PrintTrump's COVID experience will re-define him and reset the election
Rather than seal the doom of President Trump’s re-election battle, as most of his haters expect and not a few of his supporters fear, I see strong signs that President Trump will use his experience with COVID to redefine himself and act as an inflection point, resetting the election. Watch carefully for a “New Trump” to emerge from Walter Reed Hospital, I daresay a kinder, gentler Trump, one humbled by his brush with mortality and a far more sympathetic figure in the eyes of many voters who have found him a bit too much to take. Too rough around the edges, too aggressive, too arrogant, too crude...the whole nine yards of distaste that he has evoked in the eyes of his enemies and even some who support his policies.
Watch the video that he tweeted out at 2:16 P.M. yesterday, just prior to boarding The Beast for a drive past the supporters who have gathered outside Walter Reed.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2020
Pay particular attention to what he says, starting 52 seconds into the video:
It's been a very interesting journey. I've learned a lot about Covid. I've learned it by really going to school – this is the real school, this isn't a 'let's read a book school' … and I get it. And I understand it, and it's a very interesting thing and I'll be letting you know about it. And in the meantime, we love the USA and we love what's happening. Thank-you.
I think he is laying the groundwork for neutralizing the attacks on his handling of the pandemic. He's learned the hard way, by experience, not the "let's read a book school" — a clear jab at his intellectually pretentious critics. Americans love a story of an underdog who has a life-changing experience and triumphs in the face of hatred, especially when that hatred comes from snobs who think they are better than the rest of us.
I believe that Act Three of the campaign has begun, and as I have previously stressed repeatedly, President Trump understands and is the master of real-time television storytelling, AKA reality TV.
Friedrich Nietzsche famously stated, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." I would never have expected Donald Trump to be a follower of Nietzsche, but he may end up exemplifying one of his claims.
Photo credit: Twitter video screen grab.
