Biden can smell victory in his battle against Trump

‘How is the president feeling?’ shouldn’t be a difficult question to answer. And yet over the last 24 hours, nobody could say with any clarity that Donald Trump was ill, on the mend, or perfectly fine. Even reporters with impeccable sources in the White House bubble were left flabbergasted as completely contradictory accounts emerged from multiple sources. Minutes after the president’s doctors emerged from the Walter Reed medical complex to brief reporters about a president coming back from the coronavirus strong and in good spirits, the White House chief of staff told the press that Trump’s condition was quite serious. Trump, who can’t stand when subordinates are fouling up the message, decided to take matters into is own hands by releasing a meandering short video from inside the hospital: ‘I came here, wasn’t feeling so well. I feel much better now.’

The White House messaging on the president’s health is in many ways representative of how the Trump administration has tackled the Covid-19 crisis since its inception: confused, disjointed, uncoordinated, laissez-faire.