President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19.
What's the typical course of the illness?
About 40% of people who are exposed to COVID-19 don't have any symptoms at all. It's too early to know if the President will be among them as symptoms typically appear two to 14 days after exposure, according to the Centers for Disease.
If Trump was first exposed to the virus on Wednesday, it is still very early for him to begin exhibiting symptoms. Most people who are symptomatic begin to feel sick within 11 and a half days, according to the CDC. In rare cases it can take even longer.
Because of his age and obesity, Trump is in two very high-risk groups for developing severe COVID-19 disease, hospitalization and death.
At 74, the president is five times more likely to be hospitalized and 90 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than someone between the ages of 18 and 29, according to the CDC.
rump is 6-foot-3 and at his last reported medical checkup weighed 243 pounds, giving him a body mass index of 30.4. That's just over the line into obesity.
Adults with obesity have triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection, according to the CDC. This is in part because obesity is linked to impaired immune function and decreased lung capacity and reserve.
JUST REMEMBER BIDEN IS JUST AS VULNERABLE.
THIS COULD BECOME PENCE VS HARRIS
OR MAYBE PELOSI COULD BECOME PRESIDENT
IF BOTH TRUMP AND PENCE BECOME INCAPICITATED BY THE VIRUS.
The 25th Amendment, Section 1, clarifies Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, by stating unequivocally that the vice president is the direct successor of the president, and becomes president if the incumbent dies, resigns or is removed from office. It also, in sections 3 and 4, provides for situations where the president is temporarily disabled, such as if the president has a surgical procedure or becomes mentally unfit, establishing procedures whereby the vice president can become acting president. Additionally, in Section 2, the amendment provides a mechanism for intra-term vice presidential succession, establishing that a vice presidential vacancy will be filled by a president's nominee upon confirmation by a majority vote of both houses of Congress.[D] Previously, whenever a vice president had succeeded to the presidency or had died or resigned from office, the vice presidency remained vacant until the next presidential and vice presidential terms began; there were 16 such vacancies prior to 1967.[12]
UPDATE:
The NY Times is beginning to reconstruct Trump's contents.
From the Rose Garden Ceremony introducing Judge Barratt, his nominee, both Representative Lee and ND President Jenkins have both tested positive. It was on occasion when masks were not used and social distance rules were not observed.
The fact that Hope Hick became symptomatic before Trump does not mean she gave it to him. He could have given it to her or some third person could have given it to both.
Wallace on Fox made it clear that the Trump party did not obey the mask rules the night of the debate. Only he, Trump and Biden were supposed to be unmasked. The offers from Cleveland Clinic of masks were refused.
The fact that Biden has tested negative does not mean that he was not infected during the debate. (If he does become infected, has to withdraw or dies there could be very seriously outcomes of the Trump parties disregard of the rules).
Trump is moving to Walter Reed to undergo an experimental treatment.
Holy cow, what next. If there was a movie like 2020 it would be reviewed as not believable and too melodramatic.
ReplyDeleteAs Christians we have to pray for their successful recovery (I am reading that Melania has it too).
Melania, Hope Hicks and a bunch of Secret Service guys.
DeleteOur prayers should go for the health of the nation. While Trump might experience a conversion because of this, it is also possible that a mild case might embolden him and his follows that he and they are somehow invincible. A moderately disabling case might make him more unstable than he now is. I doubt Pence and the cabinet will be able to deal with that. A severe case might leave up for grabs the reins of power. His death might be an occasion for civil unrest on all sides.
DeleteWhat is the right word to describe this situation, in which the Minimizer In Chief contracts the virus: Coincidence? Irony? Karma?
ReplyDeleteWill he permit public health officials to do contact tracing? I suppose one credible possibility is that he caught it from her. But the tracing should take place, and as much detail as is appropriate without sharing people's personal health information should be made available to the American people.
Needless to say, that he was on stage with Joe Biden, both sans mask, on Tuesday evening, surely already is making alarm bells go off.
Well a lot of the Trump people were sans mask on Tuesday during a time when Hicks was likely most dangerous i.e. right before she became symptomatic on Wednesday. They also flew in the plane with her to Minneapolis.
