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While Donald Trump continues to tweet his way through his coronavirus recovery his support in the country appears to be cratering. When the president first announced he had caught Covid-19 there was a great deal of uncertainty as to how the public would react. His advisers hoped he would recover quickly and emerge to speak with a greater authority about the disease he himself had contracted.
But if they were hoping he would strike a more sober tone about the pandemic those hopes were quickly dashed. Instead the president checked out early from hospital, took a helicopter ride back to the White House, and promptly removed his mask to record a video telling Americans not to be afraid of the virus. He has since spent much of the last couple of days tweeting furiously, including launching attacks on some of his own senior officials, people like his Attorney General Bill Barr, and the head of the Food and Drug Administration, Steven Hahn.
If the president is hoping that this show of strength will impress voters, the opposite appears to be true. We are now seeing the results of the first polls conducted partly or mostly after Mr Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, and they don't make great reading for the president. A national poll by CNN showed him 14 points behind his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, while a host of polls by Quinnipiac University shows him behind in key battleground states. He is apparently now 13 points behind in Pennsylvania, 11 points behind in Florida, and 5 points behind in Iowa.
A lot can happen of course in the remaining four weeks of the campaign, and these are only single polls. But if the president is hoping to turn his bout of coronavirus into an electoral asset he may have to change his tone.
