Trump's anti-mask crusade is coming back to bite
him
By Stephen
Collinson, CNN
Updated
0620 GMT (1420 HKT) July 2, 2020
(CNN)President
Donald Trump's refusal to set an example by wearing a face covering, despite
growing evidence that it may be one of the most effective ways to slow
America's increasingly disastrous coronavirus pandemic, was always a political
statement.
Now, as the
clinical and electoral damage builds from a resurgent virus that is close to
racing out of control after another record day for new cases on Wednesday, the
President may be edging, very slowly, toward a rethink.
By going
barefaced when everyone around him masked up, Trump created a false impression
that the worst was behind us, that normality was about to come roaring back. He
cemented his bond with grassroots supporters who see mask-wearing mandates as a
sign of servitude to government and elites and an impediment to their rights.
Yet Trump's
position has left him increasingly isolated even from the Republican leaders
who have facilitated his unchained presidency, as public health officials and
local and state leaders of all political stripes plead with Americans to cover
up in public so the country can heal itself.
The mask
movement now seems unstoppable, partly due to warnings like the one this week
by the government's top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who
said new US coronavirus infections could soon hit 100,000 a day.
Fauci said
the aggressive state openings that Trump championed have backfired as people
without masks celebrated in bars and crowds.
"It's
a violation of the principles of what we're trying to do, and that is the
social distancing, the wearing of masks," Fauci told NPR on Wednesday.
The reality
suggested by such warnings has helped to change the debate on mask wearing.
Far from
becoming a mark of strength and defiance, Trump's isolated crusade against
masks-- he dubbed himself a "LONE WARRIOR" in a recent tweet, is now
emblematic of his denial of a fast-worsening national disaster, a botched
federal government response and his refusal to take even the most basic steps
to save American lives.
On
Wednesday, Trump offered the first signs that he understands the box he has
built for himself on masks, which medical experts say can contain droplets that
could infect people and surfaces and facilitate the spread of the coronavirus.
The President
claimed in an interview with Fox Business that he was "all for masks"
and that he had worn them in situations where social distancing was not
possible in small groups.
But for the
last two months, Trump has trashed mask wearing, undermining his own
government's advice. He suggested to the Wall Street Journal that people wore
masks to show they disapprove of him. He warned he won't give the press the
"pleasure" of seeing his face covered in public. He's toured the
country barefaced and flouted social distancing recommendations. And he even
said he couldn't wear a mask when he's meeting "presidents, prime
ministers, dictators, kings, queens."
"I
don't know, somehow, I don't see it for myself," the President said back
in April.
Trump's baby steps on masks
Wednesday's
tiny movement from his entrenched position may be all that he can manage for
now -- especially as his opponent in November, Democrat Joe Biden, has said he
would mandate mask wearing nationally if he is elected.
But the
issue is not whether Trump has worn a mask in private. The sight of the
President leading the way with a face mask would be a potent signal to his
millions of devoted supporters -- especially those in conservative Southern
states where mask wearing is frowned upon and the virus is getting worse, fast.
So far,
Trump, who has often balked at taking risks with his base support -- a choice
that all presidents face sooner or later -- has not taken the plunge. That it
has taken him so long means that if he does eventually walk out of Air Force
One in a mask he will cause an uproar and he will be likely denied any
political benefit such a step could have won him earlier.
It is not
at all surprising that the President has become a standout on the question of
wearing a mask. The more his political position has weakened ahead of the
election, the more he has adopted stances -- on issues like the virus, race and
foreign policy -- that appear to appeal to his most devoted supporters.
Trump's
mask apostasy is an act of rebellion against the establishment figures and scientists
and professional officials of the government with which he has been waging an
internal war ever since he took his office. It's a natural fit for a lifelong
outsider who is personally and politically compelled to break the rules.
The
President's slight softening of position Wednesday on wearing a mask came after
many of his political allies implicitly repudiated his stance, stressing
repeatedly that wearing a mask was not a political act but a gesture of
humanity.
"We
must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks," Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on Tuesday. In hard-hit Texas over
the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence -- who has himself spent weeks
undermining government messaging on the issue and is loath to get crossways
with his boss -- backed wearing a mask. Pence is still, however, not going all
in -- typically saying that mask wearing should be done where it is
"indicated" by local authorities.
Even the
President's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, modeled a Trump-Pence mask at a
rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month, suggesting as much as anything else a
massive marketing opportunity the brander-in-chief may be missing.
Some
Republicans have been trying to walk back earlier squeamishness about a step
that runs counter to conservative talk show dogma by finding ways to make mask
wearing more politically palatable. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a
California Republican who's a strong Trump ally, suggested that with
Independence Day approaching, Americans should show their patriotism with red,
white and blue face coverings. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican,
has been resplendent in a plaid mask that recalls the red and black shirt he
wore when he hiked across his state and was elected governor decades ago.
Trump still in denial
Trump's
apparent shift on mask wearing probably does not signal a corresponding change
in his denial about the worsening crisis and refusal to provide strong
presidential leadership.
In the same
Fox Business interview, he claimed that "we did it all right" on
coronavirus, a pandemic that he initially ignored, then mismanaged and
politicized, and finally went back to ignoring even with more than 127,000
Americans now dead.
"We
did a great job. We're credited with doing a great job," he said, before
returning his typical fantasy-based predictions about the virus.
"We're
headed back in a very strong fashion. ... And I think we're going to be very
good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that's going to sort of
just disappear. I hope," Trump said.
If the
President has not had an epiphany about the worsening situation, which has seen
nearly half the states slow or pause their reopening plans, what could be
motivating him?
If record
new infection rates, filling hospitals and an average of 1,000 American deaths
a day can't get him to take the pandemic seriously, there's one thing that
still might: its disastrous impact on his reelection hopes.
A divide is
emerging inside Trump's inner circle over whether the President should publicly
turn his attention to the virus he has been ignoring for days or continue to
open the economy, sources familiar with the matter told CNN's Jim Acosta,
Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak.
Several of
Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and son-in-law Jared
Kushner, have begun to worry about the President's reelection chances and have
urged a focus on the economy. But other advisers believe he has suffered severe
damage amid the pandemic.
"There
is a fair amount of concern," one adviser said, describing the President
as "frustrated" by recent polling indicating Biden could win the
November election by a wide margin.
CNN's Maeve
Reston contributed to this report.
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