Analysis | Trump's anti-mask crusade begins to play against him

What are the excuses for not wearing face masks? 2:14

(CNN) - President Donald Trump's refusal to set an example to cover his face, despite mounting evidence that it may be one of the most effective ways to stem the increasingly disastrous United States coronavirus pandemic, always It was a political statement.

Now, as clinical and electoral damage accumulates from a resurgent virus that is close to being out of control after another record day for new cases on Wednesday, the President may be moving, very slowly, toward a rethinking of your strategy.

By going unmasked when everyone around him wears one, Trump created a false impression that the worst was behind us, that normalcy was about to return. He cemented his bond with supporters at his base who see orders to wear face masks as a sign of servitude to the government and elites and an impediment to their rights.

However, Trump's position has increasingly left him isolated even from Republican leaders who have facilitated his unleashed presidency, as public health officials and state and local leaders of all political persuasions plead with Americans to cover themselves. when they are in public so that the country can heal itself.

The move to wear the masks now seems unstoppable, in part because of warnings like this week by the government's top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said that new coronavirus infections in the United States will soon follow. they could reach 100,000 a day.

Fauci said that the aggressive state openings that Trump defended have failed as people without masks celebrated in bars and amid crowds.

"It is a violation of the principles of what we are trying to do, and that is social distancing, the use of masks," Fauci told NPR on Wednesday.

The reality suggested by such warnings has helped change the debate about wearing masks.

Far from becoming a mark of strength and defiance, Trump's isolated crusade against the masks - for which he called himself "SOLITAIRE WARRIOR" in a recent tweet - is now emblematic of his denial of a rapidly worsening national disaster, a response failure of the federal government and its refusal to take even the most basic steps to save American lives.

This Wednesday, Trump offered the first signs that he understands the box he has built for himself on the masks, which according to medical experts may contain the drops that could infect people and surfaces and facilitate the spread of the coronavirus.

The president stated in an interview with Fox Business that he was "completely in favor of the masks" and that he had used them in situations where social distancing in small groups was not possible.

But for the past two months, Trump has destroyed the wearing of masks, undermining his own government's advice. He suggested to The Wall Street Journal that people wore masks to show that they disapproved of it. He warned that he will not give the press the "pleasure" of seeing his face covered in public. He has traveled the country without precautions and has ignored the recommendations for social distancing. And he even said that he could not wear a mask when meeting with "presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens".

"I don't know, somehow, I don't see it for myself," the president said in April.

Trump's little steps on masks

This Wednesday's small move, a shift from its entrenched position, may be all that is accomplished for now, especially as its opponent of the November election, Democrat Joe Biden, has said he would demand the wearing of masks nationwide. if chosen.

But the problem is not whether Trump has worn a mask in private. Seeing the president leading the way in a face mask would be a powerful signal to his millions of devoted followers, especially those in southern conservative states where mask use is frowned upon and the virus is getting worse, fast.

Until now, Trump, who has often resisted taking risks with his base, an election that all presidents face sooner or later, has not taken the step. The fact that it has taken him so long means that if he finally exits Air Force One wearing a mask, he will cause an uproar and will likely be denied any political benefits that such a move could have earned him earlier.

No wonder the president has excelled in the matter of wearing a mask. The more his political position has weakened before the election, the more he has taken positions, on issues such as the virus, race, and foreign policy, that seem to attract his most devoted supporters.

The apostasy of the Trump mask is an act of rebellion against established figures and the scientists and professional government officials with whom he has been waging internal warfare since taking office. It is a natural choice for a lifelong outsider who is personally and politically forced to break the rules.

The slight softening of the president's position on wearing a mask on Wednesday came after many of his political allies implicitly repudiated his position, repeatedly emphasizing that wearing a mask was not a political act but a gesture of humanity.

"We shouldn't have any stigma attached to wearing masks," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said Tuesday. In Texas, which was hit over the weekend, Vice President Mike Pence, who has spent weeks undermining government messages on the subject and reluctant to run into his boss, endorsed wearing a mask. However, Pence still does not fit everything, generally saying that the use of masks should be done where it is "indicated" by local authorities.

Even the president's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, modeled a Trump-Pence mask at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month, suggesting, like anything else, a massive marketing opportunity that the division chief may be missing .

Some Republicans have tried to backtrack with apprehension earlier on a step that runs counter to conservative talk show dogma by finding ways to make wearing masks more politically acceptable. House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who is a strong ally of Trump, suggested that as Independence Day approaches, Americans should show their patriotism in red, white, and blue covers. . Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, has been resplendent in a plaid mask reminiscent of the red and black shirt he wore when he walked through his state and was elected governor decades ago.

Trump is still in denial

Trump's apparent change in wearing masks probably does not indicate a corresponding change in his denial of the worsening crisis and his refusal to provide strong presidential leadership.

In the same Fox Business interview, he claimed that "we got it right" with the coronavirus, a pandemic that he initially ignored, then mishandled and politicized, and eventually ignored again with even more than 127,000 Americans who have died.

"We did a great job. We are credited with doing a great job, ”he said, before returning his typical fantasy-based predictions about the virus.

"We are coming back in a very strong way ... And I think we are going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think at some point that will just go away. I hope, ”Trump said.

If the president has not had an epiphany about the worsening situation, which has seen nearly half of the states slow down or pause their reopening plans, what could motivate him?

If recording new infection rates, filling hospitals, and an average of 1,000 American deaths per day cannot make you take the pandemic seriously, there is one thing that could still be: its disastrous impact on your re-election hopes.

A gap is emerging within Trump's inner circle as to whether the president should publicly direct his attention to the virus he has been ignoring for days or continue to open up the economy, sources familiar with the matter told CNN's Jim Acosta, Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak. .

Several of Trump's top aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have begun to worry about the president's re-election prospects and have urged to focus on the economy. But other advisers believe he has suffered serious damage amid the pandemic.

"There is quite a bit of concern," an adviser said, describing the president as "frustrated" by recent polls that Biden could win the November election by a wide margin.

- CNN's Maeve Reston contributed to this report.

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