DeleteIf I were Biden I would cancel all future debates simply saying that the Republicans cannot be trusted to observe health procedures. It was held in the place where the environment should have been very safe, i.e. the Cleveland Clinic CWRU Health Education facility.
So now Pence and his wife have tested positive. If both Trump and Pence have to take sick days off, that would leave Pelosi as acting president?
ReplyDeleteI'm not able to cling to the news right now, but I saw a headline a few minutes ago that Pence and his wife are negative. Did that change?
DeleteAnd next in line after Pelosi is Chuck Grassley, president pro tem of the Senate.
DeleteI did see a headline that said the Pences had tested positive, but now that has been changed to negative.
DeleteSomeone on FB suspects a plot “ “Diagnosis.” Done by the doctor who certified he weighs only 243 pounds? Until this is confirmed by independent medical professionals, forgive me if I’m cynical and assume someone was scared of further debates and went to Mommy for a sick note.”
ReplyDeleteHis campaign speech is dripping with hate these days. It seems it doesn’t go down well with women, especially college educated women who are now a swing group. Perhaps his handlers are putting him on a short leash. Then he can emerge in a couple of weeks and declare that a Covid is nothing more than the sniffles.
Anne, knowing he's a lifelong con man and after the last four years of the bizarro presidency, his COVID could be as fake as his bone spurs. Or not. I'm more inclined to think that if he had COVID, he'd conceal it.
DeleteKatherine, is it Christian to pray that, if he really has it, his recovery will be slow enough to save our country from another four years?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the best I can do is commend him to the care of the Almighty and let Them figure it out (not getting into gender wars, but we do believe in the Trinity)
DeleteWhile traditionally since the Empire we have prayed for civil officials those were the days in which rulers held personal power (the empire was military rule by Rome), today we have the concept of a nation state so it is more appropriate to pray for all of our citizens in their exercise of civic power.
ReplyDeleteI think it is dangerous to pray for specific outcomes. When I became dissatisfied with B16 I began praying for a new pope but not specifying how that might be (e.g. B16 might have experienced a conversion) as it was he experience something even more profound the insight that he needed to retire (which my prayer had not foreseen).
Jack! So that was your doing :-)
DeleteJim,
DeleteI very rarely pray for anything or anyone in particular. My life as a bureaucrat has led me to assume that a massive bureaucracy of angels would never pay much attention.
I have always been content with the general prayers such as found in the Great Litany of Peace used in the Byzantine tradition. My decision to cease praying for the present pope and begin praying for a new Pope was in that spirit. Yes, I did feel that when Francis stepped out on the balcony and asked that everyone pray for him, that my prayers were answered.
After the debate on Tuesday, I did tell God that I thought he needed to do something about Trump. For someone who rarely prays for specifics it is unique for me to give God even some general advice. Maybe that woke up the heavenly bureaucracy! "Things are really bad down there on earth if even Jack has lost his patience."
"Consider that our Lord's patience is directed towards salvation." 2 Peter-something.
DeleteI pray his illness helps him connect to all human suffering, and that he will repent and recover to live a more honest and generous life.
ReplyDeleteWhat I expect is that if he gets a very mild case that will allow him to say, "It's nothing! My hydroxychloroquine regime early on saved me! I know more than about covid than all the doctors! Reopen our wonderful economy!"
At least we have a respite from his hateful rallies.
I am told the doofusphere is alive with "evidence" the Ds created the China virus to give it to The Don. My son is retorting that, au contraire, The Don appeared with Biden Tuesday in an obvious effort to pass it on to the older man.
ReplyDeleteThus social media, 2020. So happy to have it.
Trump hasn't tweeted for 11 hours. That's some type of record for him.
Delete... and now they're taking him to Walter Reed. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteHe’s being taken to Walter Reed. They aren’t wasting any time. It was several days before Boris Johnson went to the hospital.
ReplyDeleteWill they tell the truth about his condition? Is this just a precaution or is he getting sicker?
I think it's likely they aren't taking any chances. But it's probably worse than just the sniffles.
