US election 2020 - The US presidential polls are due in three weeks - 20 days precisely. On November 3, the United States of America will vote in&nbsp; one of the most bitterly contested election in recent history.

Donald Trump wants to secure four more years at the White House. Trump says he has recovered from the coronavirus, or “kung flu"&nbsp;as he likes to call it.

Eager to prove himself healthy and lively despite days of hospitalisation, Trump has hit the campaign trail again.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/were-going-to-crush-the-virus-very-quickly-its-happening-already-says-trump-in-pennsylvania-rally-335096">We're going to crush the virus very quickly, says Trump in Pennsylvania rally</a>

On Tuesday, he made a grand return at a campaign rally in Orlando, Florida. Trump declared he was in perfect shape, and even tossed face masks into the audience. Additionally, he offered to give everyone a “big fat kiss”.

His supporters rejoiced:

“I think this covid is all political. Just to make Trump look bad”, Sandra Colanese, a Trump supporter said.

“I think, I think the virus is been extremely politicated [sic]. It is, it is been used to lockdown this country, which is what'll happen if Joe Biden is reelected. They will lock down the nation,” another supporter said.

"I'm not concerned, I've been working all the time. Ain't got no covid. I take vitamins, I eat healthy, I just ain't worried about it”, Mark Nobel, another supporter of Trump said.

The US president is racing against the clock to make up for the time he lost after testing positive.

On October 14, Trump took his campaign to Pennsylvania - a battleground state that he had won by a narrow margin in 2016. Speaking in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump declared how he did not care about being politically correct.

He also requested “suburban women” to like him. And once again offered to kiss everybody, every single man and woman in the audience.

“So can I ask you to do me a favour? Suburban women, would you please like me? (cheers) please. I saved your damn neighbourhood, ok?&nbsp; The other thing, i don't have that much time to be that nice. You know, I can do it, but I got to go quickly”, Donald Trump said.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/give-you-a-big-fat-kiss-donald-trump-dances-at-florida-rally-post-virus-treatment-335141" hreflang="en">'Give you a big fat kiss': Donald Trump 'dances' at Florida rally post-virus treatment</a>

“… And now i'm immune, they tell me. I'm immune. I could come down and start kissing everybody. I'll kiss every guy, man and woman, man and woman. Look at that guy, how handsome he is. I'll kiss him. Not with a lot of enjoyment, but that's okay.”, the US president added.

Sometime later, the US president decided to dance to the 1978 mega-hit YMCA. Trump plans on holding many such electrifying rallies in the coming days - in Iowa, North Carolina, Wisconsin.

The second presidential debate was supposed to take place on October 15, and has now been cancelled by the commission on presidential debates.

Joe Biden is insisting on a virtual debate, citing Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis. Trump, on the hand hand, is not too keen on the idea of a virtual debate.He wants the face off to be live and in-person.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">Click here for more US election stories</a>

US election 2020 - The US presidential polls are due in three weeks - 20 days precisely. On November 3, the United States of America will vote in one of the most bitterly contested election in recent history.

US election 2020 - The US presidential polls are due in three weeks - 20 days precisely. On November 3, the United States of America will vote in one of the most bitterly contested election in recent history. Donald Trump wants to secure four more years at the White House. Trump says he has recovered from the coronavirus, or “kung flu" as he likes to call it. Eager to prove himself healthy and lively despite days of hospitalisation, Trump has hit the campaign trail again. Also read: We're going to crush the virus very quickly, says Trump in Pennsylvania rally On Tuesday, he made a grand return at a campaign rally in Orlando, Florida. Trump declared he was in perfect shape, and even tossed face masks into the audience. Additionally, he offered to give everyone a “big fat kiss”. His supporters rejoiced: “I think this covid is all political. Just to make Trump look bad”, Sandra Colanese, a Trump supporter said. “I think, I think the virus is been extremely politicated [sic]. It is, it is been used to lockdown this country, which is what'll happen if Joe Biden is reelected. They will lock down the nation,” another supporter said. "I'm not concerned, I've been working all the time. Ain't got no covid. I take vitamins, I eat healthy, I just ain't worried about it”, Mark Nobel, another supporter of Trump said. The US president is racing against the clock to make up for the time he lost after testing positive. On October 14, Trump took his campaign to Pennsylvania - a battleground state that he had won by a narrow margin in 2016. Speaking in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump declared how he did not care about being politically correct. He also requested “suburban women” to like him. And once again offered to kiss everybody, every single man and woman in the audience. “So can I ask you to do me a favour? Suburban women, would you please like me? (cheers) please. I saved your damn neighbourhood, ok? The other thing, i don't have that much time to be that nice. You know, I can do it, but I got to go quickly”, Donald Trump said. Also read: 'Give you a big fat kiss': Donald Trump 'dances' at Florida rally post-virus treatment “… And now i'm immune, they tell me. I'm immune. I could come down and start kissing everybody. I'll kiss every guy, man and woman, man and woman. Look at that guy, how handsome he is. I'll kiss him. Not with a lot of enjoyment, but that's okay.”, the US president added. Sometime later, the US president decided to dance to the 1978 mega-hit YMCA. Trump plans on holding many such electrifying rallies in the coming days - in Iowa, North Carolina, Wisconsin. The second presidential debate was supposed to take place on October 15, and has now been cancelled by the commission on presidential debates. Joe Biden is insisting on a virtual debate, citing Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis. Trump, on the hand hand, is not too keen on the idea of a virtual debate.He wants the face off to be live and in-person. Click here for more US election stories

US election 2020: With 20 days to go, Trump offers kisses to his supporters at Florida rally

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/were-going-to-crush-the-virus-very-quickly-its-happening-already-says-trump-in-pennsylvania-rally-335096">We're going to crush the virus very quickly, it's happening already, says Trump in Pennsylvania rally</a>

<img src="https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2020/10/14/164793-donaldtt.jpg?itok=kLz94b6J" />

Donald Trump said Biden was "choking like a dog" during the televised debate.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-behind-cyberattack-on-norwegian-parliament-ministry-335097">Russia behind cyberattack on Norwegian parliament: Ministry</a>

<img src="https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2018/09/12/22584-cyberattacks-20170513083637-20170518065505.JPG?itok=erVdy7Ky" />

Norway had revealed on September 01 that they had sustained an attack on their parliamentary system in the last week of August during which email accounts of several members of the parliament and employees were hacked.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/armenia-azerbaijan-continue-fighting-amid-rising-death-toll-335094">Armenia, Azerbaijan continue fighting amid rising death toll</a>

<img src="https://www.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2020/09/30/162462-armenia-azerbaijan-clashes2.jpg?itok=gD83ZDTG" />

Azerbaijan and Armenian troops had accused each other of breaking the ceasefire as heavy shelling was reported in several areas in Nagorno-Karabakh despite the ceasefire.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/unacceptable-proposition-says-russia-over-new-nuclear-agreement-with-us-335093">Unacceptable proposition, says Russia over new nuclear agreement with US</a>

<img src="https://www.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2018/11/29/76259-untitled-design-8.jpg?itok=IU2PwfLq" />

The US has tried to rope in China into the agreement as the Trump administration has demanded that Russia should stop its nuclear activities during the extension period.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-malaysias-political-turmoil-anwar-ibrahim-meets-king-in-a-push-to-become-prime-minister-335090">Gravitas: Malaysia's political turmoil: Anwar Ibrahim meets King in a push to become Prime Minister</a>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-malaysias-political-turmoil-anwar-ibrahim-meets-king-in-a-push-to-become-prime-minister-335090/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

&nbsp;

We're going to crush the virus very quickly, it's happening already, says Trump in Pennsylvania rally Donald Trump said Biden was "choking like a dog" during the televised debate.

We're going to crush the virus very quickly, it's happening already, says Trump in Pennsylvania rally Donald Trump said Biden was "choking like a dog" during the televised debate. Russia behind cyberattack on Norwegian parliament: Ministry Norway had revealed on September 01 that they had sustained an attack on their parliamentary system in the last week of August during which email accounts of several members of the parliament and employees were hacked. Armenia, Azerbaijan continue fighting amid rising death toll Azerbaijan and Armenian troops had accused each other of breaking the ceasefire as heavy shelling was reported in several areas in Nagorno-Karabakh despite the ceasefire. Unacceptable proposition, says Russia over new nuclear agreement with US The US has tried to rope in China into the agreement as the Trump administration has demanded that Russia should stop its nuclear activities during the extension period. Gravitas: Malaysia's political turmoil: Anwar Ibrahim meets King in a push to become Prime Minister ×

Morning news brief: Trump in Pennsylvania rally, Russia accused of cyber attack and more

President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> campaigning in Pennsylvania said "this election is a simple choice: if Biden wins, China wins" as the US president continued his attack on the US presidential hopeful just days ahead of the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/us-election?page=1">US elections</a>.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-trump-wants-to-kiss-his-supporters-why-335087/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"We're going to crush the virus very quickly. It's happening already," Trump told the crowd in Pennsylvania while adding, "soon it's going to be perfecto."

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
For years you had a President who apologized for America – now you have a President who is standing up for America, and standing up for Pennsylvania. So get your friends, get your family, get your neighbors, and GET OUT AND VOTE! <a href="https://t.co/gsFSgh2KPc">https://t.co/gsFSgh2KPc</a> <a href="https://t.co/xfZtBixRkk">pic.twitter.com/xfZtBixRkk</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1316188335862247424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

Tump said Biden was "choking like a dog" during the televised debate.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-defectors-help-biden-build-leads-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-335033">Also Read:&nbsp;Trump defectors help Biden build leads in Wisconsin and Michigan</a>

"One of the most important issues for Pennsylvania is the survival of your fracking industry. Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to abolish fracking," Trump said while attacking his Democratic opponent.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Proud citizens like you helped build this Country—and together, we are taking back our Country. We are returning power to YOU, the American People! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MAGA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MAGA</a> <a href="https://t.co/rn69eJJAPV">pic.twitter.com/rn69eJJAPV</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1316187932961587200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

"He is handing control to the socialists and Marxists and left-wing extremists," Trump alleged while adding that, "he can't stand up to the lunatics running his party."

"For years you had a President who apologized for America – now you have a President who is standing up for America, and standing up for Pennsylvania," Trump said at the rally.

President Trump's wife Melania was not seen in the rally over a week after her last health report after doctors said her COVID-19 symptoms were mild. Melania Trump hasn't made a public appearance ever since Trump returned to the White House last week.

President Donald Trump campaigning in Pennsylvania said "this election is a simple choice: if Biden wins, China wins" as the US president continued his attack on the US presidential hopeful just days ahead of the US elections.

President Donald Trump campaigning in Pennsylvania said "this election is a simple choice: if Biden wins, China wins" as the US president continued his attack on the US presidential hopeful just days ahead of the US elections. Watch: "We're going to crush the virus very quickly. It's happening already," Trump told the crowd in Pennsylvania while adding, "soon it's going to be perfecto." For years you had a President who apologized for America – now you have a President who is standing up for America, and standing up for Pennsylvania. So get your friends, get your family, get your neighbors, and GET OUT AND VOTE! https://t.co/gsFSgh2KPc pic.twitter.com/xfZtBixRkk — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020 × Tump said Biden was "choking like a dog" during the televised debate. Also Read: Trump defectors help Biden build leads in Wisconsin and Michigan "One of the most important issues for Pennsylvania is the survival of your fracking industry. Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to abolish fracking," Trump said while attacking his Democratic opponent. Proud citizens like you helped build this Country—and together, we are taking back our Country. We are returning power to YOU, the American People! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/rn69eJJAPV — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020 × "He is handing control to the socialists and Marxists and left-wing extremists," Trump alleged while adding that, "he can't stand up to the lunatics running his party." "For years you had a President who apologized for America – now you have a President who is standing up for America, and standing up for Pennsylvania," Trump said at the rally. President Trump's wife Melania was not seen in the rally over a week after her last health report after doctors said her COVID-19 symptoms were mild. Melania Trump hasn't made a public appearance ever since Trump returned to the White House last week.

We're going to crush the virus very quickly, it's happening already, says Trump in Pennsylvania rally

US President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden fanned out to critical battleground states on Tuesday as the presidential race entered a final, intense phase amid record numbers of early votes cast.

US Election 2020: Joe Biden, Donald Trump duel in battleground states

In India, where many admire President Donald Trump, one rural farmer worshipped him like a god, praying to a life-size statue of Trump in his backyard every morning.

“At first everyone in the family thought he was mentally disturbed, but he kept at it and everyone eventually came around,” said Vivek Bukka, a cousin of the farmer, Bussa Krishna.

When Trump announced he had the coronavirus, it devastated Krishna. The farmer posted a tearful video on Facebook in which he said: “I feel very sad that my god, Trump, has contracted the coronavirus. I ask everyone to pray for his speedy recovery.”

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/india-news/telangana-ardent-fan-of-donald-trump-dies-depressed-after-us-presidents-covid-19-infection-335200" hreflang="en">Telangana: Ardent fan of Donald Trump dies 'depressed' after US President's Covid-19 infection</a>

He stopped eating to show solidarity with his idol’s suffering from COVID-19, his family said. He fell into a deep depression. On Sunday, he died of cardiac arrest.

Krishna’s devotion had made him into a minor celebrity, and he was the subject of some national headlines. His death made news across India.

Vivek said his cousin had been physically fit and had no health problems or history of heart disease. There is no evidence linking Krishna’s death to his fasting.

There is no indication that the White House or Trump — who said he had recovered from the virus and felt “powerful” after being treated with a cocktail of drugs — was aware of his biggest fan in India. Many of the country’s urban intellectuals dislike the U.S. president, and he is regularly mocked on Indian social media platforms.

But the president has support in other corners of Indian society. A February study by the Pew Research Center found that 56% of people surveyed in India said that Trump would “do the right thing when it comes to world affairs,” up from 16% when he was elected.

Trump’s popularity in some parts of India is striking because the cult of personality he has tried to cultivate — of an unapologetically brash figure leading the United States to a bright new future while espousing “America First” — mirrors how India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, projects himself to his own supporters.

Krishna, a widowed farmer in his thirties who lived in the village of Konne in the southern state of Telangana, had been a Trump devotee for about four years. He became a fan when the president appeared to him in a dream, his relatives said, and predicted that India’s national cricket squad would beat its archrival, Pakistan, in a match the next day.

India won, Vivek said, “and from that day he started worshipping Donald Trump.”

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/give-you-a-big-fat-kiss-donald-trump-dances-at-florida-rally-post-virus-treatment-335141" hreflang="en">'Give you a big fat kiss': Donald Trump 'dances' at Florida rally post-virus treatment</a>

But the farmer also admired the president as a leader, said Vivek, a 25-year-old accountant who lives near the southern city of Hyderabad. His cousin did not speak English, and the local news outlets where he lived paid scant attention to U.S. politics. So he relied on Vivek to translate articles and videos for him.

Vemula Venkat Goud, Konne’s village headman, said that the young farmer had also been drawn to Trump’s “straightforward ways and blunt speech.”

