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Mask critic Donald Trump: "In the end, he too staged the virus as an enemy"
Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images
SPIEGEL:
Ms. Diehl, what did you think when you heard that US President Donald Trump had tested positive for Corona?
Paula Diehl:
I was reminded of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who had also tried all the time to minimize the disease and said it was just a little flu.
And then, when his popularity rates got very low, he announced that he had tested positive.
SPIEGEL:
Do you have any doubts that Trump was infected with the coronavirus?
Diehl:
No.
I could imagine, however, that a positive test can also be used strategically, as in the Bolsonaro case.
SPIEGEL:
Trump, like Bolsonaro, likes to portray himself as a strong man.
Doesn't the diagnosis of this staging do any harm?
Diehl:
That depends.
In both cases, Trump and Bolsonaro, we are talking about a staging of masculinity that is also very much about macho behavior.
This is not the case with all populists, but especially with right-wing populists.
This narrative is about an outdated image of masculinity: The man must be strong, unassailable.
If Trump does not become seriously ill, the diagnosis can very well be incorporated into a winner's narrative.
SPIEGEL:
Trump as a kind of winner against the pandemic?
Diehl:
The virus was ultimately staged as an enemy by Trump.
If Trump does not become seriously ill, it would be a metaphorical victory against this enemy - in the body of Donald Trump.
That would support his strategy in dealing with Corona, according to the motto: The virus is not that bad and I can enforce anything.
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SPIEGEL:
And if he should become more seriously ill?
Diehl:
Then there is another narrative that is more difficult to use for right-wing populists: compassion.
However, Trump has a heightened sense of dramaturgy, and I can imagine that he can also use this option for himself.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did that.
SPIEGEL:
In the wake of Johnson's illness, his popularity initially rose, according to surveys by the polling institute YouGov.
Diehl:
Johnson tried to arouse empathy by saying afterwards that his life had been saved.
But he also showed that he sympathized with the situation of the sick: I know how it feels because I was sick myself.
Compared to the start of the pandemic, Johnson has changed his narrative.
However, Johnson did not put the masculinist pose in the foreground like Bolsonaro or Trump.
That made it easier for him to change the narrative about his illness.
Rather, he has presented himself as someone close to the people.
SPIEGEL:
Would a change in the narrative in Trump's case be irritating?
"You can't confront Trump with his contradictions because he's contradicting all the time anyway."
Diehl:
The public demands coherence from political actors, but that doesn't work for Trump because he has a destabilizing style.
That is, he is the one who can allow himself to change the narrative again and again: A today, B. Tomorrow B. You cannot confront him with his contradictions because he is contradicting all the time anyway.
And there is another component that Trump often neglects: his sense of dramaturgy, of mass media plots, especially in the sense of reality TV, which works with surprises.
If you think politics in the direction of reality TV, such a corona diagnosis is of course a very good element to keep the audience happy.
Something new is happening in history.
SPIEGEL:
In the current US election campaign, the Trump Show also consisted of calling Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe" on Twitter.
In the 2016 election campaign, he and his team made Hillary Clinton's health an issue.
Will such campaigns and strategies now become Trump's undoing?
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Diehl:
That could happen if he actually shows severe symptoms of the disease.
That would be a problem for him because he currently divides the world into two groups: the winners and the losers.
In Trump's repertoire, illness is one of the characteristics of the loser.
Hillary Clinton's bout of weakness during the 2016 election campaign has become a problem as her physical weakness became apparent.
In addition, physical weakness in women is still perceived as a symbolic confirmation of a general weakness of women.
Clinton had to stop campaigning to recover from pneumonia.
There were a number of US presidents who had very serious illnesses.
But that was not allowed to get outside.
SPIEGEL:
As, for example, in the case of John F. Kennedy, who, among other things, secretly suffered from Addison's disease.
His doctor nonetheless certified him in "excellent health".
Is the office of the US president traditionally linked to staging such a state of health?
Diehl:
Yes, you are addressing something that needs to be discussed in more detail.
In a nutshell: before democracy, in absolutism, we had an overlap between the private person and the physical body of the king on the one hand and the institution, the state on the other.
The French king said: I am the state.
The body and the office were one.
Against this, the revolutions turned and separated the body and the private from public office and institution.
In presidential systems, especially in the USA, this separation has not become as clear as, for example, in the parliamentary system of the Federal Republic.
The person and the office are symbolically much more closely linked.
Because of this, it is more difficult for US presidents to deal with illness.
SPIEGEL:
Has this connection become closer during Trump's term in office?
Diehl:
Actually, the tendency of the democratic culture, also in the USA, goes in the direction of separation between office and person.
But Trump is acting against it.
If he succeeds in staying in good health and developing a winning narrative, the amalgamation of person and office will be more firmly cemented.
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