DeleteIt would help if we had any experience with hearing honest words from POTUS or his assorted spokespersons. The current one says he is fine and running things, and then we get the "abundance of caution" with is lawyer-talk for "we are doing this so we won't be sued."
DeleteCBS is covering the airlift to Walter Reed. Overkill. Plus I'm missing my important local news and weather. Michigan's daily infection rate is approaching an average of 1,000 per day, and why that info gets preempted for this blather on a special report is beyond me.
DeleteJean- even worse, ABC's special report preempted the telecast of the Chicago Cubs playoff game. The game was entering the bottom of the 9th inning with the Cubs trailing by two runs. If they lost, their season would end. When the network cut away, the howls of protest could be heard from outer space, or at least where my wife was working in the next room.
DeleteGee, it only preempted national news here. We remember when The Don's White House Covid 19 briefings, starring the Star, ran through the local news and into the national news before the networks caught on and began to cut away, which probably is why the Star lost interest.
DeleteThen Gov. DeSantis began holding briefings that started 30 minutes into the Premier League games on Saturday and ran on until the game was over an hour and a half later. He repeats himself a lot. And honks. Nobody goes live for him anymore.
I am told Kellyanne Conway also has tested positive. Likewise at least two Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Whether that latter development will have an impact on the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett is yet to be understood, I believe.
ReplyDeleteIn the NY Times database of events, Trump was at a fundraiser on September 25th with the RNC chairwoman who later tested positive, and traveled with Hope Hicks who tested positive.
ReplyDeleteOn September 26th he was at a meeting with Barrett with his wife, and Senators Tillis and Lee who all tested positive. Barrett tested negative but then she has previously had the virus.
On the same day he was at the nomination ceremony with Lee, Tillis, Conway and Jenkins who all tested positive. He was at a number of events on Sunday and Monday, with Melania the only person who has tested positive.
On the flights to and from Cleveland only Melania, Hicks and now his campaign manager have tested positive.
So far the cases cluster around the nomination of Barrett but that maybe only because it takes time for the virus to show up. Negative tests don't mean people did not get inflected, they could still develop the virus.
It has been said that Trump is a "magical thinker". I have to hope he makes a full recovery, but it certainly wouldn't hurt anything if his illness causes him to more fully engage with reality.
ReplyDeleteSome still don't believe it's for real. Others think that if he has it and comes through fine, he will work even harder to downgrade the dangers - just a bad case of the sniffles - and double down on trying to get rid of measures that impede the spread. That's what I think he will do - assuming he really does have it and this isn't all a stunt and a way to get out of the next debate. But, so many of his entourage have it now, it seems he probably really does have it. He's lucky - they have better ways of treating it now than they did when Boris Johnson got it.
ReplyDeleteCan't help but notice that hydroxychloroquine isn't among the meds they are using.
"First of all, he tells a lot of lies. A lot of things he says he's gonna do he don't do ... and I just don't trust him," Goss said.
Karen Nicolini, of Philadelphia echoes this feeling of mistrust of Trump, and said she is suspicious that news that he contracted the virus may be a political stunt manufactured to influence the election.
"I'll use the words he uses: I think it's fake news," Nicolini said. "To be honest, I really feel that he might be trying to say that he has it and then come up with some cure between now and election to make it seem like it's a miracle and encourage more people to vote for him."
https://www.npr.org/sections/latest-updates-trump-covid-19-results/2020/10/02/919523109/some-voters-reactions-to-trump-s-positive-coronavirus-test-align-predictably
Comorbidity poster boy Chris Christy has it. My guess is that everybody he infected dies and he comes out ok. That's how his bankruptcies worked.
DeleteForgive me, Lord, but I can't get this song out of my mind.
https://youtu.be/PgiJ0OS9LwU
When people lie too many times, people are skeptical of believing them, even if they tell the truth.
DeleteI agree with Anne, so many people who were around him have it that I think he probably does have the virus. He hasn't been tweeting, that is a sign that he isn't feeling at all well.
Stanley, LOL about the song
What happens to the election if Trump dies?
ReplyDeleteNobody seems to know.
The Guardian points out that Americans vote for an individual, not a party. So they claim it's not a foregone conclusion that all the early votes cast for Trump would automatically go to Pence or some other GOP nominee.
