After Coronavirus Diagnosis, Trump Resists Sympathy – By Susan Milligan (US News) / Oct 5 2020
The nation typically rallies around a president, but this one doesn’t seem to want their sympathy.
AMERICANS HISTORICALLY have rallied around their leader during a crisis, and if the president himself is the victim, an outpouring of goodwill is almost automatic. President Ronald Reagan, for example, saw his already-high approval rating jump 11 percentage points to 73% in the space of a few days after he survived an assassination attempt in 1981.
President Donald Trump, however, appears determined to tear up his own political sympathy card, even as polling shows he could use any boost in support available. And when Trump downplayed the danger of the very illness he has, he seemed even less likely to get compassion from voters who were skeptical of his handling of the virus.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid!” Trump tweeted as he prepared to leave the hospital Monday, the day after he took a presidential limousine ride around Walter Reed Hospital, leading to criticism he was putting Secret Service agents at risk in the hermetically-sealed car. “Don’t let it dominate your life,” the president added – a startling comment, considering that more than 209,000 American are dead from the illness.
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