2020 US election - It Came from Washington DC

[robkelk]

Trump's out of the hospital... and, in his ego, he threw away the possibility of getting the sympathy vote.

"If he used this as an opportunity to communicate with Americans on a sort of more personal basis, it could have, in some ways, a positive impact on his campaign," [American University communications professor Leonard] Steinhorn told CBC News.

Instead, upon his departure from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday evening, Trump downplayed the seriousness of the disease, releasing a video telling Americans they should not fear the virus, not let it take over their lives and that he feels better than he did 20 years ago.

"He wants his personal experience to vindicate the policies, the policies he's had to reopen America," Steinhorn said. "And to vindicate everything he's been saying and doing."

He needs to make up a lot of ground, there's not a lot of time to do it and he's wasted this opportunity — if anything, he's polarized people even more about it.