October has always been characterized as the dark angel of the months, the time when summer cedes to brisk winds and falling leaves; and the grim reaper of winter stands just down the road. October is metaphor no longer in Trump world. It is now officially the date when reality served notice on the child in chief and blew up his circus of pretense with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Donald Trump can now forget about his posturing, his denials and his lies, because he couldn’t con the virus. COVID-19 is smarter and stronger than Trump — what isn’t? And COVID-19 is going to take Trump down — to some extent literally, but in absolute terms politically.
As we speak, rumors of a constitutional crisis — ho hum, another one — are brewing. Mike and Karen Pence have signed off as coronavirus negative, so some meager semblance of stability remains. And thank God Joe Biden has tested negative, after being on the same stage with the superspreading idiot on Tuesday night. But reading between the lines, this administration has now moved to life support and the campaign is on its death bed. The idea of Trump doing a national address was floated “to demonstrate that he was functioning and that the government is uninterrupted.”
Mark Meadows went on TV this morning saying how Trump is doing just fine, and then Larry Kudlow chimed in with his fantasy contribution for the day. “I have been told second-hand his situation is light on the virus. He’s a strong man, you know that. He’s a very strong man.”
Oh, he’s a titan. He’s Gigantor. He’s 74 years old and obese, with a terrible diet and he doesn’t exercise — and he’s got issues with cholesterol and takes medication for it. And God alone knows what other uppers and downers he’s taking, we speculate on that constantly. But all in all, Trump’s pre-existing conditions and coronavirus do not a good match make.
And no one could tell this idiot, or his idiot family. They would not listen or cooperate. Chris Wallace went on record that the Trump family was offered masks at the debate and they refused to wear them. Looking good is all that matters to this clan. They don’t want to smear their makeup. They’re too stupid to know that saving face isn’t as important as saving your ass and now Trump’s ass is in a sling. And he put it there. New York Times:
“Trump is now in the position of becoming exhibit No. 1 for the failure of his leadership on coronavirus, and he runs the risk that his supporters will feel misled by his dismissiveness of the virus and the need for precautions,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster. […]
No modern president has publicly endured a health crisis this close to a re-election attempt. Ronald Reagan was shot and convalesced in 1981, just over two months after he was first sworn in. And Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while in office, but it was more than a year before he faced the voters for a second time.
Donnie the runner, Donnie the serial bankruptcy filer did a Kabuki dance with COVID-19, daring it to do something, because he never thought it was real. That is how profoundly stupid he is. And now he joins the ranks of the seven million Americans diagnosed with the virus. The Bulwark:
Donald Trump didn’t care one particulate about the 200,000+ Americans we have lost to the virus. He never gave 99.9 percent of them a second thought. It didn’t matter to him whether any of them lived or died.
All he cared about was whether in the face of the pandemic he could make himself look good. Such callous disregard meant that if people died but the stock market was going up and college kids were still playing football and the pictures of him at superspreader rallies made him seem strong then that was just fine with him.
Until October 1, Donald Trump thought he could beat the virus with bullshit just like he’d always done. Pull another one over on the marks.
Well now he has been made to care.
And to be honest, I’m not sure exactly what happens from here.
I guess I know one thing. I know that he will spend a lot of time in quarantine watching cable news and live-tweeting—so in that sense his “management” of this virus won’t be much different than it was before.
But beyond that we are in uncharted territory.
It’s safe to say that at this point you can color the campaign gone.
It’s almost certain that the remaining two debates between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden will be canceled or drastically changed. The next one is scheduled for less than two weeks from now, on Oct. 15, and medical guidance would most likely keep the president isolated until then.
And after having gone forward with the rallies he craves, despite rules against large gatherings in many states, Mr. Trump will not be able to leave Washington during a final, crucial stretch of the campaign.
Trump is literally house bound now. He can’t go out and continue his superspreader tour, and that is a blessing.
There is no joy in Trump world right now. The MAGAts are faced with the unthinkable reality that their leader has been felled by the Democratic hoax. His cavalier attitude towards mask wearing has resulted in him getting sick — and around kitchen tables this morning, somber faces ponder just how close to home the chickens might come to roost because they listened to the fool. Regrets about attending rallies are forming along with gooseflesh and rapid heartbeat as reality sinks in. Gone overnight are the cries about constitutional rights and civil liberties being abused by the necessity of wearing a mask in public. Mighty Trumpy is closer to Mighty Mouse than Casey at the bat. But in all events, he has struck out. It will be curious to watch the whimpering final scenes of this shit show before it goes off the air altogether.
