Trump Uses Kung Flu Racial Slur at Tulsa Rally and Phoenix Event

Trump first used the racial term kung flu to describe COVID-19 during his first campaign rally since the pandemic began on June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Speaking to a crowd with no social distancing or mask mandates, Trump complained about the many names for the virus and said I can name Kung flu to audience laughter and applause. Three days later at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump repeated the phrase after an audience member shouted it out, receiving enthusiastic applause. The term, a phrasal portmanteau of kung fu and flu, was widely condemned as a racist slur against Asian Americans, coinciding with a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes. Trump had already been calling COVID-19 the Chinese virus since the onset of the pandemic. The incidents occurred as US cases surpassed 2.2 million and deaths exceeded 120,000.