Friend,

Today Trump is holding his first campaign rally since before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Here are some outrageous facts about Trump’s rally today:

• He initially scheduled it for yesterday, Juneteenth, a day to recognize and continue the fight for Black people’s liberation. After backlash, he switched the rally to today, but falsely claimed that “no one had ever heard of Juneteenth” and bragged that his actions “made Juneteenth very famous” (never mind the fact that 47 states and the District of Columbia commemorate or observe the holiday).
• It’s in Tulsa, the site of one of our country’s worst massacres of Black Americans.
• He threatened any people protesting his Tulsa rally with violence, in a pattern of illegally responding to our calls for justice with brutal repression.
• Tulsa’s top health official warns that Trump’s rally will be a “super-spreader” event, massively spreading the coronavirus at a time when Tulsa’s COVID-19 cases are already on the rise.

Sign now: Demand that Trump resign.

Just a few days ago, Trump said he had no regrets about tweeting out: “When the looting starts the shooting starts,” which he acknowledged was a threat to Minneapolis protesters. Twitter flagged his tweet for glorifying violence.

He repeated the same phrase (“when the looting starts, the shooting starts”) used by a Miami police chief just before brutal police repression of civil rights protests in 1968. That chief then said, “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality… This is war.” In addition, Trump called protesters the racist term “thugs.” His response marks a sharp contrast from his strong support for white protesters who protested pandemic stay-at-home orders the weekend before George Floyd’s death sparked uprisings.

When his white base showed up to state capitals armed with military-grade weapons protesting COVID protections, he supported them. But when Black people and others rose up in defense of Black lives, Trump threatened to deploy active-duty soldiers to violently suppress protests.

When Atlanta police killed Rayshard Brooks for sleeping in his car, Trump called it a "terrible situation" but added that "you can’t resist a police officer”—basically justifying the recent fatal shooting.

In fact, he’s more concerned about the police officer who was just fired and charged with felony murder. Trump said of the officer: “I hope he gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country. They have not been treated fairly, but again you can’t resist a police officer like that, and they ended up in a terrible disagreement.” Wow. That response is unacceptable.

This racist pattern is why Black leaders are demanding for Trump to resign, one of the three main demands of this Juneteenth weekend—in addition to divesting from the police and investing in Black communities.

One of the highest-ranking Black officials in the State Department, who has served in the Trump administration since its first day, just resigned over Trump’s reactions to the uprisings calling to defend Black lives. Republican leaders and his own defense leaders are calling to rename military bases to stop honoring Confederate military figures, which Trump’s ignored.

Sign the petition now to demand Trump resign.

Trump has a long history of racist fear mongering and weaponizing hate, inciting violence against people who dare question him, especially against people of color.

Before even campaigning for the presidency, he used racist “birther” conspiracies against President Obama to stoke flames of violence and division in our country. And while campaigning, he threatened protesters at his rallies with violence. When he came to Detroit before the election, I joined brave women in protest, getting thrown out of his campaign event while demanding he read the Constitution.

While in office, he’s violated our Constitution numerous times in service of white nationalism, including by threatening our rights to protest and illegally abusing his power to push xenophobic actions in defiance of Congress.

That’s why I led the charge to impeach Trump, which we won.

And he just keeps making the case for his removal: Just a few weeks ago, he tear gassed protesters, church clergy, and journalists for a political stunt and photo op in front of a church.

It’s time to end his reign of terror.

Sign now: Trump must resign immediately.

In solidarity,

Rashida