Defending the holding of public events during the coronavirus pandemic, US President Donald Trump, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, said he cannot stay locked in a basement as a president and, considering the risks, he has to meet people. Trump also justified not wearing a mask as much as his own administration's public health experts suggest, reacting to a query at a townhall organised by the NBC News, and said that lockdowns imposed by different states around the country to curb coronavirus cases were "unconstitutional". He has said that he is not averse to wearing a mask, but "people with masks are catching it all the time." "As a president, I have to be out there. I can't be in a basement. I can't be locked in a very beautiful room someplace in the White House. And I want to see the gold star families, and I want to see everybody. And I also say to people all the time, it's risky doing it. It is risky doing it," Trump said.

On October 1, Trump was positively tested for COVID-19 and was admitted to a military hospital for three nights and four days. After being treated with an experimental antibody drug cocktail, he pronounced himself cured. After he tested positive for COVID-19, Trump was briefly forced to delay his re-election campaign and he returned to the campaign trail from the swing state of Florida on Monday. Doctors from the White House have now cleared him of holding election rallies. When he was asked by the town hall moderator why he was not wearing a mask, Trump said, "I can, but people with masks are catching it all the time. I mean, if you look at the Governor of Virginia, he was known for a mask. If you look at Thom Tillis, a great guy, he always had a mask, and they caught it."

"You have to understand, as a president, I can't be locked in a room for the next year and just stay and do nothing. And every time I go into a crowd, I was with the parents of our fallen heroes. These people are the most incredible people. And they came up to me and they would hug me, and they would touch me, and I'm not going to let them do it, to be honest with you," he said. Trump disputed when the moderator claimed that by wearing masks, he can set an example as a leader. "But it's caught by many people. Many people get this disease that China sent to us, and it shouldn't have been allowed to happen. But this is what many people get. And I mean, no one's getting blamed. Everyone is working hard to get this thing out of our country, get it out of the world," he said.

Indicating that new infections have surged in recent weeks across Europe, Trump said, "They've done a very good job, but now you take a look today at the UK, you take a look at Spain and France and Italy. There is tremendous spike." Trump emphasised, in answer to another issue, that the lockdowns imposed by different states around the country to curtail coronavirus cases were "unconstitutional." "The fact is we're winning all these cases because it's unconstitutional what they're doing. And I think they're doing it for political reasons. But the fact is the cure, you can't let this continue to go on with the lockdowns. And I believe that on November 4th, you're going to have a lot of these governors," he said at the Town Hall.

Earlier, addressing an election rally on Tuesday, Trump said that after his experimental COVID-19 treatment, he felt like a "Superman" and spoke about his new immunity to the disease that has taken 218,000 Americans' lives.