This marks the end
Is he or isn’t he? There’s a lot of speculation on Trump’s health. His lies have made anything he says subject to scrutiny. The fact that he announced his positive diagnosis under the name COVID 19 and not the China virus shows he did not tweet the announcement himself. Regardless, this marks the end of his Presidency.
His followers will vote for him even if he’s a corpse by November 3rd. But others who might have voted for him are now masking up, yanking their kids from school and applying for a mail-in ballot to vote for Joe. They are finally seeing the light. COVID 19 is dangerous and highly contagious. Trump’s poor health is ground zero for a bad response. Time will tell how well he fares, but with little more than 30 days to campaign, his run is virtually over.
Lots of chatter is speculating that this announcement was just another lie, in Trump’s case to get the focus off his taxes and criminality, and to generate sympathy for himself and Melania, especially after her disastrous recording bashing Christmas. But other than fomenting panic, none of this seems likely. Trump is a narcissist. He needs the attention, the rallies, the airtime, in order to feed. He won’t be able to starve during this, the most vital two weeks before the election. In addition, he hates to look weak and this positive diagnosis humiliates him.
We will see what the truth ultimately is, but best-case scenario is he’s out of the running for two weeks and this will prove deadly to his campaign. If Pence goes down with a positive diagnosis, the next in line will be President Pelosi. It’s highly unlikely Trump will allow any scenario where this is a potential outcome. In other words, he is truly positive. Given the abuse this man puts his body through with Adderall, fast food and lack of rest, he’s in amazing condition. But it’s unlikely his diagnosis will have a good outcome because he’s in that at-risk group of obese, elderly and low-income. And in the words of his son, Donald Trump Jr., “That’s a shame.”
TR Kenneth is the author of the thriller, A ROOM FULL OF NIGHT. You can read all about her at trkenneth.com and on Twitter