Taking a limo ride only two days after his oxygen level dropped precipitously after contracting Covid-19 Oct. 1 prompting his doctor Sean Conley to take the most aggressive medical treatment imaginable, 74-year-old President greeted his supporters outside Walter Reed Medical Center. Trump’s apparent recovery from the deadly virus obviously indicates that he’s responded well to his experimental treatment of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibodies, Gilead Sciences anti-viral drug Remdesivir and the powerful steroid dexamethasone, all of which are given in patients with severe Covid-19. Like everything else Trump does, he doesn’t hold back, telling Dr. Conley to bring it on. Trump was immediately slammed for endangering his limo driver and security detail when he should have stayed cloistered at Walter Reed Medical Center. Trump’s joy ride today suggests he’s feeling much better.
Conley knew when the president’s oxygen level dropped below 94 while quarantining at the White House, it was time to move up Trump’s level of care. Airlifting Trump from the White House lawn on Marine One helicopter to Walter Reed Oct. 2 shows that Trump’s condition warranted hospitalization and aggressive treatment. Today’s brief jaunt outside the hospital indicates that Conley thinks the commander-in-chief was doing well enough to leave the hospital. Conley said Trump medical team was starting to prepare for discharge even though Covid-19 can take a downward spiral as much as 10-14 days post infection, something doctors say happened Thursday, Sept. 30. Several members of Trump’s staff including Kellyanne Conway, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and White House Communication Director Hope Hicks also came down with the virus, showing Covid-19 travels fast.
Trump’s hospitalization for coronaviurs AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 hurts him politically, whether rational or not. It gives Democrats the perfect chance to slam the president for not taking the deadly virus seriously, even though many others, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Thom Tills (R-N.C.), also got Covid-19, attesting to the highly infectious nature of the virus. Trump took a big PR hit slowing him down with coronavirus, making 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden’s case that Trump has mismanaged the Covid-19 crisis. With 214,526 deaths in the U.S., it doesn’t look good for Trump less than a month before the Nov. 3 election. Behind in the polls and unable to campaign, Trump’s back is to the wall, getting that sinking feeling with less than a month left. Trump’s once Teflon coating has been stripped off by years of almost universal media attacks.
Getting hit with coronavirus undermines Trump invincibility, sending a bad message to undecided voters before the election. Trump’s only hope of coming from behind was an all out blitz in the last month, something only Trump could do but when healthy. While he got out of Walter Reed briefly today to wave to supporters, he’s officials quarantined for at least two weeks, assuming that Conley’s overkill treatments with polyuclounal antibodies, Remdesivir and dextramethasone continues to knock out the virus. In the best-case scenario, Trump’s sidelined for another two weeks, leaving him without too much time to make up lost ground. Biden’s campaign, while saying they stopped running negative ads, doesn’t include Biden telling voters that Trump has blown the coronavirus crisis, leaving the country with a growing death toll now at 214,526 deaths and climbing by the day.
Trump’s enemies in the media slammed him for leaving Walter Reed today to wave to supporters, endangering his driver and security detail. Conley said everyone in Trump’s detail was properly protected but the optics look bad, watching the president leave his hospital bed to score some political points. Conley discharge Trump untless he’s medical fit to leave Walter Reed, something that could happen Monday, Oct. 5, in the best case scenario. But whatever happens, Trump’s had the stuffing taken out of him, no longer with his trademark limitless energy, that enabled him, before his Covid-19 diagnosis, to keep a breakneck schedule. Trump said in a video he had “learned a lot about COVID.” “I learned it by really going to school,” Trump said, as in the school of hard knocks. Whatever Trump learned about Covid-19, it’s not going to help him jump back into campaigning.
Trump’s behind the Eight Ball now, knowing that he’s racing against the clock to make up what looks like insurmountable ground before the election. Unlike four years ago with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Trump’s well behind in battleground states, with too great of margin to make up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have decided to go all-in on the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Whether Republicans admit it or not, there strategy now is not winning Trump a second term nor even holding onto the Senate, it’s rushing Coney Barrett onto to court because it’s going to be a long time before Republicans to influence the political scene after the election. Trump’s legacy now becomes putting one more conservative on the court.