The LA times consulted a voting expert who said this: "What’s most likely [is] that the election would take place on time with the deceased or incapacitated candidate’s name on the ballot, and then there would be a question if legislatures would allow presidential electors of each state to vote for someone other than the deceased candidate.”
Not every state has laws addressing this possibility, leading to more uncertainty.
“If we are unfortunate enough to have a presidential candidate die or become incapacitated this close to the election, what happens next is likely to be uncertain and messy. It could leave room for political gaming as well under the arcane rules of the electoral college."
For more reading:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/02/trump-coronavirus-what-happens-election-impact-changes-pence-biden
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-02/q-a-trump-has-covid-heres-what-happens-next
I am remembering (we don't have our ballots yet) that the presidential and vice presidential candidates for a given party appear together. So if you check the box for one you also selected the other. Looks like Pence would be the logical conclusion if Trump were out of the picture.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIf The Don were to win but couldn't serve, the states in theory -- legislatures, to be exact -- would have until Dec. 14 (I am pretty sure that's the date) to choose electors. As Justice Scalia (Anne Coney Barrett's mentor) pointed out, there is NO constitutional requirement that the president be selected by the people. It is an act of grace for the states to let people vote. (If a justice tried to apply that principle, he or she might be challenged. But not by the Trump court.)
DeleteIn fact, in 2000, the Florida House attempted to settle the election by going into special session and choosing the Bush electors while the count was going on. The Supreme Court -- which isn't the people either -- intervened, and the Senate president has told me he was never going to go along with the ploy. But there is the precedent. If The Don can't serve, you could wind up with Ron DeSantis. Or some other Republican governor. God save the republic!
Just to clarify, it is the electors who vote for president, not the people. When you vote for The Don you are voting for his electors, and they are supposed to vote for him. Scalia's point was that the electors choose the president, and the states (legislatures) can select the electors any way they darn please.
DeleteIn having an electoral college we are in such illustrious company as Madagascar, Vanuatu, Trinidad Tobago, Estonia, Pakistan...not to mention the Vatican. I suppose there is no chance we would ever agree to change to direct election.
DeleteGod's will be done. But I can't see Trump's surviving the virus intact as anything good for the country. Trump may actually become a theist and construe his survival or at least sell his survival as the will of God. And a lot of his nutty fans will believe it.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly he's doing better but that can be a result of ibuprofen. Oftentimes, victims get better before the real crash comes. Like Jack, I pray for the general welfare and not the individual. God's will be done.
I can see a bigger mess happening if he didn't survive, especially with so many people voting early. But like you, praying for the general welfare.
DeleteJack wrote, "If I were Biden I would cancel all future debates simply saying that the Republicans cannot be trusted to observe health procedures. It was held in the place where the environment should have been very safe, i.e. the Cleveland Clinic CWRU Health Education facility."
ReplyDeleteAs for "the Republicans cannot be trusted to observe health procedures," there was evidence of that at the debate. What I've read is that Trump family members and staff entered wearing masks, but removed them as soon as they got inside, and waved off Cleveland Clinic staff members who approached them and offered them masks." Mike Wallace slammed them on Fox News: “Everybody was told to wear a mask. Why did the first family and chief of staff feel that the rules for everybody else didn’t apply to them?” he asked. The Trump campaign adviser he was interviewing said, "We believe in some element of individual choice.” “There was no freedom of choice,” Wallace replied. “They broke the rules.”
Jack also wrote, "I'm more inclined to think that if he had COVID, he'd conceal it." On that point, here's Maggie Haberman of the NYTimes, in an interview published in The New Yorker today: "I heard [that Trump had tested positive] at 1 A.M., when they tweeted out a doctor’s note, but we knew for several hours that we were likely to get an answer that evening about what his condition was, because this came up after [the senior Trump campaign adviser] Hope Hicks tested positive, which the White House had tried keeping secret... It is really important for voters to drill down on the question of the seventy-two hours, because if that wasn’t true, not only were they letting him do events, but they weren’t telling the public, and it raises questions about what they would have told the public if we hadn’t found out about Hope Hicks."
