Trump's COVID-19 White House balcony scene did not play well in Trump-skeptic conservative media
![Trump returns to the White House](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vXkBpeupouzpYuhURdbCFa-415-80.jpg)
Presumably, President Trump imagined his return to the White House from Walter Reed Medical Center would be viewed as a show of strength, a leader hit by COVID-19 just a few days earlier able to climb some stairs, rip off his mask, and salute a helicopter before filming a video proclaiming his good health, dominance over, and possible immunity from the savage virus. That's not how it was seen in much of America, including the branch of conservative media that isn't all that fond of Trump.
The Lincoln Project used a Duncan Sheik song to make a similar point.
Veteran GOP operative Tim Miller called Trump's 90-second balcony scene "one of the most disturbing, absorbing, foreign images I can recall." Instead of the "übermensch" image Trump is evidently trying to convey by taking off his mask, Miller writes in The Bulwark, "we get a madman, his face pancaked under a 2mm coat of orange powder, jacked up on steroids, straining to breathe — and not caring a whit about those around him. And I've got to hand it to him: Trump nails that image."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Miller narrates the scene, the dramatic tension building to "one mammoth, labored breath" that gave Trump "the stamina to move into a dramatic extended salute lasting 23 interminable seconds":
He salutes with D-list caudillo energy, channeling an aging Pinochet or Trujillo in their last gasps of power. ... The coup de grâce (for whom, we won't know for a couple weeks), is Trump moving into an extremely congested, spittle-filled soliloquy — straight to camera — about how our Dear Leader may well now be "immune" from the deadly virus that has killed 210,000 and which is currently inhabiting his lungs, and his White House. The show must go on. [Tim Miller, The Bulwark]
Some people saw it Trump's way, of course. Here's a pro-Trump conservative calling this Trump's "Mussolini moment," but in a good way. Peter Weber
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
The manosphere: the shady online network of masculinists
The Explainer A new police report said a rise in radicalised young men is contributing to an increase in violence against women and girls
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
How can we fix tourism?
Today's Big Question Local protests over negative impact of ever-rising visitor numbers could change how we travel forever
By The Week UK Published
-
Simone Biles: Rising – an 'elegantly paced and vulnerable' portrait of the gymnast
The Week Recommends Netflix's four-part documentary is more than a 'riveting comeback story'
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cow
Speed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and early
Speed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US bans final type of asbestos
Speed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Seattle Children's Hospital sues Texas over 'sham' demand for transgender medical records
Speed Read Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton subpoenaed records of any Texan who received gender-affirming care at the Washington hospital
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Afghanistan has a growing female suicide problem
Speed Read The Taliban has steadily whittled away women's and girls' rights in Afghanistan over the past 2 years, prompting a surge in depression and suicide
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US life expectancy rose in 2022 but not to pre-pandemic levels
Speed Read Life expectancy is slowly crawling back up
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Vallance diaries: Boris Johnson 'bamboozled' by Covid science
Speed Read Then PM struggled to get his head around key terms and stats, chief scientific advisor claims
By The Week UK Published
-
An increasing number of dog owners are 'vaccine hesitant' about rabies
Speed Read A new survey points to canine vaccine hesitancy
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published