Neighbors did not know much about U.S. politics and had no opinion of Trump, he added. But since Krishna was such a huge fan, they embraced his cause as a courtesy, even if it struck them as a little odd.

As Krishna’s devotion to Trump intensified, he began fasting every Friday in support, and he commissioned the construction of a shrine in his backyard with the life-size statue, Vivek said. He worshipped it with Hindu rituals for an hour or two each morning, as one might when praying to Krishna, Shiva, Ganesha or other gods in the Hindu pantheon.

One video of Krishna that has circulated widely online shows him performing a prayer ritual, or pooja, before an altar that holds a picture of Trump.

In another, he wears a T-shirt that reads “Trump” in white block letters as he pours water over the head of the statue, which is wearing a red tie and giving a thumbs-up. The Trump statue has a garland of fresh flowers around its neck and a red tilak — a traditional symbol that is made of vermilion or sandal paste, and used in religious ceremonies — on its forehead.

Krishna’s creation of a statue in Trump’s likeness is not unique. An architect built a giant wooden statue of Trump with vampire’s teeth in Slovenia, the native country of the first lady, Melania Trump. Some critics denounced it as a “waste of wood.”

That statue’s creator, Tomaz Schlegl, an architect, had a clear vision, and message, in mind. “I want to alert people to the rise of populism, and it would be difficult to find a bigger populist in this world than Donald Trump,” he told Reuters.

A life-size wooden sculpture of Trump near the town of Sevnica in eastern Slovenia, where she grew up, was set on fire. The commissioning artist replaced it with a bronze statue.

As for Krishna, he made a valiant attempt to meet his idol. He traveled to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi before Trump’s trip to India in February to try to arrange a meeting, Venkat, the village headman, said.

“It’s really sad that his dream never came true,” he added.

Trump later addressed a stadium packed with 100,000 cheering attendees in Ahmedabad, the heart of Modi’s political home base.

Krishna kept the faith until the end.

When he learned of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis, he locked himself in his room, Vivek said.

“We tried to force him to eat, but he barely ate anything,” he said.

On Sunday, Krishna collapsed, and his relatives took him to the hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival.

Krishna is survived by his parents and his 7-year-old son.

Venkat said villagers were discussing how best to maintain their neighbor’s Trump shrine.

In India, where many admire President Donald Trump, one rural farmer worshipped him like a god, praying to a life-size statue of Trump in his backyard every morning.

In India, where many admire President Donald Trump, one rural farmer worshipped him like a god, praying to a life-size statue of Trump in his backyard every morning. “At first everyone in the family thought he was mentally disturbed, but he kept at it and everyone eventually came around,” said Vivek Bukka, a cousin of the farmer, Bussa Krishna. When Trump announced he had the coronavirus, it devastated Krishna. The farmer posted a tearful video on Facebook in which he said: “I feel very sad that my god, Trump, has contracted the coronavirus. I ask everyone to pray for his speedy recovery.” Also read: Telangana: Ardent fan of Donald Trump dies 'depressed' after US President's Covid-19 infection He stopped eating to show solidarity with his idol’s suffering from COVID-19, his family said. He fell into a deep depression. On Sunday, he died of cardiac arrest. Krishna’s devotion had made him into a minor celebrity, and he was the subject of some national headlines. His death made news across India. Vivek said his cousin had been physically fit and had no health problems or history of heart disease. There is no evidence linking Krishna’s death to his fasting. There is no indication that the White House or Trump — who said he had recovered from the virus and felt “powerful” after being treated with a cocktail of drugs — was aware of his biggest fan in India. Many of the country’s urban intellectuals dislike the U.S. president, and he is regularly mocked on Indian social media platforms. But the president has support in other corners of Indian society. A February study by the Pew Research Center found that 56% of people surveyed in India said that Trump would “do the right thing when it comes to world affairs,” up from 16% when he was elected. Trump’s popularity in some parts of India is striking because the cult of personality he has tried to cultivate — of an unapologetically brash figure leading the United States to a bright new future while espousing “America First” — mirrors how India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, projects himself to his own supporters. Krishna, a widowed farmer in his thirties who lived in the village of Konne in the southern state of Telangana, had been a Trump devotee for about four years. He became a fan when the president appeared to him in a dream, his relatives said, and predicted that India’s national cricket squad would beat its archrival, Pakistan, in a match the next day. India won, Vivek said, “and from that day he started worshipping Donald Trump.” Also read: 'Give you a big fat kiss': Donald Trump 'dances' at Florida rally post-virus treatment But the farmer also admired the president as a leader, said Vivek, a 25-year-old accountant who lives near the southern city of Hyderabad. His cousin did not speak English, and the local news outlets where he lived paid scant attention to U.S. politics. So he relied on Vivek to translate articles and videos for him. Vemula Venkat Goud, Konne’s village headman, said that the young farmer had also been drawn to Trump’s “straightforward ways and blunt speech.” Neighbors did not know much about U.S. politics and had no opinion of Trump, he added. But since Krishna was such a huge fan, they embraced his cause as a courtesy, even if it struck them as a little odd. As Krishna’s devotion to Trump intensified, he began fasting every Friday in support, and he commissioned the construction of a shrine in his backyard with the life-size statue, Vivek said. He worshipped it with Hindu rituals for an hour or two each morning, as one might when praying to Krishna, Shiva, Ganesha or other gods in the Hindu pantheon. One video of Krishna that has circulated widely online shows him performing a prayer ritual, or pooja, before an altar that holds a picture of Trump. In another, he wears a T-shirt that reads “Trump” in white block letters as he pours water over the head of the statue, which is wearing a red tie and giving a thumbs-up. The Trump statue has a garland of fresh flowers around its neck and a red tilak — a traditional symbol that is made of vermilion or sandal paste, and used in religious ceremonies — on its forehead. Krishna’s creation of a statue in Trump’s likeness is not unique. An architect built a giant wooden statue of Trump with vampire’s teeth in Slovenia, the native country of the first lady, Melania Trump. Some critics denounced it as a “waste of wood.” That statue’s creator, Tomaz Schlegl, an architect, had a clear vision, and message, in mind. “I want to alert people to the rise of populism, and it would be difficult to find a bigger populist in this world than Donald Trump,” he told Reuters. A life-size wooden sculpture of Trump near the town of Sevnica in eastern Slovenia, where she grew up, was set on fire. The commissioning artist replaced it with a bronze statue. As for Krishna, he made a valiant attempt to meet his idol. He traveled to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi before Trump’s trip to India in February to try to arrange a meeting, Venkat, the village headman, said. “It’s really sad that his dream never came true,” he added. Trump later addressed a stadium packed with 100,000 cheering attendees in Ahmedabad, the heart of Modi’s political home base. Krishna kept the faith until the end. When he learned of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis, he locked himself in his room, Vivek said. “We tried to force him to eat, but he barely ate anything,” he said. On Sunday, Krishna collapsed, and his relatives took him to the hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival. Krishna is survived by his parents and his 7-year-old son. Venkat said villagers were discussing how best to maintain their neighbor’s Trump shrine.

From rural India, he worshipped Trump and built a shrine

Donald Trump's ardent Indian fan in Telangana has died of cardiac arrest. Bussa Krishna, who worshipped Donald Trump and was upset by the news of US President contracting Covid-19 passed away on Sunday (October 11). He had posted a tearful video on his Facebook page some days ago and had wished Trump good health and had prayed for his fast recovery from coronavirus that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide.

Trump revealed on Oct. 2 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and spent three nights in the hospital for treatment. He said on Sunday he had fully recovered and was due to resume campaigning on Monday ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. election.

Speaking to local media, Krishna's family said he was "depressed" that Trump and his wife Melania had got the disease and that he wasn't eating or sleeping in the days before he collapsed.

"He started worshipping more like not for the one or two hours, but for three-four hours and he's starving, he's fasting, starving, fasting and he's crying continuously," Krishna's cousin told local media.

(With Reuters inputs)

Donald Trump's ardent Indian fan in Telangana has died of cardiac arrest. Bussa Krishna, who worshipped Donald Trump and was upset by the news of US President contracting Covid-19 passed away on Sunday (October 11).

Donald Trump's ardent Indian fan in Telangana has died of cardiac arrest. Bussa Krishna, who worshipped Donald Trump and was upset by the news of US President contracting Covid-19 passed away on Sunday (October 11). He had posted a tearful video on his Facebook page some days ago and had wished Trump good health and had prayed for his fast recovery from coronavirus that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide. Trump revealed on Oct. 2 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and spent three nights in the hospital for treatment. He said on Sunday he had fully recovered and was due to resume campaigning on Monday ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. election. Speaking to local media, Krishna's family said he was "depressed" that Trump and his wife Melania had got the disease and that he wasn't eating or sleeping in the days before he collapsed. "He started worshipping more like not for the one or two hours, but for three-four hours and he's starving, he's fasting, starving, fasting and he's crying continuously," Krishna's cousin told local media. (With Reuters inputs)

Telangana: Ardent fan of Donald Trump dies 'depressed' after US President's Covid-19 infection

11 days after testing positive for the Wuhan virus, Trump says he is safe, immune, and feeling powerful. Trump threw his mask at supporters and offered to kiss them. Palki Sharma Upadhyay has the details.

Gravitas: Trump wants to kiss his supporters, Why?

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is being grilled by the Democrats. She said that she had made no commitments to the President or anyone else about how she might rule on a case aimed at dismantling the Affordable Care Act or on a potential dispute in the upcoming presidential election.

Democrats grill Barrett on healthcare: Evades answers on abortion, gay marriage

A transgender man Paulo Batista is striving to fulfill his father’s dying wish for him to join the US military. But he says all he has heard from the armed forces is either silence or a door slamming shut. Watch report.

Transgender man pursues dream to serve in US military: Hopes for waiver or change in policy

President Donald Trump made a direct appeal to suburban women during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania as he sought to use his Supreme Court nomination to reset the trajectory of the race.

Trump holds support from Suburban women: Trump's Pennsylvania rally

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said on Tuesday at her US&nbsp;Senate confirmation hearing she is not hostile to the Obamacare law, as Democrats have suggested, and declined to specify whether she believes landmark rulings legalizing abortion and gay marriage were properly decided.

Barrett, a conservative federal appellate judge, answered questions from senators for the first time on the second day of her Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. It gave Barrett a chance to respond to Democrats who have opposed her because of her potential as a justice to undermine the 2010 healthcare law and its protection for patients with pre-existing conditions.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/us-election-2020-trump-defends-supreme-court-pick-barrett-331308" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Trump defends Supreme Court pick Barrett</a>

Trump has asked the Senate to confirm Barrett before the Nov. 3 election in which he is seeking a second term in office.

Barrett declined to say if she would step aside from any election-related cases that reach the court. The Republican president has said he expects the Supreme Court to decide the election's outcome as he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Barrett said no one at the White House sought a commitment from her on how she would rule on that or any issue.

"It would be a gross violation of judicial independence for me to make any such commitment or for me to be asked about that case," Barrett told the committee of possible election cases.

Barrett declined to say whether she would consider stepping aside, as Democrats have requested, from an Obamacare case due to be argued at the court a week after Election Day in which Trump and Republican-led states are seeking to invalidate the law formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Barrett noted that the new case centers upon a different legal issue than two previous Supreme Court rulings that upheld Obamacare, which she had criticized. Barrett declined to say how she would approach the new case, but said, "I am not hostile to the ACA."

Barrett also said the White House did not seek her assurance that she would vote to strike down the law.

"Absolutely not. I was never asked - and if I had, that would have been a short conversation," Barrett said.

The Affordable Care Act is Democratic former President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement and has enabled millions of Americans to obtain medical coverage. Democrats have blasted Trump for trying to kill Obamacare amid a deadly pandemic.

Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority, making Barrett's confirmation a virtual certainty. If confirmed, Barrett, 48, would give conservatives a 6-3 Supreme Court majority. She is Trump's third Supreme Court appointment.

ABORTION RULING

Like other Supreme Court nominees before her, Barrett opted to sidestep some questions on some matters that could come before the court.

Abortion rights advocates have expressed concern that Barrett would vote to overturn the 1973 ruling called Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Asked about that ruling, Barrett said she would consider the various factors usually applied when justices weigh whether to overturn a precedent. 
 
Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/white-house-ceremony-for-amy-coney-barrett-was-a-superspreader-event-dr-fauci-334172" hreflang="en">White House ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett was a 'superspreader' event: Dr Fauci</a>

"I promise to do that for any issue that comes up, abortion or anything else. I'll follow the law," Barrett said.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the panel's top Democrat, asked Barrett whether she agreed with her mentor, the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, that Roe v. Wade can was wrongly decided and should be overturned.

After Barrett declined to answer, Feinstein told her, "So on something that is really a major cause with major effects on over half of the population of this country - who are women, after all - it's distressing not to get a straight answer."

Religious conservatives are hoping the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade.

Republican committee chairman Lindsey Graham, asked Barrett, a devout Catholic and a favorite of religious conservatives, whether she could set aside her religious beliefs in making decisions as a justice.

"I can," Barrett said, adding that she expected that as a nominee her religious faith would be "caricatured."

During her 2017 confirmation hearing after Trump nominated her to her current post on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Feinstein told Barrett that "the dogma lives loudly in you" - a comment that some Republicans said represented anti-religious bigotry.

Questioned by Feinstein, Barrett declined to say whether she agreed with Scalia that the 2015 Supreme Court ruling called Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing gay marriage nationwide was wrongly decided.

"I have no agenda and I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and I would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference," Barrett said.

Asked about George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis in May in an incident that triggered widespread protests, Barrett said the issue was "very, very personal for my family" because of her seven children, two - adopted from Haiti - are Black. Barrett said she and one of her daughters, Vivian, cried together after seeing the video.

"It's a difficult one for us like it is for Americans all over the country," Barrett said.

Barrett said "racism persists" in the United States but declined to give her view on whether it is systemic or how it should be addressed.

Barrett was nominated to a lifetime post on the court on Sept. 26 by Trump to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The four-day confirmation hearing is a key step before a full Senate vote by the end of October on Barrett's confirmation.

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said on Tuesday at her US Senate confirmation hearing she is not hostile to the Obamacare law, as Democrats have suggested, and declined to specify whether she believes landmark rulings legalizing abortion and gay marriage were properly decided.

