This is not the 140 000 American victims of the Covid, or the 4 million infected, nor even the explosion of new cases in the country or in the calls for ever more desperate of its medical experts. No ! What decided Donald Trump to brag about finally the merits of the mask, it is the collapse of his popularity. His advisers seem to have convinced him that the small piece of fabric was a way to move up in the polls and save his re-election campaign in November.
on Monday, he made a dramatic shift by tweeting a photo of himself with a mask. “We are united in the effort to defeat the virus chinese invisible, and a lot of people say that it is patriotic to wear a mask when you can’t practice social distancing,” he wrote. “There’s nobody more patriotic than me, your president favorite. “
We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President! pic.twitter.com/iQOd1whktN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2020
Until then, it refused to cover her face. To such a point that this accessory medical was become for his followers the symbol of the anti-trumpisme and an infringement on freedom. In the spring, Donald Trump mocked his democratic opponent, Joe Biden, because he wore one. And in a press conference, he hinted that it was not very presidential when he ” has been host to presidents, Prime ministers, dictators, kings and queens “. “I don’t know, somehow, I don’t see it for me. May be I will notice. “He has left a time of more responsibility to the States to impose their own rules. Where large variations. In Georgia, for example, the governor conservative went so far as to bring the last week a trial against the mayor of Atlanta, to have imposed the wearing of the mask, saying it was beyond his powers.
Read also Gérard Araud – The fall of the house of Trump
But contrary to the predictions of Donald Trump, the virus does not appear to nearly disappear. On the contrary, it has never been so virulent. There are two times more cases each day than the peak of the pandemic in the spring and, for the first time yesterday since the end of may, the number of deaths daily, has exceeded the thousand mark, particularly in the South, in the bastions of the republicans. For weeks, the president has consistently minimize or ignore the health crisis and to contradict its experts. All of this contributed to his fall from present-day popularity. According to a poll by the Washington Post/ABC News, 39 % of Americans see it favorably (48 % at the end of march) compared to 57 % who see him in an unfavorable way (46 % at the end of march). The pandemic is clearly for something. And only 38% of respondents approve of his handling of the crisis, a decline of 28 points in two months.
the return of The daily briefings
These bad figures and the growling rising in his party seem to have convinced the president to stop doing the ostrich, and to play a more visible role. Recently, the ” for the first time, he sported a mask during a visit to the military hospital Walter Weed in Washington. In may, he had worn one during a stint in a Ford factory, but had removed in front of the cameras.
Donald Trump also comes to revive the daily briefings that he had arrested in April in the wake of multiple critical. This was ridiculed especially in the defending of the treatment controversial, such as chloroquine and suggesting to inject the bleach into the patients to eradicate the virus. During the first briefing, it has encouraged Americans to wear the mask. “We ask everyone, when it is not possible to practice social distancing, wearing a mask. Whether you like it or not, they have an impact. “But he was not wearing at the point of release. When we told him, he released one of his pocket. “I use a when it is necessary,” he said.
