President Donald Trump is hearing mixed messages inside his own administration about focusing on the coronavirus pandemic.
The president and his campaign want to hold rallies in spite of the deadly virus, and his chief of staff Mark Meadows and son-in-law Jared Kushner are urging him to move on past COVID-19 and talk about what he'd do in a second term, but some administration officials have begged him to focus on the pandemic, reported Politico.
“If you solve the virus problem, almost everything else will solve itself,” said one senior administration official.
A solid majority of Republicans are increasingly concerned about the deadly virus, and more than a quarter of voters say the pandemic, and not the economy, is the top factor in deciding their choice in the election.
But the president and his campaign are desperate to get back in front of large crowds at rallies, although state and local officials have cautioned against that and Trump supporters themselves have proven reluctant to potentially expose themselves to the virus at those events.
“President Trump was a machine in 2016 and he wants to be that same candidate this cycle. Unfortunately, coronavirus has interfered with our plans to contrast his tremendous stamina with Sleepy Joe’s,” said a person involved with the president’s re-election.