As Mike Lee and Ronna test positive. Who will be next. And yes, guaranteed Mark is lying his butt off. Trump hasn’t tweeted in 11 hours. A mild case of covid can turn on a dime. I think it was over when Biden won the nomination.
Without a doubt, we should assume Mike Pencilneck is lying until further notice. If he goes down, the Presidency goes to Pelosi, which is why he would lie.
They would probably try finding tRump and Pence look-alike actors before they’d let Nancy take over!
Might have a little trouble finding one for Pence … common garden slugs have more personality than Pence, they would need to be able to do the horse thing as well, sleep, standing up in a noisy, crowded room … I swear, somebody must check his pulse once in a while to make sure he has not passed on with the banshees ….
Oh my Lord, this is hilarious, can’t stop laughing
The people who have tested positive so far were all at the Rose Garden thing last Saturday. No masks, no social distancing, lots of hugging and handshaking. (Covid-19 approves of this.)
It’s now 13 hours since he tweeted, an eternity in Trump world. He’s probably watching Fox News and trying to figure out what to do. Some right-wing clown on Twitter said something about extending campaigning two weeks — which means delaying the election. God, I want to see the end of these people. No respect for norms, mores, institutions, zip.
Yeah, that delay’s not happening, Ursula. If this is their best idea, they’re in serious trouble and they know it.
It’s amazing, the whole idea of the elections is to collect the averages of ALL the people’s desires in our country, the process is driven on the State level … guess what … the states are all in one time zone or another, but the clocks are all synchronized to show TOD and official roll-over to the days, and the basic hook is on that thing on the wall with current months/years/day and when it says November 3, 2020, and somebody put a note beside that that says vote for Biden/Harris, TODAY!! …
That is WHAT we will be doing, Trump can be in the ground, or floating in the breeze by then, too bad, Nancy can keep order in the House, McTurtle can suck eggs and hand the reigns over to his opponent for the Senate …
All the biggest money people pouring millions into Trump/Pence ticket NOT get anything for it …. too damn bad …!
Of course they can’t. Month and months of preparation have ben done for November 3 and they would have to find hundreds of billions of dollars to change that — as well as change the Constitution overnight. Poor Donald. Has he tweeted yet? By the way, Ursula, you’re wrong about on thing: he DID know how serious it was, based on the Woodward interviews. He just foolishly bought into the idea that he was somehow immune.
Wouldn’t we all Ursula. Unfortunately Twain was correct, history rhymes. 1500 yrs ago the earth was flat. 500 years ago we were the center of the universe. The first doctor that suggested surgeons wash their hands, was rebuffed. Hard to say what could possibly move these folks closer to science, facts, provable history, biblical scholarship, and. Most importantly, a bigger heart.
Extend the campaign? The answer is NO. They would never suggest it if Biden were the sick one. So NO. Stop with the constant childish changing the rules in the middle of the game stuff.
The next few weeks will tell a tale.
OT, are you all moved? Registered in your new abode?
I am moved, but I’ve had little chance to unpack. I’m putting too much time into work and it’s going to be this way for the next month. But I did unpack my new hammered copper pans and I cooked bacon. They’re gorgeous pans, if you’ve never seen them. Copper with a raised texture, clear lips and stainless steel handles. So the place will come together as it does. I feel like I’m surfing waves now, I’ve just got to stay on the board and ride all of this out. Calmer seas ahead — as soon as a Democrat takes the reins, surprise surprise.
I LOVE copper! Bacon not so much. I’ve been a vegetarian for early 50 years. I do remember the bacon woking in the kitchen just outside my bedroom when I was a kid, but I’ve long since relegated that to memory.
You all usually know me for my optimism. But today, a warning: this is going to be a very tough month. Possibly tougher than any we’ve had this year and we’ve had some doozies. Trump’s people will lie like hell, practicing paranoids will spin the worst case scenarios harder than ever and we may all be on edge about Joe still be COVID-free. None of this is going to help ANYONE’S peace of mind.
