President Trump’s use of hydroxychloroquine is another example of a populist president aligning himself with supporters who view the country’s establishment leaders with suspicion, according to some allies and Republican strategists.
In this case, the opponent is a scientific elite believed by many among Trump’s base to be holding up an economic revival highhandedly for ordinary people by counseling too much caution about the contagion.
Monday’s announcement that the president had been taking the controversial malaria drug as protection against COVID-19 brought a withering barrage of condemnation and ridicule from critics, citing research suggesting its anti-coronavirus properties were unproven at best and dangerous at worst.
But that was not the point, according to John Feehery, a veteran Republican strategist.
“There’s the medical establishment per se, and then, there are medical doctors on the ground who are prescribing this drug and have been for quite a while,” he said.
“The media loves to cite experts, but a lot of folks have been experted out of jobs for a generation.”
BY embracing the use of hydroxychloroquine, Trump has distanced himself from elements of his own administration — from the Food and Drug Administration to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force. His scientific advisers have cautioned against using the drug, but they have also been blamed for holding back efforts to reopen the country.
The move was consistent with a president who had protected the coal industry, for example, against scientists warning of climate change, said Feehery. “One man’s scientist is another man’s job killer,” he said.
Trump was an early champion of hydroxychloroquine when preliminary studies from China and France suggested it might help treat COVID-19. Trump repeatedly talked up its use, saying: “What do you have to lose?”
Since then, follow-up studies have failed to show any benefit.
However, Trump returned to the theme on Monday, saying he had been taking the medicine for about a week and a half after discussing it with his doctor.
“I was just waiting to see your eyes light up when I said this,” he told reporters at the White House, hinting that he knew the controversy he was igniting.
The result is the sort of headline-generating moment that has defined the Trump presidency: A nation that was split at the time of his election divides once again.
With his administration under sustained fire for its handling of the pandemic and some polls suggesting November’s election might be slipping from his grasp, critics even wondered if it was all distraction rather than substance.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said he did not believe the president was even taking the drug.
“This certainly was thrown out as a distraction because the president always wants to distract from his failures and certainly now probably wants to distract from the fact the secretary of state was being investigated and that the president was being investigated for Saudi arms sales. And so, they fired the investigator,” he said, raising Friday’s dismissal of the State Department inspector general.
But for supporters, the issue is not a mere distraction. Why shouldn’t the president take a medicine that is already being prescribed during a pandemic?
Michael Johns, a Tea Party co-founder and former pharmaceuticals executive, said the issue was not about politics. Hydroxychloroquine had been thoroughly tested for other conditions, and all medications should be available to the public during an emergency.
“The view of most Americans is that doctors make a decision based on the circumstances of each individual on what therapy is or is not appropriate, depending on their demographics, state of the condition, any contraindications,” he said.
The key objection to it — that it might reduce availability for lupus or arthritis patients — he added, had not been fully articulated or understood by much of the country.
But even some Trump supporters say they are wearying of the constant controversy that sees the president putting himself in the firing line, whether it’s headlines about using disinfectant to treat COVID-19 patients or hydroxychloroquine.
Chuck Molinari, who owns a fitness equipment store in Pennsylvania, said Trump should have kept quiet.
“Whatever he does, it’s going to be presented by the media in whatever way that they want to twist it,” he said. “Maybe he should keep it to himself, and then after this is all over, he can explain why he didn’t get sick.”