President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett said on Tuesday at her US Senate confirmation hearing she is not hostile to the Obamacare law, as Democrats have suggested, and declined to specify whether she believes landmark rulings legalizing abortion and gay marriage were properly decided. Barrett, a conservative federal appellate judge, answered questions from senators for the first time on the second day of her Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. It gave Barrett a chance to respond to Democrats who have opposed her because of her potential as a justice to undermine the 2010 healthcare law and its protection for patients with pre-existing conditions. Also read: US election 2020: Trump defends Supreme Court pick Barrett Trump has asked the Senate to confirm Barrett before the Nov. 3 election in which he is seeking a second term in office. Barrett declined to say if she would step aside from any election-related cases that reach the court. The Republican president has said he expects the Supreme Court to decide the election's outcome as he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Barrett said no one at the White House sought a commitment from her on how she would rule on that or any issue. "It would be a gross violation of judicial independence for me to make any such commitment or for me to be asked about that case," Barrett told the committee of possible election cases. Barrett declined to say whether she would consider stepping aside, as Democrats have requested, from an Obamacare case due to be argued at the court a week after Election Day in which Trump and Republican-led states are seeking to invalidate the law formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Barrett noted that the new case centers upon a different legal issue than two previous Supreme Court rulings that upheld Obamacare, which she had criticized. Barrett declined to say how she would approach the new case, but said, "I am not hostile to the ACA." Barrett also said the White House did not seek her assurance that she would vote to strike down the law. "Absolutely not. I was never asked - and if I had, that would have been a short conversation," Barrett said. The Affordable Care Act is Democratic former President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement and has enabled millions of Americans to obtain medical coverage. Democrats have blasted Trump for trying to kill Obamacare amid a deadly pandemic. Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority, making Barrett's confirmation a virtual certainty. If confirmed, Barrett, 48, would give conservatives a 6-3 Supreme Court majority. She is Trump's third Supreme Court appointment. ABORTION RULING Like other Supreme Court nominees before her, Barrett opted to sidestep some questions on some matters that could come before the court. Abortion rights advocates have expressed concern that Barrett would vote to overturn the 1973 ruling called Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Asked about that ruling, Barrett said she would consider the various factors usually applied when justices weigh whether to overturn a precedent. Also read: White House ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett was a 'superspreader' event: Dr Fauci "I promise to do that for any issue that comes up, abortion or anything else. I'll follow the law," Barrett said. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the panel's top Democrat, asked Barrett whether she agreed with her mentor, the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, that Roe v. Wade can was wrongly decided and should be overturned. After Barrett declined to answer, Feinstein told her, "So on something that is really a major cause with major effects on over half of the population of this country - who are women, after all - it's distressing not to get a straight answer." Religious conservatives are hoping the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade. Republican committee chairman Lindsey Graham, asked Barrett, a devout Catholic and a favorite of religious conservatives, whether she could set aside her religious beliefs in making decisions as a justice. "I can," Barrett said, adding that she expected that as a nominee her religious faith would be "caricatured." During her 2017 confirmation hearing after Trump nominated her to her current post on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Feinstein told Barrett that "the dogma lives loudly in you" - a comment that some Republicans said represented anti-religious bigotry. Questioned by Feinstein, Barrett declined to say whether she agreed with Scalia that the 2015 Supreme Court ruling called Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing gay marriage nationwide was wrongly decided. "I have no agenda and I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and I would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference," Barrett said. Asked about George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis in May in an incident that triggered widespread protests, Barrett said the issue was "very, very personal for my family" because of her seven children, two - adopted from Haiti - are Black. Barrett said she and one of her daughters, Vivian, cried together after seeing the video. "It's a difficult one for us like it is for Americans all over the country," Barrett said. Barrett said "racism persists" in the United States but declined to give her view on whether it is systemic or how it should be addressed. Barrett was nominated to a lifetime post on the court on Sept. 26 by Trump to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The four-day confirmation hearing is a key step before a full Senate vote by the end of October on Barrett's confirmation.

Trump's Supreme Court pick says she is not 'hostile' to Obamacare, dodges on abortion

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pulled further ahead of President Donald Trump in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, building momentum in two states that could decide the winner of November`s election, Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls showed on Monday.

The polls showed the former vice president leading Trump by 7 percentage points in both states. A week earlier, Biden was up by 6 points in Wisconsin and by 5 in Pennsylvania.

Reuters/Ipsos is polling likely voters in six states - Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona - that will play critical roles in deciding whether Trump wins a second term in office or if Biden ousts him.

Below is a state-by-state look at Reuters/Ipsos findings, based on the online responses of likely voters, which include responses from some who cast ballots ahead of the formal Nov. 3 Election Day, which is increasingly common due to the coronavirus pandemic:

WISCONSIN (Oct. 6 - Oct. 11): 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Biden: 51% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Trump: 44% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 20% said they already had voted. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 52% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 38% said Trump would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 47% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 46% said Biden would be better.

PENNSYLVANIA (Oct. 6 - Oct. 11): 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Biden: 51% 
&nbsp; &nbsp; * Voting for Trump: 44% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 6% said they already had voted. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 51% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 42% said Trump would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 50% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 45% said Biden would be better.

FLORIDA (Sept. 29 - Oct. 6): 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Biden: 49% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Trump: 45% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 50% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 41% said Trump would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 49% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 45% said Biden would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 7% said they already had voted. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
ARIZONA (Sept. 29 - Oct. 7): 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Biden: 48% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Trump: 46% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 49% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 43% said Trump would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 52% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 42% said Biden would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 3% said they already had voted.

MICHIGAN (Sept. 29-Oct. 6): 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Biden: 51% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Trump: 43% 
&nbsp; &nbsp; * 50% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 41% said Trump would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 49% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 44% said Biden would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 10% said they already had voted.

NORTH CAROLINA (Sept. 29-Oct. 6): 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Biden: 47% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * Voting for Trump: 47% 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 47% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 45% said Trump would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 52% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 40% said Biden would be better. 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; * 8% said they already had voted. 
 
The Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls are conducted online in all six states in English, as well as in Spanish in Arizona and Florida.

-- In Wisconsin, from to Oct. 6 to Oct. 11, it gathered responses from 1,002 adults, including 577 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 5 percentage points. 
-- In Pennsylvania, from to Oct. 6 to Oct. 11, it gathered responses from 1,002 adults, including 622 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 5 percentage points. 
-- In Florida, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, it gathered responses from 1,100 adults, including 678 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. 
-- In Arizona, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7, it gathered responses from 1,099 adults, including 663 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. 
-- In Michigan, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, it gathered responses from 1,098 adults, including 709 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. 
-- In North Carolina, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, it gathered responses from 1,100 adults, including 693 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pulled further ahead of President Donald Trump in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, building momentum in two states that could decide the winner of November`s election, Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls showed on Monday.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pulled further ahead of President Donald Trump in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, building momentum in two states that could decide the winner of November`s election, Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls showed on Monday. The polls showed the former vice president leading Trump by 7 percentage points in both states. A week earlier, Biden was up by 6 points in Wisconsin and by 5 in Pennsylvania. Reuters/Ipsos is polling likely voters in six states - Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona - that will play critical roles in deciding whether Trump wins a second term in office or if Biden ousts him. Below is a state-by-state look at Reuters/Ipsos findings, based on the online responses of likely voters, which include responses from some who cast ballots ahead of the formal Nov. 3 Election Day, which is increasingly common due to the coronavirus pandemic: WISCONSIN (Oct. 6 - Oct. 11): * Voting for Biden: 51% * Voting for Trump: 44% * 20% said they already had voted. * 52% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 38% said Trump would be better. * 47% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 46% said Biden would be better. PENNSYLVANIA (Oct. 6 - Oct. 11): * Voting for Biden: 51% * Voting for Trump: 44% * 6% said they already had voted. * 51% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 42% said Trump would be better. * 50% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 45% said Biden would be better. FLORIDA (Sept. 29 - Oct. 6): * Voting for Biden: 49% * Voting for Trump: 45% * 50% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 41% said Trump would be better. * 49% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 45% said Biden would be better. * 7% said they already had voted. ARIZONA (Sept. 29 - Oct. 7): * Voting for Biden: 48% * Voting for Trump: 46% * 49% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 43% said Trump would be better. * 52% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 42% said Biden would be better. * 3% said they already had voted. MICHIGAN (Sept. 29-Oct. 6): * Voting for Biden: 51% * Voting for Trump: 43% * 50% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 41% said Trump would be better. * 49% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 44% said Biden would be better. * 10% said they already had voted. NORTH CAROLINA (Sept. 29-Oct. 6): * Voting for Biden: 47% * Voting for Trump: 47% * 47% said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus pandemic. 45% said Trump would be better. * 52% said Trump would be better at managing the economy. 40% said Biden would be better. * 8% said they already had voted. The Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls are conducted online in all six states in English, as well as in Spanish in Arizona and Florida. -- In Wisconsin, from to Oct. 6 to Oct. 11, it gathered responses from 1,002 adults, including 577 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 5 percentage points. -- In Pennsylvania, from to Oct. 6 to Oct. 11, it gathered responses from 1,002 adults, including 622 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 5 percentage points. -- In Florida, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, it gathered responses from 1,100 adults, including 678 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. -- In Arizona, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7, it gathered responses from 1,099 adults, including 663 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. -- In Michigan, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, it gathered responses from 1,098 adults, including 709 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. -- In North Carolina, from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, it gathered responses from 1,100 adults, including 693 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points.

Reuters poll shows Biden lead over Trump growing in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania

US President Donald Trump, with the presidential election just three weeks away, returned&nbsp;to the campaign trail on Monday after being hospitalised for coronavirus, and set off on a blitz of key swing states. He tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days, the White House physician said.

Trump's evening rally at an airport in Sanford, Florida,&nbsp;kicked off a three-week sprint to Election Day as new polls show him losing more ground to Democratic rival Joe Biden in two battleground states that could decide the November 3 contest.

"It's great to be back in my home state, Florida, to make my official return to the campaign trail," Trump declared&nbsp;in&nbsp;front of a crowd of thousands of supporters, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, mostly without masks, despite the ongoing pandemic.

"I am so energised by your prayers and humbled by your support," he said.

Trump -- yet again -- played down the coronavirus and said, "22 days from now we're going to win this state. We're going to win four more years at the White House."

"I feel so powerful. I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there, and I'll kiss everyone in that audience. I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women... everybody," he added.

In rare form just a week after his release from hospital, Trump's hour-long speech called on all of his campaign classics: vicious attacks against "Crooked Hillary" Clinton and the "corrupt" press, alarmist warnings against the "radical left" and the "socialist nightmare."

Trump also mocked his opponent, whom he has nicknamed "Sleepy Joe," saying that "practically nobody showed up" to Biden's campaign event.

Unlike Trump, Biden has been following public health guidelines during the pandemic, hosting socially-distanced campaign events that sharply contrast with Trump's packed, largely maskless extravaganzas -- including a recent celebration at the White House described by experts as a "superspreader."

The president was earlier declared non-contagious. or "not a transmission risk",&nbsp;following which he headed to Florida for his&nbsp;campaign rally -- since he disclosed he contracted the novel coronavirus.

"I can share with you that he tested negative, on consecutive days, using the Abbot BinaxNOW antigen card," Sean Conley said in a memo released to the public on Monday. The doctor said the negative determination had taken into account a number of measurements, and not just the rapid test alone.

The&nbsp;brief statement was issued while the president was on board Air Force One en route to Florida for the&nbsp;campaign rally.

The US president said on October 2 that he contracted the virus, following which he spent three days in a military hospital. In a memo, Dr Sean Conley said the tests and other clinical and laboratory data "indicate a lack of detectable viral replication."

Trump's rally in Florida, and planned rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and North Carolina on Thursday, will be watched closely to see whether the president has reshaped his campaign approach since contracting the virus.

Trump is now seeking to change the dynamics of a race that national opinion polls and some state polls show he is losing to Biden.

Trump told Fox News on Sunday he felt good and, without producing evidence, that he was now "immune", an assertion that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19.

Biden also tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, his campaign said in a statement. The former vice president has tested negative a number of times since Trump announced his positive test.

Biden pulled further ahead in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, building momentum in two states that Trump carried in the 2016 presidential election, Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls showed on Monday.

The polls, conducted Tuesday through Sunday, showed Biden now leading Trump by 7 percentage points in both states.

Taking advantage of his momentum and growing advantage in the polls, Biden on Monday campaigned in Ohio, where he was once considered a long shot, as he tries to expand his reach into Republican-leaning states.

Biden also appeared at a get-out-the-vote event in Cincinnati. It was Biden`s second campaign trip in as many weeks to Ohio, which was once thought out of reach but where polls now show a competitive race. He blasted his handling of the pandemic.

"215,000 dead because of Covid," the 77-year-old former vice president told a small group of auto workers who gathered in their American-made cars in a parking lot outside a union hall in Toledo, Ohio.

"Trump knew how dangerous the disease was but did nothing," Biden said. "Why didn't he tell us? Why didn't he warn us?"

"His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis has been unconscionable," Biden added. "The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to get."

Trump won the state by 8 percentage points four years ago and almost certainly must carry it again to win re-election. No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio.

For months, Trump had worked furiously to shift public attention away from the virus and his handling of the pandemic, which has infected more than 7.8 million people in the United States, killed more than 214,000 and put millions out of work.

His own illness has put the spotlight squarely on his coronavirus response during the closing stretch of the race, with the Biden campaign scaling up its attacks and stretching its campaign into states that normally lean Republican.

Critics fault Trump for failing to encourage supporters at campaign events, and even White House staff, to wear protective masks and abide by social-distancing guidelines. At least 11 close Trump aides have tested positive for the coronavirus.

(with inputs from agencies)

US President Donald Trump, with the presidential election just three weeks away, returned to the campaign trail on Monday after being hospitalised for coronavirus, and set off on a blitz of key swing states.

