Trump makes comeback to campaign trail
US President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail on Monday after declaring himself “in great shape” following his bout with coronavirus, with a rally in Orlando kicking off at least four straight days of political events.
“I’ve been tested totally negative and I’m going to be out in Florida tomorrow working very hard because this is an election we have to win,” Trump said on Sunday afternoon during a virtual event with evangelical supporters. “This is the most important election of our lives.”
The US president is expected to travel to Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, visit Iowa on Wednesday, and go to North Carolina for an event on Thursday. The jam-packed itinerary underscores the extent to which Trump is hopeful that resuming his signature rallies can help reverse polling trends that show him falling further behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Biden holds a 54%-42% lead among likely voters, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Sunday, and Trump’s diagnosis further cemented voters’ unease about his handling of the pandemic, which has rocked the US economy and left more than 214,000 Americans dead.
Two-thirds of registered voters say the president failed to take appropriate precautions against the virus, 62% distrust his comments about the disease, and 73% say they’re worried that they or an immediate family member will contract Covid-19.
Twitter on Sunday flagged a
tweet by Trump in which he claimed he was immune to the coronavirus. “A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know,” Trump said in the tweet.
“This tweet violated the Twitter rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to Covid-19,” Twitter’s disclaimer read.
Also on Sunday, top government scientist Anthony Fauci said that an ad aired by Trump’s re-election campaign was edited to make him seem to endorse the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Fauci said.
As a leading member of the White House task force on the coronavirus, the 79-year-old doctor has frequently had to walk a fine line in attempting to clarify - or correct - the US president’s often incautious assertions about the disease or the treatments and vaccines being developed against Covid-19.