Trump Sees Campaign Opportunities Everywhere in the COVID-19 Crisis

There is ample evidence that the U.S. president is trying to turn the crisis into a campaign tool for the November elections. His attack on the WHO is just one example.

President Donald Trump decided to have his name printed on the checks that will be sent to millions of Americans as part of the crisis measures. At his press conference on Monday, he forced journalists to watch a video entitled “The Media Minimized the Risk from the Start.” And on Tuesday he pointed out a new culprit of the COVID-19 pandemic: the World Health Organization.

All indications are that the U.S. president is trying to turn the corona crisis into a campaign tool for the Nov. 3 election. In the early weeks of the outbreak, Trump avoided the subject in emails to his supporters. This month, the emails are no longer just about signed ball caps, but also about how the president is tackling the crisis. On April 11: “Do you remember when Trump closed the borders to China in January?” On April 13, “Hold China accountable.”

The most recent disclosure about this came Tuesday from The Washington Post. The newspaper wrote that Trump had urged his Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin to have the checks Americans would receive to alleviate the worst financial distress signed by Trump. However, the stimulus bill was arranged by Congress, which deals with the federal budget; the president only approved it. When it became clear that Trump was not allowed to sign U.S. Treasury checks, it was decided that Trump’s name would appear on the check’s memo line — suggesting that Trump deserves credit for getting Americans the money.

‘Good Feeling’

Trump has been criticized for his inconsistent message about the health risks of the novel coronavirus. Criticized for his premature suggestion that the United States would open back up at Easter. Criticized for his “good feeling” praise for the drug hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer” in this pandemic. He has seen the polls—which showed unprecedented positive numbers for him from mid-March to early April—return to their usual figures a week ago. More than half of Americans disapprove of his performance; fewer than 45% are satisfied.

With his back against the wall, Trump does what he has always done—hit back. The video he showed on Monday was a good example. Criticism of the president is deflected to his opponents.

After the Democrats, after disapproving governors, after the press, after China, it’s now the WHO that is the new enemy of the American government. The daily press conference on Tuesday was about almost nothing else. Trump accused the U.N. organization of “severe mismanagement and covering up” of the epidemic.

“The outbreak could have been stopped in place,” said the president. The WHO’s actions have, in his view, resulted in a “20-fold increase” in the number of cases worldwide, “and maybe much more.”

The White House press conferences have ballooned to hours-long sessions in which the president congratulates himself and his team on “the great work” they are doing and invariably points out the decision to close the borders to most travelers from China. “That saved thousands of lives,” said the president.

He vacillates between criticizing and praising various governors. When he is asked about the responsibility of the federal government to test for potential infections, he states that it is up to the states and the governors. When he is told that under the U.S. Constitution, the power to declare and end a state of emergency lies not with the federal government but with the states, Trump says he has “total authority” in that area. Fellow Republican Liz Cheney, representative for Wyoming, helpfully tweeted the text of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

’Disgraceful’

The press conferences, which were intended to provide information about the pandemic to the public, are now largely devoted to topics that have nothing to do with it. Medical experts such as Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx sometimes don’t get the opportunity to speak and wait until it’s over. Journalists play an invigorating role. They ask questions about unemployment figures, about the dismissal of the captain of an aircraft carrier, about the oil crisis. In his responses, the president drifts into musings about the pre-epidemic economy, when records were repeatedly broken. The journalist who dares to ask about the nearly 17 million newly unemployed during the daily briefing gets on his nerve. “It’s so disgraceful the way you say that.”

The New York Times recently surveyed Republican politicians. They appeared to be uncomfortable with Trump’s press conferences. “The briefings are going off the rails a little bit,” said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. “He should let the health professionals guide where we’re going to go.” Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, who has emerged as one of Trump’s staunchest allies in recent years, recently warned him, “Your opponent is no longer Joe Biden — it’s this virus.” It seems that the only thing the president absorbed from that message is the word “enemy.”