US President Donald Trump, with the presidential election just three weeks away, returned to the campaign trail on Monday after being hospitalised for coronavirus, and set off on a blitz of key swing states. He tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days, the White House physician said. Trump's evening rally at an airport in Sanford, Florida, kicked off a three-week sprint to Election Day as new polls show him losing more ground to Democratic rival Joe Biden in two battleground states that could decide the November 3 contest. "It's great to be back in my home state, Florida, to make my official return to the campaign trail," Trump declared in front of a crowd of thousands of supporters, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, mostly without masks, despite the ongoing pandemic. "I am so energised by your prayers and humbled by your support," he said. Trump -- yet again -- played down the coronavirus and said, "22 days from now we're going to win this state. We're going to win four more years at the White House." "I feel so powerful. I'll walk into that audience. I'll walk in there, and I'll kiss everyone in that audience. I'll kiss the guys and the beautiful women... everybody," he added. In rare form just a week after his release from hospital, Trump's hour-long speech called on all of his campaign classics: vicious attacks against "Crooked Hillary" Clinton and the "corrupt" press, alarmist warnings against the "radical left" and the "socialist nightmare." Trump also mocked his opponent, whom he has nicknamed "Sleepy Joe," saying that "practically nobody showed up" to Biden's campaign event. Unlike Trump, Biden has been following public health guidelines during the pandemic, hosting socially-distanced campaign events that sharply contrast with Trump's packed, largely maskless extravaganzas -- including a recent celebration at the White House described by experts as a "superspreader." The president was earlier declared non-contagious. or "not a transmission risk", following which he headed to Florida for his campaign rally -- since he disclosed he contracted the novel coronavirus. "I can share with you that he tested negative, on consecutive days, using the Abbot BinaxNOW antigen card," Sean Conley said in a memo released to the public on Monday. The doctor said the negative determination had taken into account a number of measurements, and not just the rapid test alone. The brief statement was issued while the president was on board Air Force One en route to Florida for the campaign rally. The US president said on October 2 that he contracted the virus, following which he spent three days in a military hospital. In a memo, Dr Sean Conley said the tests and other clinical and laboratory data "indicate a lack of detectable viral replication." Trump's rally in Florida, and planned rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and North Carolina on Thursday, will be watched closely to see whether the president has reshaped his campaign approach since contracting the virus. Trump is now seeking to change the dynamics of a race that national opinion polls and some state polls show he is losing to Biden. Trump told Fox News on Sunday he felt good and, without producing evidence, that he was now "immune", an assertion that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19. Biden also tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, his campaign said in a statement. The former vice president has tested negative a number of times since Trump announced his positive test. Biden pulled further ahead in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, building momentum in two states that Trump carried in the 2016 presidential election, Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls showed on Monday. The polls, conducted Tuesday through Sunday, showed Biden now leading Trump by 7 percentage points in both states. Taking advantage of his momentum and growing advantage in the polls, Biden on Monday campaigned in Ohio, where he was once considered a long shot, as he tries to expand his reach into Republican-leaning states. Biden also appeared at a get-out-the-vote event in Cincinnati. It was Biden`s second campaign trip in as many weeks to Ohio, which was once thought out of reach but where polls now show a competitive race. He blasted his handling of the pandemic. "215,000 dead because of Covid," the 77-year-old former vice president told a small group of auto workers who gathered in their American-made cars in a parking lot outside a union hall in Toledo, Ohio. "Trump knew how dangerous the disease was but did nothing," Biden said. "Why didn't he tell us? Why didn't he warn us?" "His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis has been unconscionable," Biden added. "The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to get." Trump won the state by 8 percentage points four years ago and almost certainly must carry it again to win re-election. No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio. For months, Trump had worked furiously to shift public attention away from the virus and his handling of the pandemic, which has infected more than 7.8 million people in the United States, killed more than 214,000 and put millions out of work. His own illness has put the spotlight squarely on his coronavirus response during the closing stretch of the race, with the Biden campaign scaling up its attacks and stretching its campaign into states that normally lean Republican. Critics fault Trump for failing to encourage supporters at campaign events, and even White House staff, to wear protective masks and abide by social-distancing guidelines. At least 11 close Trump aides have tested positive for the coronavirus. (with inputs from agencies)

'I feel so powerful': Trump returns to campaign trail after testing negative for coronavirus

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/i-feel-so-powerful-trump-is-back-on-campaign-trail-after-testing-negative-for-coronavirus-334848">'I feel so powerful': Trump is back on campaign trail after testing negative for coronavirus</a>

US President Donald Trump, with the presidential election just three weeks away, returned to the campaign trail on Monday after being hospitalised for coronavirus, and set off on a blitz of key swing states | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/i-feel-so-powerful-trump-is-back-on-campaign-trail-after-testing-negative-for-coronavirus-334848">READ MORE</a>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/kamala-harris-democrats-slam-trump-sc-nominee-timing-of-confirmation-hearing-334849">Kamala Harris, Democrats slam Trump SC nominee, timing of confirmation hearing</a>

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris told Republicans it was "reckless" to hold Monday's Supreme Court confirmation hearing amid a pandemic, especially given the recent outbreak of Covid-19 affecting three US senators | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/kamala-harris-democrats-slam-trump-sc-nominee-timing-of-confirmation-hearing-334849">READ MORE</a>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/white-house-moves-forward-on-three-arms-sales-to-taiwan-334859">White House moves forward on three arms sales to Taiwan</a>

The White House has decided to move forward with three sales of advanced weaponry to Taiwan, sending in recent days a notification of the deals to Congress for approval | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/white-house-moves-forward-on-three-arms-sales-to-taiwan-334859">READ MORE</a>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-shuns-us-lunar-programme-as-space-cooperation-under-threat-334851">Russia shuns US lunar programme, as space cooperation under threat</a>

Russia is unlikely to participate in the Moon-orbiting station planned by the United States, marking the probable end of the type of close cooperation seen for two decades on the International Space Station (ISS) | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-shuns-us-lunar-programme-as-space-cooperation-under-threat-334851">READ MORE</a>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/johnson-johnson-pauses-covid-vaccine-trial-as-participant-becomes-ill-334860">Johnson &amp; Johnson pauses Covid vaccine trial as participant becomes ill</a>

Johnson &amp; Johnson has temporarily halted its Covid-19 vaccine trial because one of its participants became sick | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/johnson-johnson-pauses-covid-vaccine-trial-as-participant-becomes-ill-334860">READ MORE</a>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/china-russia-and-pakistan-set-to-join-un-human-rights-council-334862">China, Russia and Pakistan set to join UN human rights council</a>

China, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Nepal and Uzbekistan are among the candidates vying for four seats on the UN human rights council on Tuesday | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/china-russia-and-pakistan-set-to-join-un-human-rights-council-334862">READ MORE</a>

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/world-health-organization-chief-calls-herd-immunity-approach-unethical-334857">World Health Organization chief calls herd immunity approach 'unethical'</a>

The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday called the herd immunity approach ''unethical'' | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/world-health-organization-chief-calls-herd-immunity-approach-unethical-334857">READ MORE</a>

'I feel so powerful': Trump is back on campaign trail after testing negative for coronavirus US President Donald Trump, with the presidential election just thre

'I feel so powerful': Trump is back on campaign trail after testing negative for coronavirus US President Donald Trump, with the presidential election just three weeks away, returned to the campaign trail on Monday after being hospitalised for coronavirus, and set off on a blitz of key swing states | READ MORE Kamala Harris, Democrats slam Trump SC nominee, timing of confirmation hearing Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris told Republicans it was "reckless" to hold Monday's Supreme Court confirmation hearing amid a pandemic, especially given the recent outbreak of Covid-19 affecting three US senators | READ MORE White House moves forward on three arms sales to Taiwan The White House has decided to move forward with three sales of advanced weaponry to Taiwan, sending in recent days a notification of the deals to Congress for approval | READ MORE Russia shuns US lunar programme, as space cooperation under threat Russia is unlikely to participate in the Moon-orbiting station planned by the United States, marking the probable end of the type of close cooperation seen for two decades on the International Space Station (ISS) | READ MORE Johnson & Johnson pauses Covid vaccine trial as participant becomes ill Johnson & Johnson has temporarily halted its Covid-19 vaccine trial because one of its participants became sick | READ MORE China, Russia and Pakistan set to join UN human rights council China, Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Nepal and Uzbekistan are among the candidates vying for four seats on the UN human rights council on Tuesday | READ MORE World Health Organization chief calls herd immunity approach 'unethical' The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday called the herd immunity approach ''unethical'' | READ MORE

Morning news brief: Updates on Trump's health and election campaign, and more

Joe Biden holds a significant lead in the pivotal states of Michigan and Wisconsin, with President Donald Trump so far failing to retain the overwhelming advantage he enjoyed among white voters there in 2016, according to surveys from The New York Times and Siena College on Monday.

Overall, Biden led Trump by 8 percentage points in Michigan, 48% to 40%, among likely voters. His lead in Wisconsin was slightly larger, 51% to 41%.

The new results, along with recent Times/Siena surveys from elsewhere in the Northern battlegrounds, suggest that the president has not yet managed to reassemble his winning coalition across the region. He faces modest but significant defections among white and independent voters, while facing a groundswell of opposition from those who voted for a minor-party candidate or didn’t vote at all in 2016.

The president’s path to reelection is narrow if he doesn’t win either Wisconsin or Michigan. If Biden puts those two states in his column, along with the states carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016, he will hold 258 electoral votes, putting him on the doorstep of the 270 needed to win.

Nonetheless, the Trump campaign appears to recognize that the two states no longer represent his likeliest path to reelection. Over the past month, the campaign has reduced its television ad spending in the two states in favor of an apparent push to sweep Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, where Times/Siena surveys conducted since the first debate show the president trailing by somewhat narrower but still significant 5-to-8-point margins.

Four years ago, Trump’s strength among white voters without a college degree helped him breach the so-called blue wall of traditionally Democratic Northern battleground states, including Michigan and Wisconsin. The new surveys show him well short of matching 2016 levels of support among white voters, leaving the president with a daunting deficit with just three weeks until the election.

Overall, Biden leads by 8 points among white voters in Wisconsin and trails by just 1 percentage point among white voters in Michigan.

While Trump’s surprising victory in 2016 lent him an aura of political invincibility, an Upshot analysis of more than 5,000 respondents to Times/Siena surveys in the Northern battleground states suggests that his winning coalition was always a fragile one. The president’s margin of victory was extremely narrow, and he failed to reach 50% of the vote in each of the decisive states. He also did so against an unusually unpopular opponent, Clinton.

In the years after her defeat, Democrats agonized over whether their best path to the presidency was to lure back the white, working-class voters who’d defected to the president or to increase turnout among Democratic voters who may have stayed home or supported minor-party candidates like Jill Stein. The Times/Siena surveys suggest that Biden is succeeding on both fronts, by at once peeling off a modest but crucial sliver of the president’s former supporters and benefiting from a significant advantage among voters who either backed a minor-party candidate four years ago or didn’t vote at all.

Overall, recent Times/Siena respondents in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio indicate that they backed Trump by a 2.6-point margin in 2016, the same as his actual 2.6-point margin of victory across the Northern battlegrounds. Now, they back Biden across all six states.

How the Northern Battlegrounds Have Gone From Trump +3 to Biden +6

People who have switched sides since 2016 make up less than 4% of registered voters. But they effectively pack twice the punch of other voters, as they have both deducted a vote from their former preferred candidate and added one to the candidate they now support. Alone, these switches would be enough to give Biden a fairly comfortable victory, even without any change in the composition of the electorate or in the attitudes of voters who back a minor-party candidate.

Although the sample is small, the president’s Midwestern defectors appear to be surprisingly representative of his supporters overall, at least demographically. They are only slightly likelier to be women, college graduates or suburbanites.

Biden also holds a significant lead among respondents who say they backed a minor-party candidate, like Gary Johnson or Stein.

Biden’s lead is largest among the former supporters of Stein, who say they back him, 59% to 9%.

Biden’s lead among the former supporters of Johnson is smaller, 38% to 14%, with this year’s Libertarian nominee, Jo Jorgensen, winning 29% of their support.

Biden’s lead would expand further to 7 points if registered voters who didn’t vote in 2016 turned out. Of course, not everyone will vote in the end, but he holds a 48% to 34% lead among this group.

Put it together, and Biden leads by 6 points across the Midwestern battlegrounds, a significant improvement over Clinton’s nearly 3-point deficit across the region four years ago. It’s almost exactly the same as Barack Obama’s 6-point victory in the same states in 2012.

But while the results seem to represent a restoration of the traditional Democratic coalition in the Midwest, a closer analysis reveals that the president’s breakthrough victory in the region four years ago has had a lasting effect on the region’s partisan loyalties and political geography.

Unlike in 2012, self-identified Republicans now outnumber Democrats in Times/Siena polls of Wisconsin, Michigan and even Pennsylvania, where the Democratic registration advantage remains significant but has dwindled in recent months.

Instead, Biden leads with an overwhelming advantage among independent voters, who back him by 20 percentage points in both states.

And although Biden’s gains among white voters are broad, spanning both those with and without a college degree, he fares far better than Obama did among white college graduates, while faring worse among those without a four-year degree. As a result, Biden still trails narrowly in the precincts that flipped from Obama to Trump, while holding an overwhelming advantage in the smaller number of predominantly suburban precincts that backed Mitt Romney in 2012 and then supported Clinton in 2016.

In Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, faces a surprisingly strong challenge from John James, a graduate of West Point who is considered one of the Republicans’ top recruits of the cycle. Peters leads by just 1 percentage point, 43% to 42% among likely voters, a significant narrowing of the race since a Times/Siena survey in June that found Peters leading, 41% to 31%.

The relatively high number of undecided voters reflects the relatively low profile of the two candidates. Around 20% of voters do not have an opinion on either of them. James’ favorability ratings have increased to 45% favorable versus 35% unfavorable, up from 36% favorable and 29% unfavorable in the June survey. Part of Peters’ weakness is that he has thus far failed to match Biden’s tallies among nonwhite voters, who disproportionately remain undecided. It remains to be seen whether James, who is Black, will ultimately make significant inroads among these voters.

A closely fought race in Michigan complicates the Democratic path to flipping control of the Senate, which has looked increasingly plausible as several Senate Republican incumbents have fared worse than the president in surveys. Yet here it is the incumbent Democrat faring worse than Biden, and a Republican win in Michigan would force Democrats to pick up a win in a state that Trump won comfortably in 2016, like Iowa or Montana, to win Senate control.

Public opinion polls have been remarkably stable this year, through the pandemic, the economic crisis and social unrest. The surveys of Wisconsin and Michigan were conducted during another tumultuous week in the campaign, and they offered little indication that any of the news had worked to the president’s favor.

The surveys began after Trump was released from the hospital, and there was no immediate indication that his political standing recovered along with his health. Most voters in Wisconsin and Michigan expected that the president would recover quickly from the illness, echoing findings from Times/Siena surveys fielded while he was hospitalized.

The president did not appear poised to benefit from the public’s sympathy; by at least a 2-1 margin in both states, voters said the president did not take adequate precautions to protect against the coronavirus.

The survey in Wisconsin was conducted entirely after the vice-presidential debate, and attitudes about it fell along predictable partisan lines. Biden’s supporters said Sen. Kamala Harris won, 73% to 3%, while Trump’s supporters said Vice President Mike Pence won by a nearly identical margin of 74% to 2%. Overall, voters thought Harris defeated Pence in the debate, 40% to 33%, with her advantage appearing to reflect little more than Biden’s overall advantage in the presidential race.

The Wisconsin survey was also conducted entirely after the president announced he would not participate in the virtual town hall debate proposed by the presidential debate commission. Wisconsin voters said they supported the proposed virtual town hall format, 58% to 34%, and said Trump should have decided to participate in the debate, 70% to 21%.

This week, the president might be on firmer political ground; the confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court have begun. A plurality of voters in both states said they supported her nomination and thought the Senate should act on it before the election.

Joe Biden holds a significant lead in the pivotal states of Michigan and Wisconsin, with President Donald Trump so far failing to retain the overwhelming advantage he enjoyed among white voters there in 2016, according to surveys from The New York Times and Siena College on Monday.

