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Less than two weeks after he tested positive for coronavirus, an exuberant United States President Donald Trump made a comeback to the campaign trail with a rally in Sanford, Florida stating that he felt "so powerful" that he wanted to "kiss everyone" in the audience.
Walking off Air Foce One at the Orlando Sanford International Airport onto a stage, Trump played down the coronavirus and said "22 days from now we're going to win this state, we're going to win four more years at the White House."
"I feel so powerful," said Trump.
"I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there, I'll kiss everyone in that audience. I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women ... everybody," he said.
Prior to his speech Trump tossed masks into the crowd.
In a memorandum issued Monday night, White House Physician Dr Sean Conley said that Trump "has tested negative, on consecutive days" using the Abbott BinaxNOW antigen card.
"Repeatedly negative antigen tests, taken in context with additional clinical and laboratory data, including viral load, subgenomic RNA, and PCR cycle threshold measurements, as well as ongoing assessment of viral cultural data, all indicate a lack of detectable viral replication," he said.
"This comprehensive data, in concert with the CDC's guidelines for removal of transmission-based precautions, have informed our medical team's assessment that the President is not infectious to others," Conley said.
At the rally, the President said that he was in great shape and that he was not an "old person", labelling the people who criticise this statement as "sickest of them all".
"I am not an old person. I am very young and I am in such perfect shape. I am in such great shape that and they said, 'Donald Trump misrepresented today again. He said he was in great shape, but he was young. "These people are the sickest of them all," he added.
In his address he said that United States has been teaching China as "they have never been taught before".
"We have been beating China, we have been beating everybody. Until the plague came, we were teaching China like they never have been taught before--they know it and they have told me that. They thought it could never happen We have been beating China and we have been beating everybody," Trump said.
Trump also slammed his counterpart, Joe Biden, for calling him a xenophobic for "locking down" China, "which was a terrible thing he called me."
"When I locked down China, which was in January, ultimately admitted that I am right. Nobody acted as fast as I did. We saved millions of lives. We are at 210,000 deaths -- we shouldn't be at one. It is China's fault; they allowed this to happen, they allowed this to escape," he added.
Trump again reiterated the fact that his administration would be delivering a vaccine for COVID-19 adding that 'no country' has recovered the way the US has.
"Under my administration, we are delivering a safe vaccine and a rapid recovery like nobody can. No country in the world has recovered the way we have recovered -- economically or otherwise," he said.
Resuming his re-election campaign from the battle ground State of Florida on Monday, Trump who is trailing behind his Democratic rival Biden in the run up to the November 3 elections, said that this is the most important election in the history of the United States.
"This is the most important election in the history of our country. And I used to say it in 2016. I'm sorry at the time. I thought it was. These people are crazy. We have to win," Trump said addressing thousands of his supporters.
"
Most important we've ever had. Biden has made a corrupt bargain in exchange for his party's nomination. He's handed control to the socialist, the Marxist, and the left-wing extremists. And you know that. And he's got no strength left. He's got no power left. He's got nothing going," he said.
Trump said if Biden won, the radical left will be running the country, asserting that and they are addicted to power.
"God help us if they ever got it. Because we would never have the same country again and you couldn't make a comeback. You don't make comebacks from where they'd take us. If I do not sound like a typical Washington politician, it's because, frankly, I'm not a politician. I'm embarrassed by the term," Trump said.
"Joe Biden is also owned by the radical globalist, the wealthy donors, the big money, special interest who shipped away your jobs, shut down your factories, through open your borders, and ravaged our cities while sacrificing American blood and treasure in this ridiculous endless wars, set up endless wars that we've been in for a long time. 19 years," he said.
The troops are now coming back home, he said.
"They are all coming back home, you know that, right? They're all coming back home. Are great warriors, are great soldiers," he said.
"The corrupt political class is desperate to regain their power by any means necessary. We're the ones standing in their way. Were the one standing up for the American worker, the American family, and for the American dream, and that's what we're doing in this beautiful evening," Trump said.
With the crucial elections just 22 days ahead, Trump exuded confidence of winning Florida, the battle ground State where, according to Real Clear Politics, Biden is leading by 3.5 percentage points.
Florida has 29 electoral college votes.
Trump had narrowly won by a narrow 1.2 percentage or just 112, 911 votes.
To win elections, a candidate needs to win 270 of the 538 votes.
In 2016, Trump had received 304 electoral college votes as against 227 by his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.
Based on their population, every State sends different number of members to the electoral college.
California sends the maximum 55 members to the electoral college, followed by Texas 38, while Florida and New York send 29 each. Seven States -- Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming -- along with District of Columbia send three members each.
Addressing his supporters, Trump alleged that Biden and the Democratic socialists will kill their jobs, dismantle police departments and dissolve borders.
"Release criminal aliens. Confiscate our guns. No more Second Amendment get used to it. Destroy our suburbs and drive God from the public square. That's what's going to happen. You saw in the Pledge of Allegiance during the Democrat National Convention they took the word "God" out twice," he alleged.
Biden even refuses to answer questions on the packing of the Supreme Court., he said.
"Nobody even thought of that for many, many, many decades. And that's what they want to do. They can't get their legitimately so they say that's all right we'll just pack the court. We'll put a lot of super lefties on the court and we'll have a whole different country. Not going to happen that way. We're not going to let it happen, you got to get out and vote," he said.
With inputs from PTI