Analysis: The Trump presidency is now the coronavirus presidency

For better or for worse, and despite US President Donald Trump’s efforts, coronavirus and Trump are forever entwined: It has defined his presidency and may likely decide his political fate. Trump has struggled to rewrite the script of the 2020 campaign to shift it from being a referendum on his presidency and his handling of the pandemic and instead on defining Joe Biden as a “disaster” for the country. He was on tape downplaying the virus as far back as February. He tried to shift attention from the virus in August by focusing on violence in American cities and adopting a “law and order” message. He also focused on criticising the voting process, warning a Biden victory would only be the result of a “rigged” election. Despite Democratic protests, he immediately nominated Amy Coney Barrett to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. He bulldozed his way through a widely-panned first presidential debate with Biden last week, where he boasted: “We’ve done a great job” in dealing with the coronavirus while insisting, “Joe, you could never have done the job that we did.” That was shortly after Trump declared: “I don’t wear a mask like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” Now, four weeks from election day, Trump finds himself fighting COVID-19, quarantined and unable to keep up his efforts to shift the narrative. In reality, the narrative is now set: The Trump presidency is the coronavirus presidency. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">