters, waving “Trump-Pence” placards and flags, versus a small group of counter-Trump demonstrators on the other side of the street.
Locals have largely avoided the groups, but in unavoidable encounters, they have met with the derision the crowd reserves for the media.