This is Trump’s worst tweet ever — no, really
President Donald Trump has sent a lot of terrible tweets in his day, but this one is the worst: “I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
Telling Americans they shouldn’t “be afraid of Covid” is a public health catastrophe. And in trying to project strength as his bid for re-election falters badly, Trump has picked the worst possible message for the final stretch of his campaign. There have been a lot of bad tweets over the years, but it’s hard to conceive of another that combines such a disastrous twofer.
It should go without saying by now, but the coronavirus is scary and serious — more than 7 million Americans have contracted it, and more than 200,000 of them have died. Most Americans understand the gravity of the situation: In a Quinnipiac poll last month, 70 percent of likely voters said they trusted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists more than Trump for information on the coronavirus, and two-thirds of Americans are either “somewhat” or “very” worried that they or someone they know will contract the virus. But 21 percent of Quinnipiac’s respondents — including 51 percent of Republicans
— said they trusted Trump more than the scientists.
That’s still a lot of people. And what has Trump decided to do with their trust? The president is playing with fire. Sure, this specific tweet may get swallowed up in the insanity of the news cycle. But the message that Trump fought off the coronavirus and his followers can, too, has already been amplified by voices ranging from Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who tweeted an edited video of Trump at a professional wrestling match to make that argument, to Fox News. They’re speaking to a huge base of people who trust and support Trump. The drumbeat of this flawed argument, combined with the signals Trump and his supporters and family send by their failures to wear masks at official functions, adds up, sending mixed messages to both his devotees and the broader public and impeding nationwide efforts to fight the virus.
The political dimension of this tweet is less important than its public health implications. But even taking that into account, Trump’s instincts here are bafflingly off-base.
Even before Trump blurted out this latest thought, Americans were already fed up with his response to COVID-19. According to FiveThirtyEight’s tracker of public opinion on the subject, only 40 percent approve of how Trump has handled the virus, and 56 percent disapprove. Over the weekend, Ipsos found that 65 percent of Americans agreed that “if President Trump had taken coronavirus/COVID-19 more seriously, he probably would not have been infected with the coronavirus/ COVID-19.” Similarly, two-thirds of Americans believe Trump handled the risk of infecting others irresponsibly, according to a CNN survey, and almost 70 percent said they trusted little of what they heard from the White House.
So Trump’s cavalier attitude about his own infection likely won’t help him on this issue. Sure, 69 percent of Americans think strength is a “very important” personal quality for a president. But 81 percent say taking responsibility is very important, and 76 percent think competence is a key quality.
Trump’s latest tweet is emblematic of his broader strategy: Play down the crisis and hope it blows over. So far, that strategy hasn’t worked — from a political or public health standpoint. This outburst can only make things worse.