Ever since Donald Trump’s release from the hospital after succumbing to the coronavirus, his campaign has been laser focused on rehabilitating their carefully crafted image of strength and power that has dominated the Trump presidency.
The campaign set forth to do the impossible: spin Trump’s deteriorated health into a positive. The almost theatrical images, videos, and Tweets sent out in the past week aimed to present Trump as a fighter, a president who could not be cudgeled by the virus that has rampaged the country.
In a video he tweeted last week, Trump suggested that getting coronavirus was a sign of leadership, not weakness, remarking, “I stood out front. I led.” On the same day, a Trump campaign spokeswoman went so far as to suggest the president getting COVID-19 gave him advantage over his opponent Joe Biden.
On the surface, Trump and his campaign surrogates portraying the president as having heroically conquered a virus that has left 215,000 Americans and counting dead may seem tone deaf, at best. But Trump has always felt the need to exude strength, to be perceived as strong. So much so that his allies used the hashtag “#TrumpStrong” while Trump lay in a hospital bed.
This incessant desire to be portrayed as strong is why Trump’s decision to back out of this week’s presidential debate is so perplexing.
In new polling, we find that most voters strongly support the decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates to transition from an in-person to virtual debate. 73% of likely voters think it was the right decision to host the debate virtually in the wake of Donald Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis. And 63% think it was the wrong decision for Trump to decline to participate in a virtual debate.
But the consequences of Trump’s decision should be especially concerning to his campaign that has worked relentlessly to rebuild their visage of strength and power. In the same poll, a substantial 65% of likely voters think Trump’s announcement that he will not participate in a virtual debate makes him look weak. This includes 69% of Independents and, surprisingly, nearly a third (28%) of Republicans as well.
With Trump facing significant deficiencies against Biden both nationally and in key swing states, it seems obvious to most Americans – including Trump’s own supporters – that he needs a platform like a presidential debate to make his case to voters.
Instead, by refusing to debate his opponent, Trump is conveying weakness to voters at the same time he is desperate to convey strength following his COVID diagnosis. It is a precarious position for any candidate to be in with less than three weeks left in this campaign.