[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Antagon

Incidently, this is probably the most measured and sane post he's made in ages. Surprised he didn't crowbar (insert someone critical of Trump)'s failing ratings into the post.

From Associated Press:

The positive test result was the most searched topic in China on the widely used social media app Weibo for hours after the announcement, with most comments mocking or critical. One user darkly joked that Trump had finally tweeted something positive.

Originally Posted by Antagon

Now what effect will this have on the elections?

From Fareed Zakaria's Global Briefing:

What Changes With Trump’s Diagnosis?

It’s not just UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro: In contracting Covid-19, President Trump has joined a longer list of world leaders. “Also having tested positive are the presidents of Bolivia, Guatemala and Honduras and the prime ministers of Armenia and Russia,” The New York Times’ Kaly Soto and Elian Peltier note.

Some have fallen more seriously ill than others, and at Time, Billy Perrigo compares the stories of Johnson and Bolsonaro. The UK’s Johnson emerged humbled after a severe case sent him to intensive care, and he has credited doctors with saving his life. Fellow feeling seemed to emerge for him in the UK, including among his critics; Julia Hobsbawm, daughter of the late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm and herself a former Labour Party operative who knows Johnson personally but disagrees with him politically, wrote of that sentiment at CNN.

Fellow populist Bolsonaro of Brazil appeared to have a mild case and followed a different trajectory. “[F]or a man who had said in March he ‘wouldn’t feel anything’ if infected by the virus, his experience appeared only to bolster his extreme rhetoric,” Perrigo writes. Bolsonaro’s political stock has risen through Covid-19, Financial Times Latin America Editor Martin Stott wrote recently, and as Perrigo notes, Oliver Stuenkel of São Paolo’s Getulio Vargas Foundation told the FT elsewhere that Bolsonaro’s “quick recovery strengthens the claim that the pandemic is actually not that bad” and creates an “image of strength” for the president.

Despite the difference in severity of their Covid-19 cases, Perrigo writes, “neither Johnson and Bolsonaro seem to have materially altered their approach to governing during the pandemic because of their experience with the disease.”

What It Means for the Race

For anyone hoping to anticipate the outcome of the US presidential election, President Trump’s diagnosis is certainly a major event. At Inside Elections, Bradley Wascher offers a word of caution, urging readers to “[r]emember, this has been among the most stable presidential elections in recent history, despite occurring in a year of extraordinary circumstances.” (Analysts have noted the remarkable consistency of polls pitting Trump against Joe Biden, with opinions largely fixed through the massive ups and downs of 2020 and relatively few voters currently undecided.) “As a result, it’s practically impossible to know right now how these events will affect the polls. Here’s what we do know: Joe Biden enters this chaotic home stretch as the frontrunner."

The Economist assesses campaign dynamics: “Mr Trump wants to change the subject from covid-19, his administration’s mismanagement of the response to the epidemic and the toll it has taken on the economy. His own illness makes that task impossible for the next ten days. By the time he emerges from quarantine there will not be much time left for him to make up the deficit in his poll numbers.” The magazine concludes on an ominous note, acknowledging the unpredictability of events: “Any list of possible scenarios between now and November 3rd should also include one where Mr Trump recovers, and Mr Biden gets sick before election day.”