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WHAT TRUMP’S CORONAVIRUS CASE COULD MEAN. The entire news business stayed up all night, Thursday into Friday, reporting the news that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus. “The President and First Lady are both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence,” the White House physician, Sean Conley, said in a statement released at 1:05 Friday morning. In a tweet at 1:27 a.m., the First Lady said that both she and the president are “feeling good.”
Everything depends on the president’s condition. If he has no symptoms, or minor symptoms, then it will be critical for him to reassure the country that he is OK and fulfilling his duties as president. That should start today and continue every day going forward. It will also be a good idea for the White House to assure the nation repeatedly that Vice President Mike Pence does not have coronavirus. That started early Friday morning when the VP’s office announced that both he and Second Lady Karen Pence have tested negative.
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Then there is Trump’s role as candidate. Remember that the president, and a lot of Republicans, too, have mocked rival Joe Biden for “hiding in his basement” and appearing mostly in virtual events. Well, it now appears that coronavirus will force President Trump to adopt a Biden-style campaign, at least for the next 10 to 14 days. The Trump campaign can still gather big crowds, which he can address via video. But there will be an undeniably different dynamic to those events, because the president always feeds off the energy from a big crowd, and he can’t get the same effect sitting in front of a camera.
POLITICALLY, THE IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER IS: WE JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT EFFECT THIS WILL HAVE. Even though there are news updates every second, the old-fashioned fact is that it takes a while for major events to sink in with the public. For example, even now, on Friday morning, we don’t have a really good idea of how Tuesday’s night’s Trump-Biden debate affected the race. There was a lot of instant analysis, but people who watched the debate have been thinking about it, they’ve been talking to their friends about it, and they’ve been reading and watching news and opinion coverage about it. After several days have passed, they’ll have a solid opinion. Then we’ll know.
Now, we’ll just have to wait to see what effect Trump’s coronavirus will have on the race. What will Joe Biden say and do? Will there be a sympathy effect? Will the debates go on? Will the president’s most angry opponents temper their reaction, or stay in attack mode? Remember: It takes a while for this news to sink in. It seems like a dodge to say this, but we’ll know more later.
