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THere was a school of thought that Donald Trump could be honored to infect himself with the coronavirus, see the light, and encourage Americans to stay safe. It lasted almost as long as the hope that he would “pivot” toward a traditional presidency after his inauguration.
Instead, Trump has sought to project the image of the strongman, flying to the White House by helicopter at sunset, standing on the balcony and removing his mask while still contagious, boasting that he feels better than 20 years ago and urging the public. to neither fear the virus nor allow it to dominate your lives.
His campaign has sent out fundraising emails preaching a similar message of if I can beat him, you can too, hoping to turn personal and political disaster into his electoral advantage against the wary Joe Biden. It is very successful for a president who sees illness as a weakness and seeks every day to become the hero of his own reality show.
“He has operated in a kind of cartoon icon his entire career, with iconic images and symbols of being a tycoon, owning a soccer team, an airline, casinos, Mar-a-Lago,” said Gwenda. Blair, Trump’s biographer. “All these incredible wealth symbols were really powerful, it was a very successful maneuver and he kept it up. So now these ridiculous and dangerous-looking photographs have a certain resonance. Of course it will continue to do that.
“Now he is going to be an ‘expert’: he has had it so that nobody can tell him anything. If you’ve ever stopped for a second before receiving medical advice, it’s over. He knows more about wars than generals; now he will know more about the coronavirus than any doctor. “
Trump, a disciple of Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking, seems determined to wish for his own dire condition to go away even if it means putting his staff in danger, Blair added. “All the people who are exposing with this, the poor Secret Service, the medical personnel, the helicopter pilots, all the White House personnel. It’s amazing. “
After Trump was discharged from the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland on Monday night, his campaign sent out fundraising emails with the subject headings: “I’M BACK!”, “Miss me? “. and “The best I’ve felt in 20 years!” They told their followers: “I tell them: don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it rule your life! “
The message was, as so often, amplified by Republican allies and the conservative media. Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz tweeted: “President Trump will not have to recover from COVID. COVID will have to recover from President Trump. #MAGA ”.
Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia tweeted an old video clip of Trump hitting a man outside a wrestling ring, but with a Covid-19 image superimposed on the man’s head. She later added: “@realdonaldtrump has proven that he is a FIGHTER and a WINNER. He fought Russia’s deception and WON. She fought the false accusation and WON. Now she’s fighting the virus and she’s still WINNING. “
And Sean Hannity, host of Fox News, even compared to Trump to the war leaders Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, suggesting that the president was offering a new version of “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Trump himself, still in treatment and with the possibility of a relapse, returned to his old form Tuesday with a series of tweets, of “FEEL GOOD!” to promise to participate in next week’s presidential debate to poke fun at “Mini Mike Bloomberg” to abruptly suspend negotiations with Democrats on Covid financial aid funding until after the election. Stocks plummeted.
As an example of public health, it has been called irresponsible to the point of criminal, the exact opposite of what a medical professional would advise.
Zac Petkanas, director of the coronavirus war room at health lobby Protect Our Care, said: “What strikes me is that it’s not just the signals Donald Trump sends by removing a mask and not engaging in social distancing they are clearly bad for public health, setting a terrible example to the people, but it is also bad policy.
“The American people are overwhelmingly on the side with the experts and the science; they want their leaders to encourage them to make smart decisions to keep their families safe. And so Donald Trump is not only prolonging the pandemic by telling his supporters that wearing a mask is a political statement rather than a public health necessity, he is actually hurting himself with the voters he should try to woo. right now to keep your job. “
Petkanas added: “It is puzzling on all fronts and I would put it down to the medication they gave him, except this is the way he has been behaving since he stepped off the escalator in 2015. This is what it is.”
Trump has spent much of the year downplaying the virus, holding campaign rallies with little physical distancing and mocking Biden for wearing a mask. But the former vice president has a 16-point lead over Trump among likely voters nationwide, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “Potentially, his followers will become more energetic because of this. One of his big problems is getting the blue-collar whites to support him at the polls; they don’t have a high turnout record and that’s where their vote is.
“So maybe this will help you, but you don’t win votes on this basis. It has been so irresponsible and everyone sees it. The whole year has been in one piece. I think he’s mad at the virus for ruining his chances of re-election. “
Moe Vela, A former senior adviser to Biden in the White House added:
“It’s just another part of their hateful, divisive mentality of them against us. But it alienates the rest and I have bad news for them: the rest are a much larger number than their base. “
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