Trump has been known to try to tilt doctors' communication to his personal advantage in the past, not only regarding the CDC and the Coronavirus task force, but also with the results of his periodic checkups with his personal physician. I think we need to take any/all reports coming out of Walter Reed with a grain of salt.
DeleteSo now we hear that Kayleigh MacEnany, the White House press secretary, has tested positive. We keep hearing about how Trump is doing. But we don't hear anything about those around him who were collateral damage and caught the virus. Including some of his Secret Service people. I wish they would update on those people. Non-Trump lives matter too.
ReplyDeletePer Katherine's comment above:
ReplyDeleteThe Washington Post has had a couple of reports from Secret Service agents, current and retired, who are angry about being exposed to the virus unnecessarily. I guess Trump's drive-by wave to his fans (he was bored) made some of them mad.
Doctors were quick to say that an infected person should be in quarantine, not asking presumably healthy people to drive him around in an enclosed car, even with masks on.
In other reports, doctors consulted by the WaPo have indicated that reports about Trump's health are contradictory and concerning, but the president is pushing for a release this afternoon because, as noted, he's bored.
He's well enough to be tweeting obsessively with his capslock button on. Here's the latest: It is reported that the Media is upset because I got into a secure vehicle to say thank you to the many fans and supporters who were standing outside of the hospital for many hours, and even days, to pay their respect to their President. If I didn’t do it, Media would say RUDE!!!
Heavy doses of steroids can cause delusions, but his tweets always sound crazy.
The obsessive minute-by-minute coverage on the WaPo gets to be a bit much. I'm not sure that second-guessing what's going on at a distance is of much benefit. Trump will do what Trump does, and the disease will take it's course.
Trump seems determined to follow his own narrative that, for big strong manly men, the covid is merely the sniffles.
If he experiences a severe setback because he believes his own lies, so be it.
It sounds like he would be the world's worst patient. I'm just glad I'm not one of the medical staff trying to take care of him, since he won't follow advice and do what's in his own best interest.
DeleteI was hoping this might be a learning moment for him. But nah, not going to happen.
I think the pressure on any president to portray an image of vitality is immense. Beyond the usually overdeveloped self-image, there is the political pressure, cranked up to Broil during an election season. Plus the baked-in inferiority complex that comes to any civilian having to lead all the generals and admirals. Plus the idea that Putin and Xi are judging his manhood.
DeleteNot having had a woman president yet, we don't have a historical basis, but I'm guessing a woman president would feel the same pressures - perhaps even more acutely.
I have a feeling that St. Paul's "When I am weak, it is then that I am strong" doesn't really fly in American political circles.
... and looks like he's going back to the WH this evening.
DeleteThe Chicago Trib reported a few minutes ago that his doctors said that Trump “may not entirely be out of the woods yet” but he and the team “agree that all our evaluations and, most importantly, his clinical status support the president’s safe return home, where he’ll be surrounded by world class medical care.”
If he's going to observe a strict quarantine, then maybe I'm ok with him coming home. But what are the odds that he'll follow those restrictions?
DeleteSo one question I haven't seen addressed anywhere, if two Covid patients quarantine together, can the less seriously ill one get a worse case by breathing the other one's germs? I have read that the disease is to a degree dose- sensitive.
DeleteThe news sites are expressing puzzlement about the seeming contradiction between Trump's early release and the aggressive treatment he received, which would indicate a more serious case. I don't think there's any need for puzzlement at all. They obviously threw the kitchen sink at it, most likely at his request.
DeleteI saw Trump's photo shoot at the White House. He didn't look too good. Didn't say anything and this man never shuts up. No energy for sneers and jibes. I don't think he's anywhere near beyond this thing. That being said, I'm sure they have everything at the White House needed for his care.
DeleteTrain's latest tweet: "I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!"
ReplyDeleteSo, he has learned nothing and is more of a menace than ever. WH residence staff are concerned about working around Trump and wife. Hopefully the staff had a plan in place for this contingency.
But who cares about the serfs?
Trump's latest tweet. Doh.