But a note of hope: we get through this and maybe, just maybe, our exit ramp from the Trump era will be far less rocky than we feared. Without a leader, the GOP is helpless and hopeless. And do recall that Mitch McConnell is among the bunch who stood too close to Trump in the last few days.
The next month is going to be insane, I concur with that assessment. But remember one thing: the GOP doesn’t know what’s going on, let alone know how to fix it. They’re trying to stabilize a listing boat. Their entire party is screwed right now, they may lose both the Senate and White House and their chances of retaking the House are nil. So think of a deranged group of rats, running in circles, banging into the walls and occasionally taking a bite out of one another, and you’ve got it.
The image I keep getting is a red-robed figure passing through Prince Prospero’s castle during the party Poe made famous and the robed one saying, “It’s time for a new dance to begin…!”
On the same wavelength here. Saw this announcement at 4 am when I got up to work, wandered around a bit with my coffee trying to process fully what this diagnosis could mean and Bam! there it was: this is the way his campaign ends. And not with a bang but with a whimper because he will likely be too sick to kick up much if any fuss or noise.
Did you think of this U? My second thought was that this whole thing was a hoax. I know. I get to use his fave word. Karma this. But it would let him off the hook wouldn’t it? And he could save face when he loses in an historic landslide.
We shall see. But honestly, all of us need some good news–not that I’d want him to be sick, but that the upside to this is that he just may have his excuse to bail with some modicum of dignity.
And then we can be about the very hard work of putting our country back together again.
My mom was wondering if this was a hoax too. But as my man Hoarse Whisperer on Twitter explained it, that was unlikely because a) to look sick is to look weak, a mortal sin for Trump and b) two weeks away from the campaign means no narcissistic fuel for the engine, which is why the idea would never occur to Trump. Besides, now that we’ve traced this outbreak to that Notre Dame event and WAY too many people who were there have tested positive, we know it’s no hoax.
I don’t think it is a hoax. Besides the president and Melania we also have Ronna McDaniel, Senator Mike Lee, the Rev. John Jenkins of Notre Dame, Hope Hicks, and two people from the WH press pool who have tested positive. This could have started at the WH with the SCOTUS announcement they had last week. I will not be surprised to see more positive cases.
Also, Trump has a mortal fear of looking “weak.” Look how he’s lied about his health constantly, insisting he’s a perfect specimen of health, like an athlete in is 20s. On top of everything, I’m sure he considers this humiliating.
I heard, read that this would happen because Trump doesn’t lose ever. Ivanka is going to announce he’s too sick and will withdraw and let ivanka run in his place. Pence finishes Trump’s term and pardons Trump. We’ll see
I don’t think he can “let Ivanka run in his place.” I believe the GOP would have to sign off on that.
More importantly, there’s NO allowance for it by the STATES who have to print the ballots.
A Democrat running for a House seat in Georgia decided, a couple of weeks ago, to drop out of the race (he said his plans were changing and he was planning to move out of the district) and state election officials said it was too late for the Democratic Party to simply replace him. If it was too late for a US House nominee to be replaced by the Party, it HAS to be too late for Ivanka to “run in Trump’s place.” (The John Lewis situation was different as his death came with several months left before the general election so the Party could replace his name on the ballot; ironically, state law requires a special election to fill the remainder of his term but that didn’t affect the Party’s selection of a replacement.)
The whole idea of the fatuous, phony Ivanka running at all is just that — fiction. It makes for an interesting story but she’d be eaten alive within days.
Unfortunately the GOP seem to have the conviction that there’s one rule for the Democrats and another for themselves.
They’d think of some way to replace him with another money-grabbing, tax avoiding sycophant
Ivanka – not so likely (after all she’s now a Jew and the Proud Boys and the ultra-Christian hypocrites won’t like that)
No, no one can “let” someone run in their place, and no woman will be running for the GOP for the next 40 years. Nikki Haley is delusional if she thinks she can. Sure, Trump is infatuated with her, but even if this were legal, I would be a massive loser.
And now he is symptomatic. Does the virus have a plan fofr America?
This is your masterpiece Little She Bear……brilliance.
I am honored that you would say that. I just cobbled it together quickly. One thing about writing every day, craftsmanship will take over and sometimes you do a better piece than you thought.
