WASHINGTON: Nine days after testing positive for Covid-19, US President Donald Trump was readying to host hundreds of partisans at the White House on Saturday, in hopes of relaunching his struggling campaign less than four weeks from Election Day.

Trump has declared he is feeling “really good” — but doubts linger over his health, with the president’s doctor appearing more concerned about pleasing his star patient than communicating transparently with the public.

“Right now I’m medication-free, I’m not taking any medications as of, you know, probably eight hours ago,” Trump told Fox News on Friday night, the first on-camera interview since his diagnosis and three-night hospitalisation.

Trump plans to hold a rally on Monday in the critical swing state of Florida — a decision slammed as “reckless” by his election rival Joe Biden, in light of concerns the president might still be contagious. Undeterred, the Trump campaign announced two more rallies next week — in battleground Pennsylvania on Tuesday and in Iowa on Wednesday.

And on Saturday dozens of Trump supporters with red “MAGA” heads were massing eagerly outside the White House to listen to an outdoor address expected to focus on law enforcement in Black communities.

“Trump is the kind of president, that if he is standing to defend a certain cause, he defends it,” said one of them, a US service member of Mexican descent named Daniel, who said he wanted to show his support for the police.

For months, taking their cue from a president who mostly shunned, and at times mocked, the wearing of masks, White House advisors were rarely seen masked inside the West Wing. Since Trump and his wife Melania tested positive, the mood has shifted. A source with knowledge of planning for Saturday’s event said all guests will be required to wear a mask to listen to Trump give his address from a balcony. In the crowd queuing outside, some were masked but many were not.

A similar gathering two weeks ago, to announce the nomination of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, has been singled out as a likely source of many of the dozens of positive cases since linked to the White House.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2020