DeleteWent to Mass this morning. They asked for prayers for a parishioner who had died of Covid. Also prayers for another parishioner who died, whose funeral was to be tomorrow, but they had to postpone it because several family members had contracted Covid. The grim reaper is among us. But Trump is saying don't let it dominate your life.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear that, Katherine. This must be a very sad and anxious time for those families.
DeleteAs usual Trump is sucking all the oxygen in the room. Last I heard, there were 19 people who tested positive as a result of the White House spreader event. But not one word in the media about how any of them are doing, not even Melania. He always succeeds in making it all about him.
DeleteAnd more lies on Twitter this morning from Trump: "Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"
ReplyDeleteThis is why he's not talking about the people who got sick at his Barrett roll-out. Because what they have is no big deal.
OK, have to stop reading his tweets now.
Talk about entitled privilege! Most people have to stick it out at home until they can't breathe anymore.
DeleteI don't want to hear one word about how he is bravely soldiering on, showing what a leader he is.
Epidemiologist are projecting close to 3,000 people per day dying by January. Interesting number. If it transpires, that will be equivalent to a 9/11 Twin Tower event per day. And how many trillions did we spend on that one event?
DeleteNow there is this. Trump has held up any coronavirus aid until "after I win." Tells McConnell not to waste time on that, but to barrel ahead with the Barrett confirmation. He doesn't even try not to say the quiet parts out loud now.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteKatherine, are you sure that's a real tweet? I can't find that on Trump's feed. Sometimes people float satiric tweets out there, but I can't track this one down.
DeleteTrump has been tweeting at a hectic pace since he returned to the WH, possibly a function of the steroids (I have had to take these a few times, and they do make you feel like a million bucks for a few days). And there's a lot of crazy on his feed, but nothing this weird.
It was on Facebook, supposedly from a screenshot. But now it's gone, so you're probably right that it was someone's idea of satire, and they deleted it. So I'm deleting my comment, there's enough real craziness that I don't need to spread the fake kind.
DeleteHe Tweeted it. Then he Tweeted a lot of things that implied he wants to keep negotiating, or at least passing parts of the stimulus in bits and pieces. His aides and, I am sure, Addison Mitch got him to pull back the Tweet calling off negotiations leaving things where Trump wants them -- with the whole world looking at him to see what comes next. Where's Gandor when you need him?
DeleteWell this tweet from an hour ago is pretty weird and unsettling. I don't even know what point he's trying to make, other than that he thinks there was a coup that he some how put down and is now entitled to additional term(s) of office: NOW THAT THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS GOT CAUGHT COLD IN THE (NON) FRIENDLY TRANSFER OF GOVERNMENT, IN FACT, THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN AND WENT FOR A COUP, WE ARE ENTITLED TO ASK THE VOTERS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE!
DeleteIt's just effing bizarre.
Wow! He said "PLEASE"!
DeleteThat's his old hit, "They Bugged Me," which didn't chart last time he played it. The "now" is what makes it confusing because he is talking about "then" when everybody but the cultists knows it didn't happen.
DeleteSounds like the meds have addled his brain.
DeleteTom, yes, but this time he's changed the lyrics so they make less sense. Is he trying to argue for a THIRD term? I know he's floated this before. And he seems to think that he is owed more time in power because he has been so unfairly harassed. Only Trump could win an election and then argue that he was somehow screwed. Nothing is ever enough.
DeleteI think that tweet refers to something which was released in the last few days, the gist of which is that the Steele dossier was beholden to Russian disinformation and for which the Clinton campaign was the conduit - or something like that. This came out of one of the investigations which still are on-going (I forget which one, I think there are several) into the causes of what eventually became the Mueller investigation. Trump is hoping that at least one of them releases their findings in time to influence the election.
DeleteIt came out of Ron Johnson's committee. Johnson has the virus. With much huffing and puffing, the committee decided the Steele dossier was an influence on the FBI's thinking when it opened and continued the investigation of Putin pulling The Don's strings. The footnote said: One among several influences.
Delete(To recap for the Wisconsin businessman who seems to have lost a few marbles in the marble halls, the Russians WERE diddling with the election.)
Base Trump doesn't follow all that. They think he was unable to get anything done his first term due to Democrat-caused disruptions, so he deserves more terms/unlimited terms.
Delete