Despite Trump's high-stakes 'Trump defeats COVID' gamble, 'the virus is now in charge of the campaign'
When President Trump was helicoptered to the hospital with COVID-19 on Friday, "some of his campaign advisers saw a potential opportunity," Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni report at The New York Times. If Trump recovered quickly "and then appeared sympathetic to the public in how he talked about his own experience and that of millions of other Americans, he could have something of a political reset" for his flagging campaign.
Instead, the Times notes, he told people not to fear the deadly virus, returned to the White House while still contagious, started selling "Donald J. Trump Defeats COVID" commemorative coins, and "framed the virus as something akin to a weekend at a spa."
Trump's theatrical hospital check-out and White House balcony scene "won him the TV news clip he's been dreaming of from his hospital bed," Sudeep Reddy and Myah Ward write at Politico, and what happens next is flushed with "Trumpian-level suspense." But Trump and his aides "know the virus is now in charge of the campaign," they add:
Already down in the polls, they're playing their hand the only way Trump can — betting it all on a quick presidential recovery, making Trump's physical strength a metaphor for the nation. If it works, Trump could have a shot at turning a crushing October embarrassment into a come-from-behind November surprise. ...
If Trump takes a turn for the worse — some patients take weeks or months to recover from the virus at home — then his fate will be sealed before Election Day: He'll be the president who downplayed the virus while hundreds of thousands of Americans died, who mocked his opponent for following common-sense health guidelines, who shrugged off his own coronavirus threat to own the libs. [Politico]
Whatever happens with Trump's health and campaign, Politico says, "it's largely out of his hands now."
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