Do you think Trump's hopefully short episode with covid-19 will help or hurt his chances of re-election?

It may not hurt (depending how bad it is), but I can’t see it being helpful.It will keep Trump off the road for 10 days, which is where he connects with his audience. Will they all tune in to Zoom? Hard to say.

I can’t see it being helpful – again, depending on how bad it is, it may make him look frail and weak, which is not the perception that he wants to project.

Net net, probably won’t do anything.

I’m not convinced it isn’t a diversion tactic or made up to get sympathy votes and then pretend that Covid isn’t as bad as the media and others make it out to be. Another possibility is he will pretend that he got some fake cure just before the elections and that it saved his life, to convince people he is their savior and they should vote for him because he has a cure that will save lives around the world.
He is such a liar that I won’t believe he’s dead till I see his body went in a coffin and it was covered with dirt and buried 8 feet underground.

@Pandora Whoa! Your hatred almost knocked me off my chair!

Now tell me how you really feel.

Not hatred. To hate someone I have to care if they are dead or alive. I’ve felt hatred and he’s not close to that. You can despise a Con man, but people like Trump don’t give a crap about everyday people. He has a long history of racism and being a narcissist and being a pathological liar and cheating contractors among many other things. So tell me why I should give two cents about someone like that? About the coronavirus, he said, it is what it is. Well, he wasn’t careful and constantly mocked people for wearing masks. Just on debates, he made fun of Biden for wearing masks and being too careful. . By the way, I was born and grew up in NYC. I grew up not liking douchebags and con-men and feel no sympathy for when people like them get what was owed to them. It is what it is.

I think no significant effect on the election.

I think if he has mild disease and is communicating with the public every day and if he is over it in a week it will mean the no-maskers will feel even more sure they are right. God help us.

@Pandora I agree 100% with you that Trump is not my idea of a drinking buddy. However, as long as he is in DC and I am in California, and our worlds never collide, I really don’t care what kind of person he is. I only care about what kind of President he is. And in my book, he has so far been an effective President. Could he have done some things differently? Sure, But then nobody is perfect!

@JLeslie I used to think masks are ok because they cannot do any harm, can they? Now I have started to think about what happens if masks are not disinfected properly between uses. Is it better to wear a mask that is not properly disinfected or to go maskless?

@crazyguy “Nobody is perfect”. True, but I don’t see him as effective when he sows so much chaos. That is far from perfect. That is what authoritarians need to do to take power. He’s a con man. It may not affect your life but it does me. . Every time he empowers the racists they go out and do more. Racist cops believe he’s with them and feel empowered to harm someone.
So for now. It hasn’t caused me harm in my life until it does one day. He already affected my life when he sowed hatred of Hispanics. People being accosted by strangers being told to go back to their country or calling ICE on people without knowing if they are citizens. This made me very nervous. Before I was just nervous about criminals. Now I have to worry about the racist who could get me arrested because I’m not white.

. I don’t walk around with my birth certificate. I don’t have white skin and blue eyes. The thought of being detained and not believed that I am American is terrifying.I’m Puerto Rican born in NYC. 2nd generation American or technically 3rd. Apparently, you don’t have to worry about stuff like that. My husband served proudly in the Marines and my son is now actively serving. I feel like a 2 rate citizen in my own Country. If you felt that way, you would find Trump is beyond imperfect. If you were afraid of being pulled over and shot because a cop doesn’t like your skin color, you would feel the same way. I’m not looking for perfect or saintly behavior. I’m looking for a President who actually gives a dam about the people he serves and has the heart to recognize when his rhetoric does irreparable harm and who has real compassion for people beyond himself or his rich cronies. All he has to be is humane. That’s not too high a bar. But he couldn’t reach it if it was at a reach of 1 foot. It is way beyond his grasps. So I’m praying he loses and losses big.

IF has actually contracted the virus, it should hurt his chances of reelection.
Being as he downplayed the virus, in most cases. His supporters, should greatly reconsider his judgment.

Having said that, I hope he survives.
If he dies, I hope everyone remembers his comments on the hundreds of thousands of the dead. “It is what it is.”

@crazyguy Not sure why you switched to masks? Was it an analogy?

The fear of masks making you sick is alt-right messaging (propaganda). For a while those stories of masks giving people infections were in great numbers across Facebook. Of course people should wash their fabric masks. Maybe you can find one case in 100 million where someone got sick, but if they weren’t washing their cloth masks between uses for weeks then that’s not going to count as a problem.

Doctors have been wearing N95’s with repeated use for a long time now.

In the Middle East the most oppressive of countries the women have every part of their face covered but their eyes every time they walk outside.

I don’t think it would make a noticeable difference.
The wearing of masks is for the protection of others, not oneself.

^It protects others. That would slow down the spread, and save lives, if everyone wore them. That would make a difference.

I was watching NHK the Japanese TV station and their slogan is Prevent the Spread. I like that better.

@JLeslie “the no-maskers will feel even more sure they are right” – I took that directly from your comments that I was responding to.

@MrGrimm888 So why exactly would he fake the disease?

@kritiper @JLeslie I realize masks protect others. However, the situation I am describing is where a symptomatic person sneezes and coughs into his/her mask for hours until s/he can get home to disinfect it. We know how most mask wearers occasionally let it slip off in order to take a full breath. If this person does the same thing, imagine the amount of disease released,

I have to think the effects of the Covid-19 on the election will be sort of a mixed bag. On one hand, he is getting an awful lot of press coverage that isn’t just trying to lambaste him for stupid stuff. On the other, he is drawing a lot of attention away from the election and Joe Biden. Joe Biden has said he will pull all negative ads which leaves him with weak messages that only play well with his base. Also, though, you have to consider that he isn’t out there drawing 10s of thousands of people to hear him have a rally. All in all, I think there are pluses and minuses. Overall I think it is a slight benefit for him since people aren’t bombarded about all sorts of lies about him 24/7 and they can take a breath and think about what they really want in a president to help the country get back on its feet.

@seawulf575 Thanks for a well-reasoned reply. I think the sickness will soon be forgotten, just like what caused the spurt in the first place.

@crazyguy . I think it would potentially draw sympathy for him.
And. If he doesn’t get really sick then it adds validation to his downplay of the virus. Something that many have been critical about.
In addition. It draws attention away from his abysmal debate performance.
As @seawulf575 mentioned, it takes away the negative adds, he faced.

However. It’s a gamble. It should put the spotlight on his approach to the pandemic.

@MrGrimm888 I agree 100%.

@MrGrimm888 Now that he’s all better in such a short time and is already comparing it to the flu it definitely looks like it was faked and a plan for him to downplay it as a flu-like virus. It was all to create a diversion like I said.

@Pandora So you subscribe to the idea of a conspiracy involving dozens, if not hundreds, of people, many of whom could be Deep State?

I watched the video from when he took off the mask on the terrace and he looked congested to me.

@JLeslie So, obviously, his doctors are lying and they want him to suffer the consequences of still being sick?

@crazyguy I don’t know what you are talking about. Most people aren’t hospitalized for a little congestion. On the terrace he looked a little congested. He was already days into his illness and his treatments might have helped or maybe his illness was always going to be mild. We don’t know.

Jellies are hypothesizing it was fake, and I’m saying it appeared to me he was sick.

@JLeslie Apologies. I gave you an off-the-cuff comment as I was trying to catch up after being away at a wedding for a few days.