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How will President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis impact his plans ahead of the election?
The Trump campaign said all of its pre-scheduled in-person campaign events are moving online or being postponed.
President Donald Trump and the first lady are feeling mild symptoms hours after their COVID-19 diagnosis.
The Trump campaign said all of its pre-scheduled in-person campaign events are moving online or being postponed.
Events involving the first family have been temporarily postponed.
RELATED: President Trump experiencing 'mild symptoms' after he and first lady test positive for COVID-19
President Donald J. Trump walks to speak with members of the press along the South Lawn driveway Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, prior to boarding Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md. to begin his trip to North Carolina and Florida. (Official Whi …
On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence took over a coronavirus call for the president.
Some political watchers have said it’s an advantage for former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
COVID-19 is not only changing the campaign, but also the president’s plans.
Debates between the president and Biden could be done.
Big rallies, like the one the president planned for Friday in battleground Florida, are off the calendar for now.
“That’s a big loss, and a couple more events like that and they've been scheduled on purpose in important locations, that’s definitely taking something out of the president’s game,” attorney David Coale said.
A game now sidelined because the president is in isolation.
“A person can be considered sort of cleared after 10 days from the start of their symptoms, and then after they've been without fever, without any fever reducing medication for 24 hours,” Dallas County Health Director Dr. Philip Huang explained.
And now contact tracing is being done.
“There would have to be an assessment of the people who were in close contact with him during the period when he could have transmitted infection. It’s usually like two days before onset of his symptoms or before testing positive,” Dr. Huang said,
Coale said this favors the Democratic nominee.
“All things equal, it probably favors Joe Biden to have the president stuck at home,” Coale said.
“God bless the first family,” Biden said at an event in Michigan Friday morning after testing negative.
“He can get on the campaign trail where he feels he has strength,” Coale explained. “If the president doesn't have that going into this election, he's going to feel weakened, no question about that.”
“In a broader sense, I actually don’t think this will change the campaign at all, the election, if you will,” presidential historian Jeff Engel said.
Engel said that various polls show Trump trailing Biden before the diagnosis.
“The polls have been remarkably stable historically, so remarkably so, that we have not really seen any change in the polls basically since March, and certainly not since July and August,” Engel said.
And added that the president will still connect with his followers.
“He's going to get his message out the same way he has for the last three and a half years, directly to the people by using his thumbs and his phone,” Engel said.