President Donald Trump is back in campaign mode, which apparently means another classic legal disclaimer of rights.
Attendees at Trump’s next-scheduled campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma slated for June 19 must promise that they will not sue the 45th president’s reelection campaign–or any of the event hosts or organizers–if they show up and then contract the novel coronavirus widely known as COVID-19.
Per a disclaimer:
By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.
The text appears on the general admission ticket form for those interested in joining Trump at the already-criticized Juneteenth rally.
Juneteenth is the day the Emancipation Proclamation–which freed all enslaved persons in the Confederacy but not in the border states–was belatedly read to slaves in Texas by Union general Gordon Granger because the original issuance of that watershed order had not reached most black people in Texas upon its immediate issuance.
Tulsa, conversely, is the site of the Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921. During that horrific incident, white residents and authorities waged a two-day reign of terror and bloodshed against the economically prosperous, affluent and black-owned Greenwood District. Up to 300 people were killed and millions of dollars of damage were exacted against the black population in what is widely considered “the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.”
Trump supporters attending the Tulsa rally amid that backdrop will, per the terms of the admission ticket, have to contend with the possibility of contracting the often deadly contagion. Also, per the liability disclaimer, they are being led to believe there’s no legal recourse if such sickness results from their attendance.
“All that’s missing is an arbitration clause for whatever issues this liability waiver somehow doesn’t cover,” legal journalist and attorney Mike Sacks noted via Twitter.
Criticism of the COVID clause kept on coming.
“This is truly unbelievable,” wrote Daniel Jacobson, an attorney who previously worked in the Obama White House. “The Trump Campaign is admitting that they are exposing people at their rallies to risk of COVID-19 infection, and the campaign is trying to disclaim liability if and when the rallies cause their supporters to get sick.”
“Is this for real?” former ambassador Bruce A. Heyman tweeted. “This is one time you should read the fine print.”
“An NDA for MAGA,” commented author Olga Lautman.
Other commentators were a bit snarkier when dealing with the language.
“Anyone have Trump sacrificing his followers and making them sign an NDA on their lunatic bingo card?” asked a popular #Resistance Twitter account allegedly run by a former White House staffer.
“People sometimes call Trumpism a death cult but this is a bit on the nose,” said Vox’s Aaron Rupar.
CNN correspondent Jim Acosta tidily summed up the disclaimer. “Rally… at your own risk,” he tweeted.
[image via Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images]