Donald Trump has Covid-19: the real case of the US election campaign.

First a tweet, then the official confirmation: “Tonight, the first lady and I tested positive for Covid-19,” announced the president of the United States, Donald Trump, at 0.54 am (local time) in his favorite medium. Ten minutes later, the White House circulated a short memo from Trump’s personal physician, Sean Conley: Yes, Trump’s partner was infected.

So the unthinkable became conceivable: the most powerful man in the world, who had downplayed the coronavirus for months, who had openly mocked the use of masks, who likes to present himself as invincible, has now become infected. At the age of 74.

The bad news is not just shaking up America’s election campaign in an unpredictable way, just 32 days before Election Day. It could also plunge the United States into an unprecedented crisis, a crisis the extent of which no one can foresee.

Of course, Trump’s diagnosis was not a surprise. Her closest adviser, Hope Hicks, who has been by her side since 2015, tested positive Thursday morning and is apparently ill at home. The White House initially kept Hicks’ test result a secret until it was leaked that night. Only then did the West Wing come out with the truth.

This is a shocking emergency that no one has practiced here, despite Trump’s casual attitude toward the virus, externally at least. “It is what it is“He had said, that’s right. But what happens now?

Trump’s chances of recovery are statistically good. He is said to be asymptomatic and has the best medical care in the United States. However, as an overweight elderly man with largely unclear health, he is in the high-risk group for a problematic course of disease. 80 percent of Americans who die from Covid-19 are over the age of 65.

According to personal physician Conley, Trump and the First Lady are doing well “right now.” You are in quarantine. But many unanswered questions remain. Can you continue to rule? Will you keep tweeting? What does the world discover and what can be believed in a White House that has long lost its credibility? Just the secret about Hope Hicks and Trump’s own test result, which may have been around for a long time, can be puzzling.

The two planned television debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the following week and the following week, are probably now off. That should be almost an advantage for Trump after Tuesday’s fiasco.

Even the big events of Trump’s election campaign, his rallies with tens of thousands of fans cheering him on, no masks and tight, are probably now a thing of the past. In other words, this campaign is over. That has never happened before. There are already rumors that Trump is using the crisis to postpone the election date again.

Biden must also be careful. According to media reports, Hope Hicks already showed the first symptoms on Wednesday when she and Trump flew to Minnesota to make several appearances. But were you or Trump infected on Tuesday? During the televised debate, the president and his team traveled, without masks, to a room with Biden, 77.

According to initial information from NBC, at least 20 people flew through the area with Trump aboard “Air Force One” in recent days, apart from the unsuspecting press group, and thus are in danger. Including his sons Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric, son-in-law Jared Kushner, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Attorney Rudy Giuliani, Senior Advisors Stephen Miller and Dan Scavino, and Spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany. Correctly, the entire west wing should now go into quarantine. Which would dangerously slow down the affairs of the central government of the United States. Maybe.

Trump flew to New Jersey again Thursday, when he learned of the risk, to meet with supporters behind closed doors. It is questionable that someone kept their distance or wore a mask.

Spokeswoman McEnany stayed in Washington as a precaution. However, after the situation was known internally for a long time, she calmly gave a press conference, without a mask. She didn’t say a word about Hope Hicks.

How things go from here depends entirely on how the Trump infection goes – an unpredictable prospect. If you go lightly, the consequences should be minor.

But what if Trump gets so sick that he can’t work? Then Vice President Mike Pence would take over the helm. If Pence is also infected or has already been, the administration would fall to number three on the list of successors: Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives. Of all things.

With Trump, another head of state, who downplayed the pandemic for political reasons, is now affected by the virus. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – and Boris Johnson – had already suffered this fate.

Already there are suspicions that Trump could use an illness and a possible recovery in his favor. A “Guardian” reporter already called Twitter that the British Prime Minister benefited from his own infection.