Trump becomes vaccine advocate despite his base’s skepticism
WASHINGTON — Former president Donald Trump has repeatedly promoted vaccines and boosters to his supporters in recent days, continuing to do so even after being booed for it.
In August, Trump called extra vaccine doses a “moneymaking operation,” and in September he said that he “probably” would not get a booster. He also did not make public that he had received his first two doses during his presidency. But this week he became a vocal advocate for the shots — while maintaining an opposition to vaccine mandates.
On Sunday, during an event with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, Trump revealed to a crowd of supporters that he had gotten a booster shot. He was immediately booed, but the former president told his supporters to knock it off.
“Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,” Trump scolded, waving his hand dismissively.
“If you don’t want to take it, you shouldn’t be forced to take it — no mandates,” Trump said. “But take credit, because we saved tens of millions of lives.”
Then, during an interview published Wednesday by the Daily Wire, Trump told conservative commentator Candace Owens that the coronavirus vaccines are “one of the greatest achievements of mankind.” Owens tried to cast doubt on this, saying that “more people have died” since the vaccines became available and calling their efficacy into question. Trump interrupted her.
“Oh no, the vaccines work,” Trump told her. “The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected.”
He told Owens he takes credit for the “incredible speed” with which the vaccines were developed, and he said that “people aren’t dying when they take the vaccine.”
“The results of the vaccine are very good,” he said.
On Monday, O’Reilly said during an interview with NewsNation that the reason Trump had not discussed his booster status before was that he was afraid of alienating his anti-vaccine supporters. O’Reilly said he reassured Trump of his pro-vaccine views ahead of the event, telling him that the fact that vaccines were developed during his presidency should be part of his pitch to voters.
O’Reilly said he told Trump: “This is good for you. This is good that people see another side of you, not a political side. You told the truth, you believe in the vax, your administration did it, and you should take credit for it, because it did save, I don’t know, hundreds of thousands of lives.” O’Reilly added, “I’m trying to tell President Trump, ‘Run on your record.’ ”
“He’s going to run again, all right,” O’Reilly said.
Trump, however, told Fox News on Tuesday evening that it is tough for him to be “overly critical” of Joe Biden after the president praised his administration for the vaccines’ rollout. Earlier that day, Biden credited Trump with spurring the development of the vaccines, a day after the former president revealed he had gotten a booster.
“It may be one of the few things he and I agree on,” Biden said. “People with booster shots are highly protected. Join them. Join us.”
After the speech, Trump told Fox News that he was “surprised” by Biden’s acknowledgment and “appreciative” of it. Biden’s remarks, Trump said, “were a terrific thing.”
“It is a little tough to be overly critical now because he just thanked us for the vaccine and thanked me for what I did,” Trump said. “You know, that’s a first — so it is very tough for me
to be overly critical now.”
“I think he did something very good,” Trump added. “It has to be a process of healing in this country, and that will help a lot.”
Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz said that Trump’s promotion of the shots is “a really positive development” in the effort against the pandemic.
“This is significant,” Luntz said. “Trump telling people to get the vaccine right now will have a better, a bigger impact than anyone else, because it’s Republicans who aren’t vaccinated.”
Trump, Luntz said, probably realized he was not getting credit for the development of the shots during his presidency and knew that it was “impossible for him to ask for recognition without asking people to be vaccinated.”
Still, the former president’s promotion of the shots puts him at odds with a large portion of his base. The widest divide in vaccination rates in the United States is between Democrats and Republicans. Polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that, for every unvaccinated Democrat or Democratic-leaning independent, there are about three unvaccinated Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. Even among those who have already been vaccinated, Republicans are less likely to say they will get a booster.
The proportion of the unvaccinated that is made up of White
Republicans has steadily grown as more Americans get their shots, according to KFF data. As The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported, in January the unvaccinated population was about evenly distributed between White Democrats, White Republicans and White independents. Now almost no White Democrats are unvaccinated, so White Republicans make up far more of the unvaccinated population.
Publicly, many conservative politicians and commentators who have spoken against vaccination have done so to criticize Biden’s vaccine requirements.
Turning Point USA, a conservative youth group led by Charlie Kirk, this summer sought to rally young people against vaccine mandates in a summit during which an emergency-room doctor gave participants a script for resisting coronavirus vaccination.
And while Turning Point USA has issued dire warnings against government-backed immunization programs, Kirk has insisted he’s not anti-vaccine — just antimandates.
“If anywhere my client is represented as anti-vaccine that will be taken very seriously,” Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Kirk, told The Post in July. “This is a profreedom movement, not ‘antivax.’”
Kolvet did not respond to a request for further comment Thursday.
On Capitol Hill two weeks ago, the Senate passed a measure aimed at nullifying Biden’s mandate ordering large private businesses to require vaccination or implement comprehensive coronavirus testing for their workers. All Republicans, plus Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., supported the effort, led by Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. In its defense, some Republican senators turned to the anti-mandate, not anti-vaccine, argument.
“I’m pro-vaccine, but I’m antimandate,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters.
Owens appeared to echo the sentiment Thursday when she addressed her disagreement with Trump. In a series of tweets, Owens said that while she has “no issue with any person who wants to get the vaccine,” she will not get a shot herself.
“I do not trust the vaccine and I will never be too fearful to express my viewpoint,” Owens said.
Trump’s renewed advocacy comes as a surprise to many, given how often he downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic during its early days. He held large rallies, dismissed the rising case rates and suggested bogus, unscientific treatments. His support of vaccines has been relatively muted compared with Biden’s. He has made far fewer public appeals about them to his supporters.
Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, told The Post that while Trump’s promotion of the vaccines is noteworthy, his comments come six months “too late.”
“Since June 1, I estimate 200,000 unvaccinated Americans needlessly lost their lives to COVID by refusing vaccinations,” Hotez said. “Most are those that bought into the narrative from the CPAC conference and members of Congress that vaccines are political instruments of control, then amplified on the conservative news outlets.”
Hotez said these numbers could “easily double,” so Trump “could still help” stem “further loss of life” by going on the stump to promote vaccines.
During a press briefing Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration is “grateful” that Trump got the booster.
“We’re also grateful that he made clear in a recent interview that they’re effective and they’re safe,” Psaki said. “That’s an important message for anyone to hear. This is not a partisan issue.”