Trump invokes own bout with Covid as voters’ doubts grow

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump and his allies looked to capitalise on his discharge from the hospital, painting his return to the White House as a triumphant metaphor for his strength and vigor a month before Election Day.
The president highlighted a supporter saying his return to the campaign trail would make him an “invincible hero.” A campaign spokesman chided Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent, for lacking the experience of contracting and beating the coronavirus, while lawmakers tweeted Internet memes about Trump defeating the virus in battle. Trump, at the same time, pointed to his own experience to implore Americans not to fear the virus, shortly before
a staged return to the White House that saw him defiantly remove his mask and pose for photos as he entered the
residence.
The president’s behaviour may excite his strongest supporters, but the risk for him is that it will cement broader perceptions he’s been too cavalier about the spread of the virus and the threat it poses. That was underscored when three more White House aides, including Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, were reported to have been infected. And an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted after Trump’s diagnosis found that 72% of voters thought he had not taken the threat of contracting the disease seriously enough.
“Don’t let it dominate you,” Trump said in a video posted to Twitter after his return.
“Don’t be afraid of it. You’re gonna beat it. We have the best medical equipment, we have the best medicines, all developed recently.”
In his Twitter video, and others posted since he entered the hospital, Trump showed no recognition that as president, he received medical care beyond the expectations of most any other human. More than 7.4 million Americans have contracted the virus and 210,000 have died since February.
Trump basked in the theatre of his release from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, carefully staged to coincide with broadcast networks’ evening newscasts. He dramatically walked out the hospital’s bronze front doors pumping his fist and flashing a thumbs-up to reporters.
He was whisked away by the presidential helicopter, swooping over a crowd of supporters standing vigil outside the
hospital. After he landed at the White House, he ascended the steps of the mansion’s South Portico to the second-story balcony. The entire journey was covered live across broadcast and cable networks.
Trump’s political opponents pointed out that he appeared to be breathing heavily, and the word “gasping” began to trend on Twitter.
Yet the moment was so picture-perfect that the president, still without a mask, re-emerged from the White House residence minutes later with a camera crew in tow to re-shoot his dramatic return.
Trump defended behaviour his critics have called reckless before he contracted the virus, including seldom wearing a mask and gathering large crowds of supporters at campaign rallies.