Honestly, even people in the allegedly "liberal" media cannot help themselves when it comes to Trump. He wears a mask once and suddenly we have the answer to the question, "When will Trump become presidential?" Well, kids, apparently it's 105 days before he wants to get re-elected! Woo-hoo!
Witness reporter Carol Lee crediting Trump with a "shift" in tone, and a "broad political reset," which she called "striking." She claims he's shown "a real recognition" that the virus should dictate his strategy, which he had been loath to do because he is an ignorant, craven a$$hole. She doesn't say that, though. Couching it in delicate, sterile terms, she reported that things like having a strategy is "something that he has really resisted since the pandemic became an issue several months ago." "Resisted." An "issue." Four million cases and 140,000 dead is, you know, just that pandemic issue.
Anyhow, Trump's saying masks maybe help was enough to allow Dr. Anthony Fauci's conscience let him say something positive about Trump on Fox News, so Fauci was let out of the Trump dungeon to do just that. God only knows when he'll appear at a briefing anytime soon, or be allowed to speak on a network other than Fox.
Then Steve Kornacki asked Ashley Parker what she is hearing about what may have brought about this dramatic shift (where is the sarcasm font when you need it?) in Trump's attitude towards mask-wearing, and the acknowledgement that COVID-19 is maybe not a hoax. Parker, finally, said the quiet part out loud.
The other thing is his team has been trying to get him to fully engage with this crisis for a while, and I'm told one thing they did recently was they showed him projections showing him that the virus is now in red states with Trump supporters, and further projections showing that it is headed, expected, you know, the next wave of surges in critical battleground states, including in the midwest. The virus is affecting, as they say to the president, "our people," and that means his base and/or Republicans.
DING DING DING
Mind you, Trump doesn't care about the actual lives most of HIS voters. If he did, he wouldn't be trying to take away their health insurance, or raising their taxes, or he might actually stand up to Putin for putting a bounty on their heads in Afghanistan. What Trump cares about is winning re-election. Now, if there was a way for him to do that AND get away with ignoring COVID-19 while it kills his voters in the red states, believe you me — he'd be just fine with that.
