Chillin' in Omaha

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump, the narcissist, is a person focused on getting his own needs met and doesn't give a damn - literally - about the needs of anyone else.   

Trump's me-first-and-only-me attitude was highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic where he downplayed the severity of the crisis to the American people by telling us initially that it was little more than a political hoax that would soon disappear - and then as the crisis began to expanding exponentially, he sloughed off its significance by calmly noting that "It is what it is."  

The pandemic did become a bit more urgent to Trump when he, himself, came down with the disease last month and he spent four days in a luxury suite at the military's premier hospital.   Once that personal crisis had passed, Trump was right back holding rallies and political events which routinely put others at risk - though he seemed to show more caution regarding his own health.

Last night Trump held one of his big rallies at an airfield near Omaha, Nebraska.  Many of the attendees had to park more than three miles away, and the Trump campaign hired buses to bring them to the field where Trump spoke.   A reporter on the scene estimated that more that 6,000 people were present.  Law enforcement and campaign officials said they thought the crowd was more in the neighborhood of 10,000, and Trump, ever the exaggerator, said during the speech that 29,000 people were there.

Whatever the number, it was a lot of people, and it was cold (31 degrees f.), and some attendees were not dressed appropriately for the weather.   

Donald Trump, ever the windbag s well as the exaggerator,, spoke for nearly an hour before finally wrapping it up and leaving the outdoor stage shortly before 9:00 p.m.  As he got aboard the roast-toasty Air Force One for a comfortable flight to his hotel in Vegas, the people who had been bused his speech were shivering and beginning to get concerned about their buses - buses which hadn't shown to take them back to their cars.  

There was a lot of confusion and bewilderment as the wait for the buses began to stretch into hours, and some people began walking the three miles to the parking lot.  Others hunkered down and kept waiting.  Apparently there was insufficient number of buses on hand, and those buses that were waiting in the parking lot had trouble making it back to the airfield due to traffic and walkers on the single-lane roadway.  City buses were called in to help with the situation.  

It was a colossal planning failure, a failure which must belong in large measure to the Trump campaign and the local GOP, whether they acknowledge any ownership of the catastrophe or not.

After a couple of hours the buses finally started arriving, and many people were headed to their cars by midnight.  The final group reportedly got on the buses at 12:40 a.m., or around four hours after Trump ended his performance.  (Or five hours after the outdoor speech began.)

Last night there were reports that seven people at the Trump event had to be taken to local hospitals.  There were also accounts of police at the scene passing out blankets and letting elderly people get warm inside of their patrol cars.  Police reports indicated that some attendees were showing sigs of hypothermia, including fatigue and confusion.  

It had been a very hard night for the crowd in Omaha, but not for Donald Trump.  He would be on the ground in Vegas before many of his Nebraska supporters even reached their homes.  

Donald Trump was fine, and as for the folks who had been left behind in Omaha . . .  well, it is what it is.