As an unseen President Trump battled the coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, hundreds of maskless supporters gathered shoulder to shoulder for rallies on Staten Island and on the Mall. In Iowa, a bright red “Team Trump on Tour” bus traversed the state for events, including at least one indoor stop where few were masked.
On a weekend when it felt like so much had changed, Trump’s most fervid supporters across the country reacted to his illness with a fatalistic shrug about what that meant for him and for them.
“I think it’s just kind of in the air, you know — you’re going to get it or you ain’t,” said Dwayne Hartwell, 57, a former grocery store worker who is on disability benefits and lives in Charleston, W.Va. Hartwell said there was nothing Trump could have done to avoid catching the coronavirus and thus nothing anyone else could do either. … He still plans to vote for Trump on Nov. 3 — “if he’s still living,” he said jokingly, in a way that made clear he did not think the president could die of the coronavirus. CONT.
Jenna Johnson, Dan Morse, Amy B Wang & Brent D. Griffiths, Washington Post
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