The 2020 US presidential election was thrown into chaos when it was revealed that incumbent President Donald Trump had tested positive for coronavirus. A topsy-turvy few days ensued, in which Trump was taken into hospital care and reportedly given oxygen. It’s also been reported that he was administered a number of experimental drugs in the hope of preventing symptoms of the virus from having an adverse effect on the President’s health and wellbeing.
But there has been a great deal of confusion over Trump’s true state of health, and whether or not he even needed such drastic treatment in the first place. The whole situation seemed geared towards ensuring that Trump was in a fit state to contest the upcoming election, as the last thing he needs is to be bed-bound with coronavirus symptoms.
He’s facing an uphill task to win a second term in office, with Democratic opponent Joe Biden currently the favourite in the USA presidential election odds. Biden has slowly been making gains in the polls over the last several months, with Trump’s popularity beginning to sink somewhat, even among swathes of his most loyal supporters.
All in all, the whole situation has added another degree of intrigue to an election campaign that was already closely contested on all fronts. Trump has been openly lax when giving his opinions about the coronavirus, with the President favouring economic stability rather than strict lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
Some will see the fact that Trump ultimately contracted the virus as ironic, and they will point to the President’s playing down of the virus as a key reason why the disease is so virulent in the USA, with over 200,000 deaths recorded in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
In terms of how it will affect the election, it could go one of two ways. Some will see the President’s plight as a cause for concern and a reason to rally around their Head of State. After all, Trump did not get elected for no reason, and it’s clear that there are still millions of Americans that will back the President to the hilt. Indeed, they’ve been turning out in their masses to the President’s various campaign events before he tested positive for the virus, and you’d still expect him to make it a close thing on Election Day, even if Biden is in the lead in the polls.
On the other hand, there will be many who see this as the latest disaster in what has been a turbulent first term in office for Trump. His handling of the coronavirus crisis has been criticised in many quarters, and the 74-year-old has done little to heal the divisions that have emerged across the country as a result. For some, the fact that the President caught the virus and required treatment will be viewed as the natural result of policies which have allowed the virus to spread so freely.
All this controversy has come at exactly the wrong time for Trump, with the election looming large on the horizon. The question is whether or not Trump has time to rebuild trust in his abilities as a leader, or if his days in the White House are numbered.
