Trump wants to be seen as 'great savior' prior to US elections: Analyst
US President Donald Trump wants to “be seen as the great savior” amid the coronavirus pandemic in order to be able to win the presidential election, says a political analyst.
Charles Dunaway made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Sunday when asked about a report that shows Trump privately made an eyebrow-raising suggestion to his top health adviser, wondering whether the government could simply allow the novel coronavirus to “wash over the country.”
Trump posed the bizarre question to Dr. Anthony Fauci during a White House task force meeting on the pandemic last month, leaving the top scientist and other experts present baffled, The Washington Post reported.
“Why don’t we let this wash over the country?” Trump asked Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the president’s top adviser on the coronavirus pandemic.
Dunaway said that Trump intentionally delayed a response to the coronavirus for the longest time because he knew the economic problems caused by the virus outbreak could badly affect his popularity as an incumbent president.
“Trump needs to win this election and he wanted, as we know, he tried to delay any response to this crisis to deny the fact that there was a Coronavirus crisis for the longest time he could because he knew that having an economic downturn in an election year will historically hurt the incumbent president.”
“People blame the president, rightly or wrongly for whatever the economic situation is. So he doesn't want to be blamed. He wants to be seen as the great savior and deal maker who got us out of this. But I don't think that's really going to happen. I don't think that he will be able to do that this time.”
“The question that we have now is whether or not this will happen prior to the November election, or whether they will be able to stave off the real downturn until after.”
Fauci has confirmed reports that Trump rebuffed his social distancing advice.
Speaking on CNN's State of the Union program, Fauci said, “We make a recommendation, often the recommendation is taken, sometimes it’s not.”
When asked if he thought “lives could have been saved” if physical distancing and other similar measures started earlier, Fauci said, “Obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives, obviously no one is going to deny.”
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