Hospitalized with coronavirus, President Trump was unable to leave his reality TV persona behind

The New York Times

"Donald J. Trump has told aides to think of every day of his administration as an episode in a television show," says James Poniewozik. "That production, it turns out, does not take sick days. The president’s diagnosis and treatment for Covid-19 has unfolded as TV drama, some of it stunning, some baffling — and some of it crafted by Mr. Trump’s own producers, in a surreal but characteristic attempt to try to wrangle control of reality through pictures." Poniewozik adds: "The treatment of the president for a potentially deadly disease would, for any administration, be a public-relations challenge as well as a health crisis. But that’s exponentially more so for a reality-TV celebrity who has built his political image on claims, however questionable, of machismo, vitality and vigor...Even in a serious health crisis, the president is hewing to the belief that it is better to look good than to feel good. His career is proof that images are powerful. But they are not antiviral. They might stave off the political consequences of a virus and its handling. But they don’t mean anything to a pathogen without eyes or ears, nor can they substitute for information about it. For the rest of us, watching the fog and speculation of an unsettling weekend, reality still matters. All the appearances and images only underscored how much we didn’t know about what the president’s actual medical condition was. And of course, given the capricious course of this disease, we cannot regardless know his prognosis yet. But in sickness or in health, the show must go on." ALSO: Here's a visual of the 15-foot distance between Trump and Joe Biden at the first presidential debate.