US President Donald Trump turned his first campaign rally since contracting Covid-19 into an emphatic defence of his handling of the pandemic that has killed 215,000 Americans, joking he felt healthy enough to plunge into the crowd and give voters “a big fat kiss”. There was no social distancing and mask-wearing was inconsistent among the thousands who attended Mr Trump’s return to Florida. Defiant as ever about the coronavirus, the 74-year-old held forth for an hour, trying to revive his struggling campaign with just weeks left before Election Day.