U. S. President Donald Trump points his finger at Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro before attending a dinner at the Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 7, 2020.
Tom Brenner / Reuters
Donald Trump and his wife Melania tested positive for COVID-19 and are now quarantined, shaking up us’s 2020. La U. S. president’s coronavirus infection follows those of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, who was ill and spent two weeks in the hospital in April, had a milder case of the disease in July. Conversation UK asked two British and Brazilian policy experts to assess the effect of COVID-19 capture on the two leaders.
Matthew Flinders, professor of policy and founding director of sir Bernard Crick Centre for Public Understanding of Politics, University of Sheffield
Time has to do with politics. A crisis can become a triumph and a hero in 0 in the blink of an eye. With the presidential election in a month, a look at the consequences for Donald Trump of positive for COVID-19 can be achieved through Boris Johnson. touch with the virus.
First, it is imaginable that in the short term at least Trump can gain advantages from the resumption of his election, as a “meeting around the flag” effect sees the united public around the president’s workplace in a time of uncertainty. It is not known whether Trump’s disease will become a component of the public psyche with the same effect on an institutional crisis, an herb crisis or a war.
But if Johnson’s delight has something to say (and that’s a big yes), then a “Trump tick” is possible. As YouGov’s knowledge shows, Johnson’s move to extensive care in April seemed to bring a balm to his critics and his Public Approval Ratings have increased, but a wave of criticism by the government itself had actually begun a few days before Johnson announced that he had tested positive.
The concept of the moment is that if the “Bounce of Boris” has anything to do with it, then a Trump increase in polls will be short-lived. The recovery effect can also slide into a kind of dramatic slowdown when the audience begins to wonder if its leader is up to their position, or possibly even hampered by the persistent fatigue of the “long COVID. “This turns out to have happened to Johnson, because even those around him admit that he turns out to have lost his rebound. .
Johnson’s sudden and dramatic decline over the virus can lead Trump’s team to think twice about the “status quo” technique existing from the confines of the White House.
The third concept is that this can make Trump a slightly more humble character. Trump responded to the pandemic in a fairly calm manner, brushing the contempt forsatic. His comments on injecting bleach as a perspective were symptomatic of a president. who seemed disconnected, and for some, crazy.
At least in the short term, Johnson came out of his illness with a new zeal to maintain compatibility and lose weight. The Prime Minister’s online page in his workplace accompanied through an avalanche of new government-backed healthy exercise and meal campaigns.
But overall, Johnson did not recover after having COVID-19, and neither his approval ratings nor the British public’s confidence in his government’s ability to handle the pandemic. Politically, however, there is far less at stake for Johnson than for Trump, with the upcoming British elections not scheduled until 2024.
Anthony Pereira, professor at King’s Brazil Institute and Department of International Development, King’s College London
The news of Donald Trump’s positive check for COVID-19 is being widely watched in Brazil. When Jair Bolsonaro tested positive in July, anchored the prospects of Brazil’s questionable president, for Bolsonaro himself, as well as for his unconditional base of about a third of The Brazilian Electorate, this demonstrated what he had said, that he would not be seriously affected by what he called a “small flu” , due to his beyond his experience as an athlete.
For Brazilians who abhorred the president’s attitude towards COVID-19, adding his insistence that only the elderly and sick participate in the lockdowns, and his attacks on governors who imposed broader measures, Bolsonaro’s positive check showed what they were already feeling: that ignorant Bolsonaro Many felt was completely predictable, given their penchation for mixing with supporters without a mask , who would contract the disease.
It appears that Bolsonaro had a mild case of coronavirus, reported after leaving 20 days of self-disalrillation that he had “mold in his lungs”.
Since July, Bolsonaro has undergone a kind of transformation: it has largely stopped attacking other branches of government, adding the Supreme Court and Congress; perhaps most importantly, it also agreed to provide a source of income emergency in addition to the R600 deficient. (about $106) consistent with the month. Income assistance now reaches 65 million beneficiaries, or more than 30% of the population of approximately 210 million people. The administration of Bolsonaro has submitted to continue it, partly its previous price, until the end of December. .
This would possibly have played a role, though not the only one, in a significant improvement in the president’s approval rates. In a vote of 2,000 CNI/Ibope electorates from September 17 to 20, Bolsonaro obtained a 40% approval rate, the highest since the start of his presidency in January 2019, so perhaps the lesson is that there is political life after contracting a coronavirus, at least for Bolsonaro.
Meanwhile, Brazil will hold municipal elections on November 15 and 29, but Bolsonaro has not had a political party lately. He has fought with other leaders of the Liberal Social Party, the organization with which he campaigned for the presidency in 2018, and left the party in November 2019; his attempt to create a new party failed. Municipal elections can see a complaint about their management. come into force in some of Brazil’s major cities, making November a watershed month for the Trump-Bolsonaro alliance.
This article is republished through The Conversation, a global, independent nonprofit press organization that unlocks academic concepts with a Creative Commons license.
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