On Saturday, Donald Trump held his first mass meeting in months - a performance that was supposed to be his big comeback in the election campaign.

Expectations had been screwed up a lot before the event took place at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Trump campaign stated that they had received one million ticket requests, the arena's maximum capacity of around 20,000 people was expected to be reached and there was a concern that people would not be able to keep the social distance.

The crowd that was there didn't keep a great distance from each other - but many places were empty.

Blame on counter-protesters

According to AP, staff from Trump's election campaign now say that counter-protesters, several of them Black Lives Matter supporters, who were outside the BOK Center prevented Trump supporters from entering the event. However, the news agency's own reporters on site had not seen protesters blocking the entrance for the meeting participants.

Inside the arena, Trump began his long speech by calling the counter-protesters "liars."

- I want to thank you all, you are a warrior. We had very bad people outside.

The president then talked about the recent demonstrations, and criticized the demolition of statues that have happened in connection with the protests.

"Prison if you burn the American flag"

- Americans have seen left-wing extremists burn buildings, destroy private property, damage hundreds of dedicated police ... The left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, ruin our monuments, tear down our statues and punish anyone who does not comply with their demands for total control.

Trump then went on to propose making it illegal to burn the American flag.

- Left radical in Portland, Oregon, tore a statue of George Washington and wrapped it in an American flag and set fire to it ... We should legislate that you who burn the American flag get a year in prison.

Mentioned Sweden

Trump also mentioned Sweden as the fastest - the aim was probably to take a cue against the country's infection protection strategy:

- Ask how things are going in Sweden!