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US-Präsident Donald Trump ist laut eigenen Angaben mit SARS-CoV-2 infiziert.
© ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS
Washington – An already dramatic US election campaign is getting even more confusing, just a month before the divided superpower votes. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, is infected with the corona virus. Depending on how the president’s state of health develops in the next few days, serious scenarios are conceivable. But it is already clear that the infection will have consequences.
What is known so far about the Trump infection?
Trump’s personal physician, Sean Conley, said he received a positive test result Thursday night. Donald and Melania Trump are fine, if that means they have no symptoms of Covid 19 disease remains open. American journalists wrote on Twitter that they wanted to hear something change in his voice during that night’s interview. “Please be assured that I expect the President to continue to serve uninterruptedly during his recovery,” Conley wrote. The president and the first lady, therefore, want to stay in the White House. Trump was optimistic: “We will get through it TOGETHER,” he wrote on Twitter.
What do we know about Trump’s overall health and possible risk factors?
Trump is 74 years old. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the risk of serious illness between the ages of 50 and 60 increases with coronavirus infections. Pre-existing conditions such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes are other risk factors. Once a year a medical check-up is published on Trump’s general condition; this is common among presidents of the United States. Trump’s doctor, Conley, wrote in her last report in early June that the president was still healthy. Trump weighed a good 110 kilograms at the time. At about 6 feet tall, Trump was still just above the 30 threshold when calculating his body mass index, above which he is considered obese in the statistics.
Who will take power if a president of the United States is absent due to illness or even dies?
The rules of representation for a temporarily incapacitated American president were not formalized until the 1960s. The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, stipulates, among other things, that business they can pass from the incumbent to the vice president, during a certain period of time or until further notice. If a president is unwilling or unable to resolve his own failure, the vice president and a majority of the cabinet members can signal to Congress that the vice president will take office. However, this has not happened since the amendment went into effect.
The constitutional amendment also regulates the succession in case of death, resignation or impeachment: then the previous vice president would have all the powers, in the case of Trump, Mike Pence. If Pence was also out, it would be the turn of the Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
What does Trump’s corona infection mean for the US election campaign?
The president and the first lady are in quarantine in the White House. So for now there are no more public appointments. That alters the whole dynamic 32 days before the elections and 13 days before the next television debate. How the electoral campaign continues: open. Not to mention what would happen if Trump got seriously ill.
But even if Trump survives the infection without any health problems, this should have an impact. Perhaps now, even more than usual, all the attention is on the Republican, while he does not have to respond publicly. An unexpected situation for the Democrats, which forces them to reschedule.
On the other hand, critics who accuse Trump of always downplaying the virus must feel confirmed. One of the electoral trump cards of Trump’s camp is the president’s goal of a swift replacement of the post of judge in the highest court of the United States, the powerful Supreme Court: Trump’s infection now could guarantee that this controversial personality not make headlines as much as expected.
Bottom line: It’s still unclear whether the infection will ultimately harm Trump or could even benefit. He immediately and wildly speculated on Twitter about an election campaign maneuver without the slightest evidence of it, also a symptom of the irritable mood.
📽️ Video | Marlovits (ORF) on Trump’s corona infection
Could the election date be postponed?
The obstacles to a postponement are extremely high, because the date is set by law from 1845. A change would be necessary by Congress, which could also be challenged in court. In Congress, the House of Representatives is controlled by Democrats. Also, only a few weeks would be gained in this way, because the rest of the calendar is set out in the constitution and is therefore even more rigid. The start date of the new congress is, therefore, January 3 and the new president takes office on January 20. The question had already played a role this year: The president had brought a postponement to the discussion in July before distancing himself from the idea again.
How has Trump behaved so far in the crown crisis?
Trump generally does not wear a mask in public and has repeatedly disparaged his challenger Joe Biden for wearing masks, most recently on Tuesday. Trump and the White House always cited the reason why the president and those around him were regularly tested for the corona virus.
The president’s political course in the crisis has been the subject of harsh criticism. The pandemic is particularly severe in the United States, with more than 200,000 people in the country dying in connection with Sars-CoV-2. But the president’s main focus was shifting responsibility to China, the World Health Organization, or the democratic governors of the United States, and quickly bringing the reopening of the economy to the fore.
In an interview with investigative journalist Bob Woodward, he admitted that he had downplayed the risk posed by the virus. In his defense, the president stated that he did not want to provoke panic among the population. Trump himself recently emphasized that without his administration’s crisis management, the United States would have “two million, two and a half million and three million” dead.
How is Joe Biden?
Biden (77), runs as an alternative to Trump. The former vice president of Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama demonstratively held back with appearances at the scene due to the crown crisis and always wears a mask in public. Trump has already mocked him for this and presented it as a sign of weakness. “If I were a psychiatrist, I’d say the guy has a lot of problems,” Trump said.
However, multiple polls have shown that the majority of American voters are more likely than Trump to trust former Vice President Biden to control the pandemic. It will be interesting to see how Biden reacts now to the Trump infection. It was not initially known if Biden had been tested for the corona virus in recent days. On Tuesday, he met with President Trump in the first television debate.
Which prominent politicians have already owned Corona?
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson (56) was already sick with Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic in the spring and even had to be treated in the intensive care unit at times. Like Trump, Johnson didn’t take it too seriously at first with the discipline of the crown: “I keep shaking hands,” he announced in the spring. But his serious illness made it clear to the British: “I can’t thank you enough,” he said shortly after his discharge from the intensive care unit about his doctors and nurses. “I owe you my life.”
And then there was the situation in Brazil, which has a certain parallel with that of the United States: poor crisis management, tens of thousands of deaths, and then the president himself infected. Right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro fueled internal political tensions, then became infected and downplayed Corona (“minor flu”). After that, your polls were better than for a long time. (WHAT, dpa)