Hi. I’ve been reading your work since I first joined DKos in 2015 & I followed you here after your absurd ban a while back. I very rarely comment as I am dreadfully inept when it comes to socializing, but this is just too brilliant to remain silent. I think this is my favorite piece by you so far. I hope you’re correct that this turns out to be the figurative death rattle of the trump campaign as well. Keep up the excellent work Ursula. And thanks for keeping us informed.
Welcome!
Hello LB! Thank you sincerely for the lovely compliment. And please show up and speak out. You are most welcome here and nobody will judge you. The DK ban was absurd. I still believe it was motivated by money as most things are. The fact that I had put up a website and was grabbing other community writers and driving traffic over here was seen as a threat — I surmise. Again, I’ll never know the truth. But I’m so glad you followed me over here.
Welcome..,,
Ahhh, Mr. Coronavirus, couldn’t you have done this 7-8 weeks earlier and tagged Pence as well? Not that I wish this on anyone, and I do hope even the “stable one” recovers fully, but possibility of putting Pelosi in charge before SCOTUS issue and negotiating next stimulus package would have been… hmmm.
Yeah, if Pelosi had become president before RBG died, the GOP would have been able to retain their integrity over the McConnell rule. /s
Gus…you just basically described my mother’s daily prayers since February.
Well he did promise an ‘October Surprise – but I don’t think he appreciates it
Now, we know the virus is tracking down people that claim they are a genius and we all know that is a huge lie, hopefully the virus gets to Trump just enough to keep him bedridden and maybe a day or two sucking on one his famous FORD motor company breathing machines, but like most other people that have seen what drives this maniac to his deepest ocean trench of disrespect and verbal attacks, I feel like this is his enforced swan song … his pre-existing conditions have placed him in a VERY dangerous and precarious position, and with the major damage that can be done to our bodies that lasts after the supposed recovery from the virus, on top of that, between using uppers and downers, there were times, going to the hospital as well, that he has appeared to have had a possible TIA, his slurred speech and unstable gait …
Be that as it may, the virus, once fully involving an individual, the time between getting it to passing away has been as short as 3-4 days for an older poorly maintained person …
Yeah, Darrel, he’s doomed. Even should he survive, what’s left of his health will be ruined.
But he will be getting the best care– unlike all other Americans.
Which will mean eff-all, Suzc, given that there’s neither cure nor vaccine out there. And that’s before you get into the spectacular abuse Trump put his body through before this…medical science has its limits.
But more commonly weeks.
You can bet right now Don the Con is getting pumped with every possible drug imaginable and feeling really ill & irritable. Can’t golf. Can’t tweet. Can’t campaign – his 3 main activities over the past 3.5 yrs. as Buffoon-In-Chief. Will be a blessing if he’s incapacitated enough to lessen his personal vindictive vendetta against the entire US after he loses both the vote & EC count and B4 he’s removed from the WH – if the coward-traitor-rapist-murderer doesn’t escape the country in the middle of the night first to avoid prosecution & imprisonment.
In one condition or another, I say he’s leaving. Our job over this next month is to ensure such.
Just yesterday, someone speculated that Trump is acting so counter-productively desperate because he fears Putin will murder his asset the day after Biden’s inauguration.
I asked my sister if she thought he might take his death to get out of the country. Get cremated and get a guy from skid row to take his place in the furnace. Am I too hopeful?
News broke as I was reading this that he’s headed to Walter Reed “for a few days” which doctors on TV have suggested he do, especially since it leaked he has a “low grade” fever. Perhaps it is low grade – waiting until after the stock market closed would suggest he’s not in really bad shape. At least yet.
One pundit just made the point that maybe, finally it will make people realize that this disease is real and serious. It’s the LAST thing Trump wanted to do – DEMONSTRATE to the public that the disease is NOT something to blow off and/or screw around with. But the images we are about to see of him flying off to Walter Reed are going to do it no matter what he wanted.
The irony is all he had to do is what President, even W, would have done about this and he’d be okay and cruising to reelection on the back of it. But he’s him so that was never going to happen.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for him because he was captured by the Covid? “I like people who weren’t captured”. He needs to taste some real suffering. Perhaps he will learn a little humility, a little respect. It will do him a world of good. It will do the world a lot of good.
I wonder how his supporters are feeling now, since they’ve been standing shoulder to shoulder at his rallies without a mask ?