Joe Biden holds a significant lead in the pivotal states of Michigan and Wisconsin, with President Donald Trump so far failing to retain the overwhelming advantage he enjoyed among white voters there in 2016, according to surveys from The New York Times and Siena College on Monday. Overall, Biden led Trump by 8 percentage points in Michigan, 48% to 40%, among likely voters. His lead in Wisconsin was slightly larger, 51% to 41%. The new results, along with recent Times/Siena surveys from elsewhere in the Northern battlegrounds, suggest that the president has not yet managed to reassemble his winning coalition across the region. He faces modest but significant defections among white and independent voters, while facing a groundswell of opposition from those who voted for a minor-party candidate or didn’t vote at all in 2016. The president’s path to reelection is narrow if he doesn’t win either Wisconsin or Michigan. If Biden puts those two states in his column, along with the states carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016, he will hold 258 electoral votes, putting him on the doorstep of the 270 needed to win. Nonetheless, the Trump campaign appears to recognize that the two states no longer represent his likeliest path to reelection. Over the past month, the campaign has reduced its television ad spending in the two states in favor of an apparent push to sweep Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, where Times/Siena surveys conducted since the first debate show the president trailing by somewhat narrower but still significant 5-to-8-point margins. Four years ago, Trump’s strength among white voters without a college degree helped him breach the so-called blue wall of traditionally Democratic Northern battleground states, including Michigan and Wisconsin. The new surveys show him well short of matching 2016 levels of support among white voters, leaving the president with a daunting deficit with just three weeks until the election. Overall, Biden leads by 8 points among white voters in Wisconsin and trails by just 1 percentage point among white voters in Michigan. While Trump’s surprising victory in 2016 lent him an aura of political invincibility, an Upshot analysis of more than 5,000 respondents to Times/Siena surveys in the Northern battleground states suggests that his winning coalition was always a fragile one. The president’s margin of victory was extremely narrow, and he failed to reach 50% of the vote in each of the decisive states. He also did so against an unusually unpopular opponent, Clinton. In the years after her defeat, Democrats agonized over whether their best path to the presidency was to lure back the white, working-class voters who’d defected to the president or to increase turnout among Democratic voters who may have stayed home or supported minor-party candidates like Jill Stein. The Times/Siena surveys suggest that Biden is succeeding on both fronts, by at once peeling off a modest but crucial sliver of the president’s former supporters and benefiting from a significant advantage among voters who either backed a minor-party candidate four years ago or didn’t vote at all. Overall, recent Times/Siena respondents in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio indicate that they backed Trump by a 2.6-point margin in 2016, the same as his actual 2.6-point margin of victory across the Northern battlegrounds. Now, they back Biden across all six states. How the Northern Battlegrounds Have Gone From Trump +3 to Biden +6 People who have switched sides since 2016 make up less than 4% of registered voters. But they effectively pack twice the punch of other voters, as they have both deducted a vote from their former preferred candidate and added one to the candidate they now support. Alone, these switches would be enough to give Biden a fairly comfortable victory, even without any change in the composition of the electorate or in the attitudes of voters who back a minor-party candidate. Although the sample is small, the president’s Midwestern defectors appear to be surprisingly representative of his supporters overall, at least demographically. They are only slightly likelier to be women, college graduates or suburbanites. Biden also holds a significant lead among respondents who say they backed a minor-party candidate, like Gary Johnson or Stein. Biden’s lead is largest among the former supporters of Stein, who say they back him, 59% to 9%. Biden’s lead among the former supporters of Johnson is smaller, 38% to 14%, with this year’s Libertarian nominee, Jo Jorgensen, winning 29% of their support. Biden’s lead would expand further to 7 points if registered voters who didn’t vote in 2016 turned out. Of course, not everyone will vote in the end, but he holds a 48% to 34% lead among this group. Put it together, and Biden leads by 6 points across the Midwestern battlegrounds, a significant improvement over Clinton’s nearly 3-point deficit across the region four years ago. It’s almost exactly the same as Barack Obama’s 6-point victory in the same states in 2012. But while the results seem to represent a restoration of the traditional Democratic coalition in the Midwest, a closer analysis reveals that the president’s breakthrough victory in the region four years ago has had a lasting effect on the region’s partisan loyalties and political geography. Unlike in 2012, self-identified Republicans now outnumber Democrats in Times/Siena polls of Wisconsin, Michigan and even Pennsylvania, where the Democratic registration advantage remains significant but has dwindled in recent months. Instead, Biden leads with an overwhelming advantage among independent voters, who back him by 20 percentage points in both states. And although Biden’s gains among white voters are broad, spanning both those with and without a college degree, he fares far better than Obama did among white college graduates, while faring worse among those without a four-year degree. As a result, Biden still trails narrowly in the precincts that flipped from Obama to Trump, while holding an overwhelming advantage in the smaller number of predominantly suburban precincts that backed Mitt Romney in 2012 and then supported Clinton in 2016. In Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat, faces a surprisingly strong challenge from John James, a graduate of West Point who is considered one of the Republicans’ top recruits of the cycle. Peters leads by just 1 percentage point, 43% to 42% among likely voters, a significant narrowing of the race since a Times/Siena survey in June that found Peters leading, 41% to 31%. The relatively high number of undecided voters reflects the relatively low profile of the two candidates. Around 20% of voters do not have an opinion on either of them. James’ favorability ratings have increased to 45% favorable versus 35% unfavorable, up from 36% favorable and 29% unfavorable in the June survey. Part of Peters’ weakness is that he has thus far failed to match Biden’s tallies among nonwhite voters, who disproportionately remain undecided. It remains to be seen whether James, who is Black, will ultimately make significant inroads among these voters. A closely fought race in Michigan complicates the Democratic path to flipping control of the Senate, which has looked increasingly plausible as several Senate Republican incumbents have fared worse than the president in surveys. Yet here it is the incumbent Democrat faring worse than Biden, and a Republican win in Michigan would force Democrats to pick up a win in a state that Trump won comfortably in 2016, like Iowa or Montana, to win Senate control. Public opinion polls have been remarkably stable this year, through the pandemic, the economic crisis and social unrest. The surveys of Wisconsin and Michigan were conducted during another tumultuous week in the campaign, and they offered little indication that any of the news had worked to the president’s favor. The surveys began after Trump was released from the hospital, and there was no immediate indication that his political standing recovered along with his health. Most voters in Wisconsin and Michigan expected that the president would recover quickly from the illness, echoing findings from Times/Siena surveys fielded while he was hospitalized. The president did not appear poised to benefit from the public’s sympathy; by at least a 2-1 margin in both states, voters said the president did not take adequate precautions to protect against the coronavirus. The survey in Wisconsin was conducted entirely after the vice-presidential debate, and attitudes about it fell along predictable partisan lines. Biden’s supporters said Sen. Kamala Harris won, 73% to 3%, while Trump’s supporters said Vice President Mike Pence won by a nearly identical margin of 74% to 2%. Overall, voters thought Harris defeated Pence in the debate, 40% to 33%, with her advantage appearing to reflect little more than Biden’s overall advantage in the presidential race. The Wisconsin survey was also conducted entirely after the president announced he would not participate in the virtual town hall debate proposed by the presidential debate commission. Wisconsin voters said they supported the proposed virtual town hall format, 58% to 34%, and said Trump should have decided to participate in the debate, 70% to 21%. This week, the president might be on firmer political ground; the confirmation hearings of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court have begun. A plurality of voters in both states said they supported her nomination and thought the Senate should act on it before the election.

Trump defectors help Biden build leads in Wisconsin and Michigan

Democratic senators including vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Monday painted President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett as a threat to the Obamacare healthcare law

Donald Trump's SC nominee Amy Coney Barrett faces democratic opposition on Obamacare law

Where would we be now if we had a truly politically incorrect president? Donald Trump is supposed to be politically incorrect, but, for the most part, he isn’t. He’s mainly just a jerk.

Jerkishness is often mistaken for political incorrectness, in the way that blind luck is easily mistaken for great skill. They’re fundamentally different. Political incorrectness is an expression of intellectual independence. Jerkishness is a personality defect. The former requires a sense of inner rectitude. The latter reveals an absence of inner boundaries.

Politically incorrect people are prepared to deviate from their own party, ideology or personal interest for the sake of a moral principle. Jerks are always in it for themselves alone.

Andrei Sakharov and Liu Xiaobo were politically incorrect: honest men in dishonest systems. Trump is a dishonest man in a country with an increasingly tenuous grip on the concept of honesty itself.

With this in mind, let’s imagine an alternative history for a (politically incorrect) Trump presidency.

January 2017: Shortly after his inauguration as president, Trump fulfills a campaign promise by releasing his full tax returns. In a statement, the president says he’s releasing them for two reasons.

“First of all, if our dishonest media ever gets a hold of them, and they will, they’ll lie about what’s in them! And second, they show just what’s wrong with our tax code. As a real estate developer, I make no apologies for taking advantage of every loophole. As president, I will close these crazy holes for the sake of the American people. #IAloneCanFixIt. #MAGA.”

February 2017: Infuriating movement conservatives, Trump resubmits 64-year-old Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court, saying he wants to uphold the principle — denied to his predecessor — that a president has the right to nominate a candidate to fill a vacant judgeship at any point in his administration.

But he does so as part of a deal in which one of the court’s older conservative justices steps down from the bench in favor of Neil Gorsuch, 49. The subsequent retirement of Anthony Kennedy and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg mean the court regains its conservative majority, with three younger justices, by the end of Trump’s first term.

October 2017: Following the massacre of some 60 people (and the injury of more than 800) by a lone gunman in Las Vegas, Trump delivers a prime-time address on the subject of gun control. He observes that, at the time the Second Amendment was written, a skilled marksman could fire, at most, three or four rounds a minute.

“The right to bear arms cannot become a license for American carnage,” he says, borrowing a line from his inaugural address. “We’re either going to get serious about regulating the ability of just about anyone to get access to high-powered, rapid-firing weapons, or we’re going to start requiring every gun owner to spend every other Sunday doing drills in their local ‘well-regulated militia’ — just like it says in the Constitution.”

May 2018: In the face of a migration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump proposes a grand-immigration bargain with congressional Democrats: full funding for a border wall, in exchange for a path to citizenship for Dreamers. Later, he expands the proposal to a $2 trillion infrastructure bill with “Buy American” provisions, in exchange for expedited environmental reviews for federal projects and a repeal of the Jim Crow-era Davis-Bacon Act, which has long inflated the labor costs of public works.

June 2018: Invoking Gerald Ford’s congressional testimony regarding his presidential pardon of Richard Nixon, Trump agrees to sit before the House Intelligence Committee on the subject of his campaign’s links to Russia. He expresses regret for hiring Paul Manafort as campaign chairman and for his praise for WikiLeaks, which he concedes interfered in the 2016 election. But he challenges the factual basis of the Steele dossier and the legal basis for the FBI’s investigation of his campaign.

July 2019: In a telephone call with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump makes no mention of the Biden family.

February 2020: Warning Americans that the novel coronavirus risks becoming the greatest global health emergency of the century, Trump tells Americans that we can beat this, and keep the economy strong, by adopting common-sense social-distancing measures: avoiding crowded public transportation, sports arenas, concerts and bars. Going further than even his own health experts recommended, he talks up his well-known germophobia and insists that everyone in the White House wear a face mask. But he also warns state governors that attempts to lock down entire communities in an effort to contain the spread is a futile cure that will impose ruinous economic costs.

June 2020: After the killing of George Floyd, Trump convenes a conference of law enforcement officials and others to develop a set of national police standards. He asks Rep. Valerie Demings, D-Fla., to lead the conference.

For many conservatives (including me), some of these proposals would have been hard to accept. Liberals would have their own objections to some of this ideological jiujitsu. Then again, what an interesting and fruitful administration it might have been. America still awaits a politically incorrect president — while it waits out the jerk.

Where would we be now if we had a truly politically incorrect president? Donald Trump is supposed to be politically incorrect, but, for the most part, he isn’t. He’s mainly just a jerk.

Where would we be now if we had a truly politically incorrect president? Donald Trump is supposed to be politically incorrect, but, for the most part, he isn’t. He’s mainly just a jerk. Jerkishness is often mistaken for political incorrectness, in the way that blind luck is easily mistaken for great skill. They’re fundamentally different. Political incorrectness is an expression of intellectual independence. Jerkishness is a personality defect. The former requires a sense of inner rectitude. The latter reveals an absence of inner boundaries. Politically incorrect people are prepared to deviate from their own party, ideology or personal interest for the sake of a moral principle. Jerks are always in it for themselves alone. Andrei Sakharov and Liu Xiaobo were politically incorrect: honest men in dishonest systems. Trump is a dishonest man in a country with an increasingly tenuous grip on the concept of honesty itself. With this in mind, let’s imagine an alternative history for a (politically incorrect) Trump presidency. January 2017: Shortly after his inauguration as president, Trump fulfills a campaign promise by releasing his full tax returns. In a statement, the president says he’s releasing them for two reasons. “First of all, if our dishonest media ever gets a hold of them, and they will, they’ll lie about what’s in them! And second, they show just what’s wrong with our tax code. As a real estate developer, I make no apologies for taking advantage of every loophole. As president, I will close these crazy holes for the sake of the American people. #IAloneCanFixIt. #MAGA.” February 2017: Infuriating movement conservatives, Trump resubmits 64-year-old Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court, saying he wants to uphold the principle — denied to his predecessor — that a president has the right to nominate a candidate to fill a vacant judgeship at any point in his administration. But he does so as part of a deal in which one of the court’s older conservative justices steps down from the bench in favor of Neil Gorsuch, 49. The subsequent retirement of Anthony Kennedy and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg mean the court regains its conservative majority, with three younger justices, by the end of Trump’s first term. October 2017: Following the massacre of some 60 people (and the injury of more than 800) by a lone gunman in Las Vegas, Trump delivers a prime-time address on the subject of gun control. He observes that, at the time the Second Amendment was written, a skilled marksman could fire, at most, three or four rounds a minute. “The right to bear arms cannot become a license for American carnage,” he says, borrowing a line from his inaugural address. “We’re either going to get serious about regulating the ability of just about anyone to get access to high-powered, rapid-firing weapons, or we’re going to start requiring every gun owner to spend every other Sunday doing drills in their local ‘well-regulated militia’ — just like it says in the Constitution.” May 2018: In the face of a migration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump proposes a grand-immigration bargain with congressional Democrats: full funding for a border wall, in exchange for a path to citizenship for Dreamers. Later, he expands the proposal to a $2 trillion infrastructure bill with “Buy American” provisions, in exchange for expedited environmental reviews for federal projects and a repeal of the Jim Crow-era Davis-Bacon Act, which has long inflated the labor costs of public works. June 2018: Invoking Gerald Ford’s congressional testimony regarding his presidential pardon of Richard Nixon, Trump agrees to sit before the House Intelligence Committee on the subject of his campaign’s links to Russia. He expresses regret for hiring Paul Manafort as campaign chairman and for his praise for WikiLeaks, which he concedes interfered in the 2016 election. But he challenges the factual basis of the Steele dossier and the legal basis for the FBI’s investigation of his campaign. July 2019: In a telephone call with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump makes no mention of the Biden family. February 2020: Warning Americans that the novel coronavirus risks becoming the greatest global health emergency of the century, Trump tells Americans that we can beat this, and keep the economy strong, by adopting common-sense social-distancing measures: avoiding crowded public transportation, sports arenas, concerts and bars. Going further than even his own health experts recommended, he talks up his well-known germophobia and insists that everyone in the White House wear a face mask. But he also warns state governors that attempts to lock down entire communities in an effort to contain the spread is a futile cure that will impose ruinous economic costs. June 2020: After the killing of George Floyd, Trump convenes a conference of law enforcement officials and others to develop a set of national police standards. He asks Rep. Valerie Demings, D-Fla., to lead the conference. For many conservatives (including me), some of these proposals would have been hard to accept. Liberals would have their own objections to some of this ideological jiujitsu. Then again, what an interesting and fruitful administration it might have been. America still awaits a politically incorrect president — while it waits out the jerk.

