US President Donald Trump Defies COVID-19

THE AFP reported how US president Donal Trump defied COVID-19 and the polls while Biden keeps gaining.

The article reported that latest polls forecast a huge victory for Biden, with CNN giving the Democrat a national advantage of 57% to 41% among likely voters, with women voters going 66% to 32% in his favour.

Biden’s advance comes as Trump has been forced off the campaign trail after falling ill last Friday to the virus that has already killed about 210,000 Americans.

Trump is still being treated with a powerful cocktail of drugs for the coronavirus after three nights in hospital. With the 3 November election day just four weeks away, Trump is scrambling to get his re-election campaign back on track.

Donald Trump’s rapid recovery as stated by White House doctors has seen him painting himself as a fighter who took on the virus and easily won. This gives him more fuel to back his controversial position that COVID-19 is taken too seriously.

AFP also reported that Trump gave a speech from the White House on Monday telling Americans that they should stop fearing COVID-19. He told listeners that they should not let the virus dominate them.

On Tuesday Donald Trump attacked the media on his Twitter page for not paying more attention to what he said were his many successes.

The Fake News Media refuses to discuss how good the Economy and Stock Market, including JOBS under the Trump Administration, are doing. We will soon be in RECORD TERRITORY. All they want to discuss is COVID 19, where they won’t say it, but we beat the Dems all day long, also!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2020

The US president is in trouble on almost every front and what used to be his strongest card – the economy – is not helping either.

White House COVID-19 spread

Trump is working overtime to persuade voters that he is back to full strength despite the hospitalisation.

“FEELING GREAT!” he tweeted, also insisting that he is “looking forward” to holding a second scheduled debate against Biden in Miami on October 15.

In a medical bulletin, the presidential doctor said Trump “reports no symptoms” and “continues to do extremely well.”

Indicating the breadth of the coronavirus crisis overshadowing Trump politically and now personally, a viral outbreak continued to sweep through his inner circle.

Top White House aide Stephen Miller confirmed on Tuesday that he tested positive for COVID-19 and was in quarantine.

US media also reported that a military aide responsible for carrying the “nuclear football” – a briefcase containing information for the president to launch a nuclear attack while travelling – tested positive for coronavirus over the weekend. The aide had travelled with Trump to New Jersey on Thursday.

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairperson General Mark Milley also went into quarantine following contact with an infected Coast Guard officer, a Pentagon source said.

There had been speculation, even among some Republicans, that Trump might emerge from hospital chastened or at least with a new tone of empathy.

But on Twitter he returned to one of his oldest lines of argument used to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic, saying it was comparable to the ordinary flu and “we have learned to live with it”.

Twitter hid the tweet, saying that it broke the platform’s rules on “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information”.

Biden and Trump are scheduled to square off again on 15 October, but Biden told reporters: “If he still has COVID, we shouldn’t have a debate.”

“It’s a very serious problem, so I will be guided by… what the docs say is the right thing to do,” Biden said.

His running mate, Kamala Harris, meanwhile, was set to debate Vice President Mike Pence in Utah on Wednesday, with a plexiglass barrier for coronavirus prevention between the two.