The vast majority of Americans are well aware that he was irresponsible and that he got the virus due to his own reckless behavior:
Two-thirds of Americans say President Donald Trump handled the risk of coronavirus infection to others around him irresponsibly, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS in the days following the announcement that the President had contracted the virus that has disrupted everyday life for millions of people for more than half a year.
With Trump hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, 69% of Americans said they trusted little of what they heard from the White House about the President’s health, with only 12% saying they trusted almost all of it.
Disapproval of the President’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak stands at a new high in the survey, with 60% saying they disapprove. Additionally, 63% say his own infection is unlikely to change anything about the way that he handles the pandemic.
Questions about Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis were added to a survey already in progress on Friday.Overall, Trump’s approval rating in the poll stands at 40% approve to 57% disapprove. Disapproval is up from 53% in early September.
About a third (32%) say they are concerned about the government’s ability to operate while Trump is ill, with concern higher among Democrats (48% very or somewhat concerned) than independents (30%) or Republicans (15%).
The view that Trump acted irresponsibly regarding the risk of coronavirus to others around him cuts across most demographic lines, and is particularly strong among several groups whose support could be critical to Trump’s re-election bid. Among women, 72% say Trump acted irresponsibly. That stands at 66% among those 65 and older as well as among independents, and 65% among Whites with college degrees. T
he President’s supporters (79%) and Republicans (76%) are about the only groups among which a majority say Trump acted responsibly.
Distrust of information from the White House about the President’s health also crosses most demographic lines, and again Republicans (65%) and Trump voters (66%) are some of the only groups where a majority say they trust most of what they hear about Trump’s health.
There is agreement across party lines, though, that Trump’s diagnosis will not change the way he handles the pandemic. Most Democrats (70%), independents (59%) and Republicans (62%) agree on that.
The uptick in disapproval of Trump’s handling of coronavirus comes more among women (from 63% disapprove to 69%) than men (48% last month, 51% now), and among more people of color (from 65% to 73%) than Whites (52% then, 53% now), and has increased among seniors (from 57% to 62%) and those under age 35 (from 59% to 67%), while holding roughly steady among those between 35 and 64.
By the way, by demanding to go back to the White House against everyone’s wishes he’s putting a whole bunch of innocent people at risk for the thing — all because he wants to show he’s got very, very, very big hands:
On any given morning, the White House is a blur of activity. A chef may be whipping up breakfast for the first couple in the second-floor kitchen. A valet might be shining the president’s shoes, while the head butler lingers in the West Sitting Hall, awaiting any urgent presidential requests. Housekeepers, maybe a dozen of them, could be deployed throughout the building, vacuuming, polishing, and dusting. The White House florist might be arranging a vase full of lilies and hydrangeas, as painters touch up scuffs along the baseboards.
When Donald Trump returns to the White House today from his brief stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, these are the people he’ll be coming home to. Trump and the first lady interact with dozens of White House employees every day, many of them nonpolitical and largely invisible to the American public. Because of his months-long failure to take COVID-19 seriously even inside his own home, Trump continues to place these staff members and their families at considerable risk. Which is to say that, since the president and first lady became sick themselves, the blast radius from their illness could be a lot larger than many Americans realize.
“There are people behind the people,” Deesha Dyer, the White House social secretary under Barack Obama, told us. And “they don’t have the privilege of being Marine One-ed to Walter Reed” if they get sick.
I don’t even want to think about how many may get infected — or how many of his followers are out there following his (and his GOP enablers’s) propaganda that getting COVID is only something that makes suckers sick and only losers die from it spread it around.
He simply doesn’t know how to be a human being.