Imagining the Trump presidency that wasn’t

Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci has said an ad aired by Donald Trump's reelection campaign was edited to make him seem to endorse the&nbsp;president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.&nbsp;

But Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, has so far never endorsed any political candidate.

"In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate," Fauci said in a statement.

The 30-second campaign ad cites Trump's personal experience with the virus -- "President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America," it says -- before including a brief clip in which Fauci appears to praise the president's response to the pandemic.&nbsp;

"I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more," Fauci is shown as saying, creating the clear impression he is referring to Trump.

The complete clip, however, shows no hint of any appreciation. The clip is from Fauci's interview in March with Fox News, and shows the doctor saying: "I have been devoting almost full time on this. I'm down at the White House virtually every day with the task force. It's every single day. So, I can't imagine that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more."

In his statement Sunday, Fauci said, "The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials."

Trump, as expected, did not budge and defended the clip, and his handling of pandemic, and rebutted the doctor's criticism.

"They are indeed Dr. Fauci's own words. We have done a 'phenomenal' job, according to certain governors," the president wrote in a tweet.

As a leading member of the White House task force on the coronavirus, the 79-year-old doctor has frequently had to walk a fine line in attempting to clarify -- or correct -- the Trump's often incautious assertions about the disease or the treatments and vaccines being developed against Covid-19.&nbsp;

Fauci has at times aroused Trump's ire, as when the president in April retweeted a message containing the hashtag #FireFauci -- before publicly insisting the doctor was doing a great job.

Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci has said an ad aired by Donald Trump's reelection campaign was edited to make him seem to endorse the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Top US government scientist Anthony Fauci has said an ad aired by Donald Trump's reelection campaign was edited to make him seem to endorse the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, has so far never endorsed any political candidate. "In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate," Fauci said in a statement. The 30-second campaign ad cites Trump's personal experience with the virus -- "President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America," it says -- before including a brief clip in which Fauci appears to praise the president's response to the pandemic. "I can't imagine that anybody could be doing more," Fauci is shown as saying, creating the clear impression he is referring to Trump. The complete clip, however, shows no hint of any appreciation. The clip is from Fauci's interview in March with Fox News, and shows the doctor saying: "I have been devoting almost full time on this. I'm down at the White House virtually every day with the task force. It's every single day. So, I can't imagine that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more." In his statement Sunday, Fauci said, "The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials." Trump, as expected, did not budge and defended the clip, and his handling of pandemic, and rebutted the doctor's criticism. "They are indeed Dr. Fauci's own words. We have done a 'phenomenal' job, according to certain governors," the president wrote in a tweet. As a leading member of the White House task force on the coronavirus, the 79-year-old doctor has frequently had to walk a fine line in attempting to clarify -- or correct -- the Trump's often incautious assertions about the disease or the treatments and vaccines being developed against Covid-19. Fauci has at times aroused Trump's ire, as when the president in April retweeted a message containing the hashtag #FireFauci -- before publicly insisting the doctor was doing a great job.

Fauci says Trump campaign ad twisted his words on coronavirus

U.S. Opinion polls look great for Joe Biden with a National Lead & ahead of Donald Trump in Swing States. Almost all opinion polls had favoured Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Who won? How reliable are the opinion polls? WION explains how opinion polls work.

The conflict of validity vs reliability | U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

White House Coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that a new Donald Trump campaign ad takes his comments “out of context” and used his remarks without his approval.

Dr. Fauci says Trump campaign ad twisted his words on Coronavirus

Going by Donald Trump's tweets, it seems like he is planning for a 'GRAND' return to the campaign trail. Meanwhile, U.S. top disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci class out Trump Campaign for using his interview out of context & without consent. WION reports.

Another superspreader event ahead? | U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

Twitter on Sunday flagged a tweet by US President Donald Trump in which he claimed he was immune to the coronavirus. The micro-blogging site said it violated the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19.

"A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can't get it (immune), and can't give it. Very nice to know," Trump said in the tweet.

The post was flagged by Twitter with a disclaimer.

"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19," Twitter's disclaimer read, adding that it had determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible.

Additionally, Trump earlier on Sunday said he had fully recovered from COVID-19 and was not an infection risk for others, freeing him to return to holding big campaign rallies during the final weeks of the race for the White House.

Trump also said, without producing evidence, that he was now immune, a claim that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19.

"I passed the highest test, the highest standards, and I'm in great shape," Trump told Fox News show "Sunday Morning Futures."

"It looks like I'm immune for, I don't know, maybe a long time, or maybe a short time. It could be a lifetime. Nobody really knows," Trump told Fox.

Trump, who is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls, is eager to get back on the campaign trail after an absence of more than a week. He plans to travel to the key battleground state of Florida on Monday, followed by rallies in Pennsylvania and Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

The president, who spent three days in the hospital after revealing he had tested positive on October 2, said he was no longer on medications for the coronavirus and was now immune from re-infection.

Trump said on Sunday he had fully recovered from COVID-19 and would not be a transmission risk to others, freeing him to return to holding big campaign rallies during the final weeks of the race for the White House.

The scientific evidence is unclear on how long people who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies and are protected from a second infection.

The president first announced that he had had a positive coronavirus test on October 2. Trump's physician said on Saturday the president had taken a test showing he was no longer infectious.

Trump, who is trailing Democrat Joe Biden in opinion polls ahead of the November 3 election, is eager to get back on the campaign trail after an absence of more than a week. He plans to travel to the key battleground state of Florida on Monday, followed by rallies in Pennsylvania and Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. 
&nbsp;

Twitter on Sunday flagged a tweet by US President Donald Trump in which he claimed he was immune to the coronavirus. The micro-blogging site said it violated the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19.

Twitter on Sunday flagged a tweet by US President Donald Trump in which he claimed he was immune to the coronavirus. The micro-blogging site said it violated the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19. "A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can't get it (immune), and can't give it. Very nice to know," Trump said in the tweet. The post was flagged by Twitter with a disclaimer. "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19," Twitter's disclaimer read, adding that it had determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible. Additionally, Trump earlier on Sunday said he had fully recovered from COVID-19 and was not an infection risk for others, freeing him to return to holding big campaign rallies during the final weeks of the race for the White House. Trump also said, without producing evidence, that he was now immune, a claim that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19. "I passed the highest test, the highest standards, and I'm in great shape," Trump told Fox News show "Sunday Morning Futures." "It looks like I'm immune for, I don't know, maybe a long time, or maybe a short time. It could be a lifetime. Nobody really knows," Trump told Fox. Trump, who is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls, is eager to get back on the campaign trail after an absence of more than a week. He plans to travel to the key battleground state of Florida on Monday, followed by rallies in Pennsylvania and Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The president, who spent three days in the hospital after revealing he had tested positive on October 2, said he was no longer on medications for the coronavirus and was now immune from re-infection. Trump said on Sunday he had fully recovered from COVID-19 and would not be a transmission risk to others, freeing him to return to holding big campaign rallies during the final weeks of the race for the White House. The scientific evidence is unclear on how long people who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies and are protected from a second infection. The president first announced that he had had a positive coronavirus test on October 2. Trump's physician said on Saturday the president had taken a test showing he was no longer infectious. Trump, who is trailing Democrat Joe Biden in opinion polls ahead of the November 3 election, is eager to get back on the campaign trail after an absence of more than a week. He plans to travel to the key battleground state of Florida on Monday, followed by rallies in Pennsylvania and Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Twitter flags Trump tweet for violating its rules on COVID-19 information

President Donald Trump will try to put his bout with COVID-19 behind him when he returns to the campaign trail on Monday, beginning a three-week sprint to the November&nbsp;3 US&nbsp;election with a rally in the battleground state of Florida.

The event at an airport in Sanford, Florida, will be Trump's first campaign rally since he disclosed on Oct. 2 that he tested positive for COVID-19. Trump, who spent three nights in the hospital for treatment, said on Sunday he had fully recovered and was no longer infectious, but did not say directly whether he had tested negative for the coronavirus.

The Republican president, 74, is seeking to change the dynamics of a race that national opinion polls and some state polls show he is losing to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, 77.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/opinions-blogs/donald-trumps-alternate-constitutional-reality-334422" hreflang="en">Donald Trump’s alternate constitutional reality</a>

For months, Trump had worked furiously to shift public attention away from the virus and his handling of the pandemic, which has infected nearly 7.7 million people in the United States, killed more than 214,000 and put millions out of work.

His own illness has put the spotlight squarely on his coronavirus response during the closing stretch of the race.

In a sign of fresh optimism, Biden heads on Monday to Ohio, a state Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2016 and almost certainly must carry again to win. It is Biden's second campaign trip in as many weeks to Ohio, which was once thought out of reach but where polls now show a tight race.

Trump's rally in Florida, and planned rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and North Carolina on Thursday, will be watched closely to see whether the president has reshaped his campaign approach since contracting the virus.

Critics fault him for failing to encourage supporters at campaign events, and even White House staff, to wear protective masks and abide by social-distancing guidelines. At least 11 close Trump aides have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Standing alone on a White House balcony on Saturday, a maskless Trump urged hundreds of largely Black and Latino supporters to help get out the vote. Most in the crowd wore masks but ignored social-distancing guidelines.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/for-trump-defying-mideast-truisms-produced-breakthroughs-and-backfires-334656" hreflang="en">For Trump, defying Mideast truisms produced breakthroughs and backfires</a>

Biden, who has said it is irresponsible for any candidate to hold events where attendees are not wearing masks or engaging in social distancing, lashed out at the president's approach.

"President Trump comes to Sanford today bringing nothing but reckless behavior, divisive rhetoric, and fear mongering," Biden, the Democratic former vice president said in a statement.

FLORIDA UP FOR GRABS

Trump told Fox News in an interview on Sunday that he felt good and pointed to his physician's memo from Saturday saying he had taken a test showing he was no longer infectious.

"I passed the highest test, the highest standards, and I'm in great shape," Trump told "Sunday Morning Futures."

Trump also said, without producing evidence, that he was now immune, an assertion that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19.

The scientific research has been inconclusive on how long people who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies and are protected from a second infection.

Most recent polls in Florida, where a Trump loss would dramatically narrow his path to re-election, show Biden with a small lead. Trump won Florida over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 by just 1.2 percentage points, which helped propel him to the White House.

On his visit to Ohio, Biden will deliver a speech in Toledo meant to undermine what polls show is Trump's last greatest strength, the view among some voters that the former real estate entrepreneur is better on handling the economy.

Biden also will attend a get-out-the-vote event in Cincinnati, his campaign said.

Trump has pulled back his advertising in Ohio in recent days, while Biden has increased his, another sign of the opportunity he and his fellow Democrats see to make more states competitive than they initially imagined.

President Donald Trump will try to put his bout with COVID-19 behind him when he returns to the campaign trail on Monday, beginning a three-week sprint to the November 3 US election with a rally in the battleground state of Florida.

President Donald Trump will try to put his bout with COVID-19 behind him when he returns to the campaign trail on Monday, beginning a three-week sprint to the November 3 US election with a rally in the battleground state of Florida. The event at an airport in Sanford, Florida, will be Trump's first campaign rally since he disclosed on Oct. 2 that he tested positive for COVID-19. Trump, who spent three nights in the hospital for treatment, said on Sunday he had fully recovered and was no longer infectious, but did not say directly whether he had tested negative for the coronavirus. The Republican president, 74, is seeking to change the dynamics of a race that national opinion polls and some state polls show he is losing to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, 77. Also read: Donald Trump’s alternate constitutional reality For months, Trump had worked furiously to shift public attention away from the virus and his handling of the pandemic, which has infected nearly 7.7 million people in the United States, killed more than 214,000 and put millions out of work. His own illness has put the spotlight squarely on his coronavirus response during the closing stretch of the race. In a sign of fresh optimism, Biden heads on Monday to Ohio, a state Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2016 and almost certainly must carry again to win. It is Biden's second campaign trip in as many weeks to Ohio, which was once thought out of reach but where polls now show a tight race. Trump's rally in Florida, and planned rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and North Carolina on Thursday, will be watched closely to see whether the president has reshaped his campaign approach since contracting the virus. Critics fault him for failing to encourage supporters at campaign events, and even White House staff, to wear protective masks and abide by social-distancing guidelines. At least 11 close Trump aides have tested positive for the coronavirus. Standing alone on a White House balcony on Saturday, a maskless Trump urged hundreds of largely Black and Latino supporters to help get out the vote. Most in the crowd wore masks but ignored social-distancing guidelines. Also read: For Trump, defying Mideast truisms produced breakthroughs and backfires Biden, who has said it is irresponsible for any candidate to hold events where attendees are not wearing masks or engaging in social distancing, lashed out at the president's approach. "President Trump comes to Sanford today bringing nothing but reckless behavior, divisive rhetoric, and fear mongering," Biden, the Democratic former vice president said in a statement. FLORIDA UP FOR GRABS Trump told Fox News in an interview on Sunday that he felt good and pointed to his physician's memo from Saturday saying he had taken a test showing he was no longer infectious. "I passed the highest test, the highest standards, and I'm in great shape," Trump told "Sunday Morning Futures." Trump also said, without producing evidence, that he was now immune, an assertion that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform's rules about misleading information related to COVID-19. The scientific research has been inconclusive on how long people who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies and are protected from a second infection. Most recent polls in Florida, where a Trump loss would dramatically narrow his path to re-election, show Biden with a small lead. Trump won Florida over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 by just 1.2 percentage points, which helped propel him to the White House. On his visit to Ohio, Biden will deliver a speech in Toledo meant to undermine what polls show is Trump's last greatest strength, the view among some voters that the former real estate entrepreneur is better on handling the economy. Biden also will attend a get-out-the-vote event in Cincinnati, his campaign said. Trump has pulled back his advertising in Ohio in recent days, while Biden has increased his, another sign of the opportunity he and his fellow Democrats see to make more states competitive than they initially imagined.

Trump resumes campaign with Florida rally 10 days after COVID-19 disclosure

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan has become the latest country to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, in a move that government critics said stemmed as much from politics as from allegations of immoral content.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said in a statement Friday that it was banning TikTok based on a “number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content.” It said it had informed the company about complaints about its content, but TikTok’s administrators did not address their concerns.

The regulator said it was open to talks with the company “subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content.”

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, said it was committed to following the law and it was in regular contact with Pakistani regulators. “We are hopeful to reach a conclusion that helps us serve the country’s vibrant and creative community online,” it said in a statement.

TikTok, with its lip-syncing teenagers and meme-heavy videos, has drawn criticism from governments around the world, for varying reasons.

The Trump administration has attempted to block the app, so far unsuccessfully, citing privacy concerns and the app’s Chinese ownership, allegations that ByteDance has disputed. India has banned the service along with other Chinese-owned apps amid rising tensions between New Delhi and Beijing.

TikTok has also faced occasional bans in places like Indonesia and Bangladesh over issues of public decency, as well as pressure in the United States and elsewhere over privacy and content given its base of young users.

On its face, Pakistan’s objections to TikTok center on the potential impact to society. Like users elsewhere, TikTok fans in Pakistan — about 20 million active monthly users, according to the government, citing the company’s figures — make videos ranging from do-it-yourself dance numbers to monologues about society, politics and daily life. Influencers also make money on the side. TikTok’s most popular star in Pakistan, Jannat Mirza, has accumulated 10 million followers with often soapy videos mostly about young romance.

But conservative Muslims in Pakistan have increasingly accused TikTok of testing acceptable social norms. They deemed memes and song adaptations as too suggestive and too risqué. Many people saw the content as lowbrow and vulgar. There were also growing complaints of underage delinquent behavior and display of illegal weapons.

Prime Minister Imran Khan — a former cricket star once famous for his flamboyant lifestyle who has become increasingly conservative since entering politics — criticized TikTok as promoting “obscenity and vulgarity.”

Mirza has called for regulating TikTok content and initially expressed support for a ban, although a local media report said she believed the ban should be lifted. She did not respond to a request for comment.

“Vulgar content exists on all platforms, but I would argue that the ratio might be slightly higher on TikTok,” said Saif Ali, digital account director at Empact Middle East, a marketing firm. “The whole platform is song and dance, so it was always going to ruffle feathers with conservatives.”

At the same time, critics see politics at work.

Political content has mushroomed on TikTok in recent months as the coronavirus has spread and the national and global economies have taken a hit. Political observers said that must rankle Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority “has blocked TikTok not because of immoral content but because TikTokers are poking fun of the Great Leader,” Najam Sethi, one of the country’s most prominent journalists, said in a Twitter post, making an indirect reference to Khan.

Many analysts and journalists say that the ban served a dual purpose: mollifying conservatives and curbing criticism of Khan’s handling of the economy, rising inflation and tough stance toward political rivals.

“After the COVID-19 lockdown, Pakistanis going on TikTok doubled to over 20 million active users, while economic hardship related to livelihood loss and inflation hit the lower-middle and working class hard,” said Habibullah Khan, founder of Penumbra, a digital marketing agency based in Karachi, Pakistan. “These trends seem to have combined to cause a tipping point in public opinion that got picked up by TikTok algorithms.”

Since May, videos critical of the government started showing up on TikTok’s main feed, Habibullah Khan said.

The prime minister has blamed past leaders for Pakistan’s economic troubles and has implored the public to endure the tough times and wait for a better future. “You don’t have to panic,” Imran Khan said during one speech.

In one TikTok video that was shared widely a few months ago, two users mocked Khan by saying that the time to panic had finally arrived.

Supporters of the opposition political party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also started using the app to criticize the government. One such user, Saud Butt, a supporter of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, accumulated 1.2 million followers in a short time.

Government officials said the real issue was videos that they said sexualized underage girls.

“Had there been any political relevance of TikTok in Pakistan, there would have been a number of serious political commentators on the platform influencing political discussions,” said Arslan Khalid, the prime minister’s point person on digital media.

“The claim that TikTok was banned due to political criticism is just frivolous,” he added.

Habibullah Khan said that TikTok videos had nevertheless undermined the majority party’s standing in Punjab, the country’s most populous and prosperous province, which determines the political fortunes of any political party in Pakistan.

“It’s hard to not conclude that the explosive growth,” he said, “and virality of such videos were at least one reason behind the ban.”

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan has become the latest country to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, in a move that government critics said stemmed as much from politics as from allegations of immoral content.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan has become the latest country to ban TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform, in a move that government critics said stemmed as much from politics as from allegations of immoral content. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said in a statement Friday that it was banning TikTok based on a “number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content.” It said it had informed the company about complaints about its content, but TikTok’s administrators did not address their concerns. The regulator said it was open to talks with the company “subject to a satisfactory mechanism by TikTok to moderate unlawful content.” ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, said it was committed to following the law and it was in regular contact with Pakistani regulators. “We are hopeful to reach a conclusion that helps us serve the country’s vibrant and creative community online,” it said in a statement. TikTok, with its lip-syncing teenagers and meme-heavy videos, has drawn criticism from governments around the world, for varying reasons. The Trump administration has attempted to block the app, so far unsuccessfully, citing privacy concerns and the app’s Chinese ownership, allegations that ByteDance has disputed. India has banned the service along with other Chinese-owned apps amid rising tensions between New Delhi and Beijing. TikTok has also faced occasional bans in places like Indonesia and Bangladesh over issues of public decency, as well as pressure in the United States and elsewhere over privacy and content given its base of young users. On its face, Pakistan’s objections to TikTok center on the potential impact to society. Like users elsewhere, TikTok fans in Pakistan — about 20 million active monthly users, according to the government, citing the company’s figures — make videos ranging from do-it-yourself dance numbers to monologues about society, politics and daily life. Influencers also make money on the side. TikTok’s most popular star in Pakistan, Jannat Mirza, has accumulated 10 million followers with often soapy videos mostly about young romance. But conservative Muslims in Pakistan have increasingly accused TikTok of testing acceptable social norms. They deemed memes and song adaptations as too suggestive and too risqué. Many people saw the content as lowbrow and vulgar. There were also growing complaints of underage delinquent behavior and display of illegal weapons. Prime Minister Imran Khan — a former cricket star once famous for his flamboyant lifestyle who has become increasingly conservative since entering politics — criticized TikTok as promoting “obscenity and vulgarity.” Mirza has called for regulating TikTok content and initially expressed support for a ban, although a local media report said she believed the ban should be lifted. She did not respond to a request for comment. “Vulgar content exists on all platforms, but I would argue that the ratio might be slightly higher on TikTok,” said Saif Ali, digital account director at Empact Middle East, a marketing firm. “The whole platform is song and dance, so it was always going to ruffle feathers with conservatives.” At the same time, critics see politics at work. Political content has mushroomed on TikTok in recent months as the coronavirus has spread and the national and global economies have taken a hit. Political observers said that must rankle Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority “has blocked TikTok not because of immoral content but because TikTokers are poking fun of the Great Leader,” Najam Sethi, one of the country’s most prominent journalists, said in a Twitter post, making an indirect reference to Khan. Many analysts and journalists say that the ban served a dual purpose: mollifying conservatives and curbing criticism of Khan’s handling of the economy, rising inflation and tough stance toward political rivals. “After the COVID-19 lockdown, Pakistanis going on TikTok doubled to over 20 million active users, while economic hardship related to livelihood loss and inflation hit the lower-middle and working class hard,” said Habibullah Khan, founder of Penumbra, a digital marketing agency based in Karachi, Pakistan. “These trends seem to have combined to cause a tipping point in public opinion that got picked up by TikTok algorithms.” Since May, videos critical of the government started showing up on TikTok’s main feed, Habibullah Khan said. The prime minister has blamed past leaders for Pakistan’s economic troubles and has implored the public to endure the tough times and wait for a better future. “You don’t have to panic,” Imran Khan said during one speech. In one TikTok video that was shared widely a few months ago, two users mocked Khan by saying that the time to panic had finally arrived. Supporters of the opposition political party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also started using the app to criticize the government. One such user, Saud Butt, a supporter of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, accumulated 1.2 million followers in a short time. Government officials said the real issue was videos that they said sexualized underage girls. “Had there been any political relevance of TikTok in Pakistan, there would have been a number of serious political commentators on the platform influencing political discussions,” said Arslan Khalid, the prime minister’s point person on digital media. “The claim that TikTok was banned due to political criticism is just frivolous,” he added. Habibullah Khan said that TikTok videos had nevertheless undermined the majority party’s standing in Punjab, the country’s most populous and prosperous province, which determines the political fortunes of any political party in Pakistan. “It’s hard to not conclude that the explosive growth,” he said, “and virality of such videos were at least one reason behind the ban.”

Pakistan bans TikTok, citing Morals. Others cite politics.

US President Donald Trump has claimed he no longer has coronavirus and is now “immune” to Covid-19 as he prepares to return to the campaign trail.

Donald Trump claims immunity from COVID-19 ahead of rallies

When President Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his third nominee to the Supreme Court, he praised her “unyielding loyalty to the Constitution.” The implicit premise was that her fidelity to the nation’s founding document as a judge could excuse his violations of the Constitution as president.

But the highest test of politicians’ constitutional scruples is not how they populate another branch of government. It is how they carry out their responsibilities in their own spheres. By that test, Mr. Trump’s loyalty to the Constitution has yielded to political convenience time and again.

The rhetoric surrounding Judge Barrett’s nomination, which the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to take up on Monday, reflects a troubling strain of constitutional decay: the belief that presidents and legislators fight over policy, while the Constitution is the province of the courts. This view suggests that elected officials can check the box on their own oaths to the Constitution not by upholding them but rather by outsourcing the defense of the Constitution to judges.

Last month, Mr. Trump declared that “apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision an American President can make.”

Exhorting his fellow Republicans to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the president also said that “we were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices.” Not faithfully executing the law, which Article II of the Constitution requires presidents to do?

Similarly, in late 2017, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader now shepherding Judge Barrett’s nomination, likewise cited the confirmation of conservative judges as the most important achievement of his 36 years in the U.S. Senate. Not the essential constitutional power of Congress, deliberating on legislation?

James Madison assumed that all federal officeholders, not simply judges, were required to maintain the Constitution. As a member of the House of Representatives, Madison routinely participated in debates about whether proposed legislation was constitutional, not just whether it was expedient. As president, his view of executive power was so modest that he would not even lobby members of Congress over dinner, as his predecessor, Thomas Jefferson, had done.

Mr. Trump has not felt comparably constrained. He operates in an alternate constitutional reality in which criticism of him is treason; the process of electing a chief magistrate requires the incumbent to accept the result; and Article II accords him, as Mr. Trump put it last year, “the right to do whatever I want as president.”

In keeping with the tradition of his recent predecessors, he has asserted executive power without any sense of constitutional self-control, sometimes in startling ways. Campaigning for the White House, he famously claimed he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose voters.

Last year, one of his lawyers asserted that occupants of the office were immune from prosecution even if they did commit murder, a view the Supreme Court rejected as placing the president above the law. Recently, when Congress did not agree with him about economic relief in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Trump issued a series of executive orders attempting to achieve through decree what constitutional processes denied him.

For its part, Congress suffers from the opposite problem. Rather than expanding its power, it often declines to exercise it at all. During the Trump era, Mr. McConnell, once known as an institutionalist who defended the Senate’s prerogatives, has abetted this surrender of legislative authority.

When a newly inaugurated Mr. Trump used a 1952 law to ban entry into the United States from several Muslim-majority countries, Mr. McConnell raised constitutional objections. As a legislator, he could have addressed them by working to curtail the decades-old legislative authority Mr. Trump cited.

Instead of asserting personal responsibility for the Constitution, though, Mr. McConnell punted to the judiciary: “Ultimately,” he said, “it is going to be decided in the courts as to whether or not this has gone too far.” That is not what Mr. McConnell’s oath says: On the first day of each of his six terms, Mr. McConnell has sworn that he, not someone else, would “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

In February 2019, Mr. Trump’s insistence on funding for his coveted border wall threatened a government shutdown. Mr. McConnell helped avert it by supporting the president’s unconstitutional contention that he could divert funds by declaring a bogus national emergency.

As Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial loomed in late 2019, Mr. McConnell acknowledged with astonishing candor that he did not regard the Senate as independent from the president: “Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with the White House counsel,” he declared on Fox News.

Mr. McConnell has also rejected attempts to reclaim Congress’s war powers. When the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution to assert Congress’s constitutional authority over potential hostilities with Iran, for example, Mr. McConnell opposed it. He also endorsed Mr. Trump’s end run around Mr. McConnell’s own branch of government on coronavirus relief.

The image of Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell as constitutional defenders because they support originalist judges is itself a strange breed of originalism. It assumes that judges should adhere to the original meaning of the Constitution with respect to everything but the Constitution’s modest view of judicial power. Yet there is no Madisonian case for seeing judges as more responsible for the Constitution than anyone else who holds national office.

In abrogating their own constitutional responsibilities, Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell have often referred to Democratic support of President Barack Obama’s use of unilateral executive authority.

They are correct to note that Democrats were also complicit in constitutional abuses. Mr. Obama’s executive orders on topics from health care to immigration extended the imperial presidency into the domestic realm. Many of the Democrats opposing Mr. Trump’s assertions of executive power now were quiet then.

But this situational constitutionalism is exactly the problem, and a party whose platform proclaims “a rebirth of constitutional government” bears a particular responsibility to break the cycle. It cannot do so through judges alone because the Constitution is not merely a judicial instrument. Far from it. Every elected official is a constitutional custodian. If Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell — or their eventual successors — want to proclaim themselves champions of America’s founding principles, the best way for them to prove it is not by delegating the Constitution’s defense to judges. It is by undertaking it themselves.

When President Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his third nominee to the Supreme Court, he praised her “unyielding loyalty to the Constitution.” The implicit premise was that her fidelity to the nation’s founding document as a judge could excuse his violations of the Constitution as president.

When President Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his third nominee to the Supreme Court, he praised her “unyielding loyalty to the Constitution.” The implicit premise was that her fidelity to the nation’s founding document as a judge could excuse his violations of the Constitution as president. But the highest test of politicians’ constitutional scruples is not how they populate another branch of government. It is how they carry out their responsibilities in their own spheres. By that test, Mr. Trump’s loyalty to the Constitution has yielded to political convenience time and again. The rhetoric surrounding Judge Barrett’s nomination, which the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to take up on Monday, reflects a troubling strain of constitutional decay: the belief that presidents and legislators fight over policy, while the Constitution is the province of the courts. This view suggests that elected officials can check the box on their own oaths to the Constitution not by upholding them but rather by outsourcing the defense of the Constitution to judges. Last month, Mr. Trump declared that “apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision an American President can make.” Exhorting his fellow Republicans to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the president also said that “we were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices.” Not faithfully executing the law, which Article II of the Constitution requires presidents to do? Similarly, in late 2017, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader now shepherding Judge Barrett’s nomination, likewise cited the confirmation of conservative judges as the most important achievement of his 36 years in the U.S. Senate. Not the essential constitutional power of Congress, deliberating on legislation? James Madison assumed that all federal officeholders, not simply judges, were required to maintain the Constitution. As a member of the House of Representatives, Madison routinely participated in debates about whether proposed legislation was constitutional, not just whether it was expedient. As president, his view of executive power was so modest that he would not even lobby members of Congress over dinner, as his predecessor, Thomas Jefferson, had done. Mr. Trump has not felt comparably constrained. He operates in an alternate constitutional reality in which criticism of him is treason; the process of electing a chief magistrate requires the incumbent to accept the result; and Article II accords him, as Mr. Trump put it last year, “the right to do whatever I want as president.” In keeping with the tradition of his recent predecessors, he has asserted executive power without any sense of constitutional self-control, sometimes in startling ways. Campaigning for the White House, he famously claimed he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose voters. Last year, one of his lawyers asserted that occupants of the office were immune from prosecution even if they did commit murder, a view the Supreme Court rejected as placing the president above the law. Recently, when Congress did not agree with him about economic relief in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Trump issued a series of executive orders attempting to achieve through decree what constitutional processes denied him. For its part, Congress suffers from the opposite problem. Rather than expanding its power, it often declines to exercise it at all. During the Trump era, Mr. McConnell, once known as an institutionalist who defended the Senate’s prerogatives, has abetted this surrender of legislative authority. When a newly inaugurated Mr. Trump used a 1952 law to ban entry into the United States from several Muslim-majority countries, Mr. McConnell raised constitutional objections. As a legislator, he could have addressed them by working to curtail the decades-old legislative authority Mr. Trump cited. Instead of asserting personal responsibility for the Constitution, though, Mr. McConnell punted to the judiciary: “Ultimately,” he said, “it is going to be decided in the courts as to whether or not this has gone too far.” That is not what Mr. McConnell’s oath says: On the first day of each of his six terms, Mr. McConnell has sworn that he, not someone else, would “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” In February 2019, Mr. Trump’s insistence on funding for his coveted border wall threatened a government shutdown. Mr. McConnell helped avert it by supporting the president’s unconstitutional contention that he could divert funds by declaring a bogus national emergency. As Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial loomed in late 2019, Mr. McConnell acknowledged with astonishing candor that he did not regard the Senate as independent from the president: “Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with the White House counsel,” he declared on Fox News. Mr. McConnell has also rejected attempts to reclaim Congress’s war powers. When the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution to assert Congress’s constitutional authority over potential hostilities with Iran, for example, Mr. McConnell opposed it. He also endorsed Mr. Trump’s end run around Mr. McConnell’s own branch of government on coronavirus relief. The image of Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell as constitutional defenders because they support originalist judges is itself a strange breed of originalism. It assumes that judges should adhere to the original meaning of the Constitution with respect to everything but the Constitution’s modest view of judicial power. Yet there is no Madisonian case for seeing judges as more responsible for the Constitution than anyone else who holds national office. In abrogating their own constitutional responsibilities, Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell have often referred to Democratic support of President Barack Obama’s use of unilateral executive authority. They are correct to note that Democrats were also complicit in constitutional abuses. Mr. Obama’s executive orders on topics from health care to immigration extended the imperial presidency into the domestic realm. Many of the Democrats opposing Mr. Trump’s assertions of executive power now were quiet then. But this situational constitutionalism is exactly the problem, and a party whose platform proclaims “a rebirth of constitutional government” bears a particular responsibility to break the cycle. It cannot do so through judges alone because the Constitution is not merely a judicial instrument. Far from it. Every elected official is a constitutional custodian. If Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell — or their eventual successors — want to proclaim themselves champions of America’s founding principles, the best way for them to prove it is not by delegating the Constitution’s defense to judges. It is by undertaking it themselves.

Donald Trump’s alternate constitutional reality

A day after the doctor of US President Donald Trump said that he was no longer a transmission risk for COVID-19, President Trump on Sunday (October 11) said that he was immune from the coronavirus and he has succeeded in beating this 'crazy horrible China virus'.

Trump Insists He'S Immune ' To The Virus Without Producing Any Evidence

JERUSALEM — He moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, breaking with those who said it would ignite the Muslim world.

He withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and ordered the killing of a top Iranian general, defying those who said the moves would lead to war.

He brokered treaties between Israel and two Arab states, disproving those who said such deals could only follow the creation of a Palestinian state.

Again and again in the Middle East, where volatility has burnished or battered previous presidential legacies, President Donald Trump has run roughshod over conventional thinking, advancing key policy aims or fulfilling campaign promises in ways that experts warned could set off a conflagration or blow up in his face.

Not only did the predicted disasters not materialize, but in many cases his policies produced demonstrable achievements.

The Arab treaties with Israel doubled the number of countries in the region that have relations with Israel. The killing of the Iranian commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, eliminated the leader of a network of dangerous militias. And the embassy move, rightly or wrongly, was a step previous administrations had shrunk from despite claiming to support it.

But the bold moves often had major drawbacks: The Iranians resumed their nuclear project, and experts believe they may have enough nuclear material to build a bomb. The killing of Soleimani scuttled any chance of negotiating a better nuclear deal with Iran, at least for now. The chances of resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict appeared ever more distant. And political gifts to Israel and Saudi Arabia received none of the concessions in return that would have been expected as part of a negotiation.

Trump approached the region more like a businessman than a politician, alternately squeezing adversaries and dangling economic inducements, snagging opportunities where he found them.

Remarkably, this scattershot, transactional approach bore fruit that a more strategic diplomatic approach had not. But it also failed to persuade the Palestinians to compromise on their national aspirations and the Iranians on their ideology.

Lacking an overall strategy for the region, critics say, Trump blundered in self-defeating ways, allowing Turkey to attack the U.S.’ Kurdish partners in Syria and worsening a rift among Gulf allies that has impeded the containment of Iran. And his overriding focus on helping Israel and hurting Iran led to a hands-off approach to bloody conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya, which remain shattered and dangerous.

In an interview, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser on Middle East policy, said the administration sought to create a “core stability” in the Middle East, in part by promoting Israel’s acceptance by Arab states, which he argued would keep terrorism at bay, reduce the risks to U.S. soldiers and costs to its taxpayers, and put the region “on a pathway to a more stable place.”

The president, he said, “took a pragmatic approach, which was to state the goals that we want to go to — set the North Star — and then work very hard to move things toward them.”

Chief among Trump’s ambitious objectives: defeating Islamic extremists, bringing Iran to heel and achieving what he called the “ultimate deal” between the Israelis and Palestinians.

During his term, the Islamic State group lost its territorial caliphate, and attacks by its supporters that once frequently terrified the West have grown rare, although the group remains a potent underground threat, launching frequent deadly attacks in Iraq, Syria and West Africa.

The other goals largely eluded him.

The Palestinians rejected Trump’s peace deal, and the prospect of its resuscitation appears remote. Iran has resumed enriching uranium — a direct consequence of Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement — which has brought it closer to being able to make a bomb. And its allied militias are rocketing the U.S. embassy in Baghdad so often that the Americans have threatened to close it.

Trump prioritized arms sales over human rights, standing by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia after his agents murdered dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi and he waged a disastrous war in Yemen. And his plan to sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates shows signs of setting off a new regional arms race.

His emphasis on deal-making, critics say, has ignored all but the economic sources of the region’s many problems.

“The Middle East is not a bazaar,” said Lina Khatib, an expert on the region at Chatham House, a London research group. “And to try to solve its crises by treating it that way simply does not work.”

Dead Peace Plan, Diplomatic Coup

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the setting for Trump’s biggest failure, may also be where he leaves the most enduring mark.

Eager to succeed where no other president had, he confronted the conflict quickly, cheering Palestinians who had dreaded being ignored — only to demoralize them by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the U.S. Embassy, steps widely seen as irreversible.

The predicted uprising did not occur, but the Palestinians boycotted Trump. And he pushed them further away, slashing funding, expelling their diplomats from Washington and eliminating a consulate in Jerusalem devoted to their interests.

When the long-awaited Trump “Vision for Peace” emerged in January, it read as if it had been drafted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, snubbing the main Palestinian demands and encouraging Israeli annexation of occupied West Bank territory. The Palestinians dismissed it in the most vehement terms.

In a twist, though, the talk of annexation made possible a diplomatic coup.

Annexation stalled amid Israeli political opposition, but it created an opening for a deal: In exchange for Israel’s “suspending” annexation, the UAE would bring its under-the-radar ties with Israel into the open. The small Gulf kingdom of Bahrain followed.

More broadly, what had driven the UAE into Israel’s arms was the Trump administration’s waning commitment to the region and newfound doubts about its willingness to send its military to the rescue, particularly after Trump refused to retaliate against Iran after accusing it of attacking Saudi oil facilities last year.

“The Emiratis were looking around for who they could rely on,” said Martin Indyk, a former U.S. envoy to peace talks and ambassador to Israel. The region’s strongest military was the obvious answer.

For the Palestinians, it was perhaps the unkindest cut: Much of their strategy to pressure Israel relied on Arab solidarity to deny Israel the acceptance it craved.

For the Trump administration, a dud product launch became a marketing bonanza. “We were nimble and opportunistic,” said David Friedman, the ambassador to Israel.

Moreover, Kushner argued, the deals with the UAE and Bahrain would eventually force the Palestinians to come around. “They’re only going to be tough for as long as they have the resources,” he said.

But few expect the Trump peace plan to be the basis of any future talks.

“If you have parameters which are only supported by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians, the Arabs, the Europeans and so on, they’ll probably not hold for long,” said Michael Herzog, a veteran peace negotiator and fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Maximum Pressure, Limited Results

Trump focused much of his attention on Iran, which he called the Middle East’s greatest generator of instability through its support for a network of militias active across the Arab world.

President Barack Obama had sought to entice Iran with the promise of sanctions relief and engagement with the West, an approach that led to an international agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump declared that deal a failure for not addressing Iran’s missile program and aggressive behavior and for permitting it to resume unconstrained uranium enrichment in 2030. So he replaced carrots with sticks, withdrawing from the agreement and launching a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at constricting Iran’s finances.

In January, Trump took aim at Iran’s regional militia network, ordering the killing of its architect, Soleimani.

The approach alienated Western allies but won Trump plaudits from Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, rivals of Iran who resented Obama’s negotiations with their nemesis.

“Showing Iran the big stick, that was needed,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati political scientist. “This guy was Public Enemy No. 1 for many countries.”

The pressure campaign — including sanctions on Iran’s oil sales and financial transactions — has choked its economy. Its currency plunged nearly 50% against the dollar in the last month. Iranian officials have spoken frankly about the distress but remain dismissive toward Trump.

“He hasn’t got a deal, he hasn’t changed the regime, he hasn’t made Iran withdraw from the region, and he has undermined moderates in Iran,” said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert and former State Department adviser.

Trump and his allies say the policy has reduced the Iranian threat by degrading its ability to finance militias in Iraq and Syria, the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“That’s money denied, it’s resources unavailable, it’s terror attacks avoided,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview.

Iran has also dialed down provocative activity in the Persian Gulf in recent months, which administration officials cast as a direct result of U.S. pressure. Iranian politicians, however, say it reflects a fear that conflict would only help Trump win a second term.

Kushner said Trump’s policies gave the United States a strong negotiating position. “The table’s set. Iran right now is stone-cold broke,” he said. “The goal here hasn’t been to make a deal. The goal here has been to try to set the table to make a good deal.”

But such talks seem remote. Iranian politicians said the Soleimani killing would bar the country’s leaders from negotiating with Trump.

“Even if he gets reelected, it will be impossible,” said Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, a reformist politician.

For now, Iran’s militia network remains active, and its nuclear program is up and running — and rapidly approaching the ability to build a bomb.

Changes to Reckon With

Regardless who wins the November election, Trump has brought about changes in the Middle East that the next administration must take into account.

The momentum toward normalization agreements could continue, with Saudi Arabia, whose stance toward Israel has warmed under Crown Prince Mohammed, looming as the largest potential prize. A future U.S. administration could use that enticement to press Israel for concessions toward the Palestinians. But there is much concern in Israel about how the Palestinians would react to their abandonment by more of the Arab world.

With Iran’s government in dire financial straits, some of its regional allies have questioned how long it can hang on. The next administration could use that distress as leverage, even if in the pursuit of drastically different objectives.

Trump’s transactionalism may also have limits: Sudan’s new leaders have so far refused to normalize relations with Israel despite substantial financial incentives because doing so could leave them “morally compromised” among their people, said Ofer Zalzberg, Middle East director at the Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation.

Still, the id on display in Trump’s policies has earned measured praise in unlikely quarters.

Even some critics said Trump’s lack of interest in traditional talking points about democracy and human rights had brought a new frankness to age-old discussions about the U.S.’ dealings with autocrats.

“It takes away the illusions some people have convinced themselves of that we used to be a force for good,” said Amy Hawthorne, deputy research director at the Project on Middle East Democracy.

“The harm is significant,” she hastened to add. “We don’t get that soft power back right away.”

And Robert Malley, president of the International Crisis Group and a former senior Obama administration official for the Middle East, said Trump’s record held at least one lesson for his successors: The prospect of blowback from critics and allies need not be paralyzing.

“They may not like what we’re doing,” he said, but Trump had shown that “if it’s in our interest to do it, we just need to forge ahead.”

JERUSALEM — He moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, breaking with those who said it would ignite the Muslim world. He withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and ordered the killing of a top Iranian general, defying those who said the moves would lead to war.

JERUSALEM — He moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, breaking with those who said it would ignite the Muslim world. He withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and ordered the killing of a top Iranian general, defying those who said the moves would lead to war. He brokered treaties between Israel and two Arab states, disproving those who said such deals could only follow the creation of a Palestinian state. Again and again in the Middle East, where volatility has burnished or battered previous presidential legacies, President Donald Trump has run roughshod over conventional thinking, advancing key policy aims or fulfilling campaign promises in ways that experts warned could set off a conflagration or blow up in his face. Not only did the predicted disasters not materialize, but in many cases his policies produced demonstrable achievements. The Arab treaties with Israel doubled the number of countries in the region that have relations with Israel. The killing of the Iranian commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, eliminated the leader of a network of dangerous militias. And the embassy move, rightly or wrongly, was a step previous administrations had shrunk from despite claiming to support it. But the bold moves often had major drawbacks: The Iranians resumed their nuclear project, and experts believe they may have enough nuclear material to build a bomb. The killing of Soleimani scuttled any chance of negotiating a better nuclear deal with Iran, at least for now. The chances of resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict appeared ever more distant. And political gifts to Israel and Saudi Arabia received none of the concessions in return that would have been expected as part of a negotiation. Trump approached the region more like a businessman than a politician, alternately squeezing adversaries and dangling economic inducements, snagging opportunities where he found them. Remarkably, this scattershot, transactional approach bore fruit that a more strategic diplomatic approach had not. But it also failed to persuade the Palestinians to compromise on their national aspirations and the Iranians on their ideology. Lacking an overall strategy for the region, critics say, Trump blundered in self-defeating ways, allowing Turkey to attack the U.S.’ Kurdish partners in Syria and worsening a rift among Gulf allies that has impeded the containment of Iran. And his overriding focus on helping Israel and hurting Iran led to a hands-off approach to bloody conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Libya, which remain shattered and dangerous. In an interview, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser on Middle East policy, said the administration sought to create a “core stability” in the Middle East, in part by promoting Israel’s acceptance by Arab states, which he argued would keep terrorism at bay, reduce the risks to U.S. soldiers and costs to its taxpayers, and put the region “on a pathway to a more stable place.” The president, he said, “took a pragmatic approach, which was to state the goals that we want to go to — set the North Star — and then work very hard to move things toward them.” Chief among Trump’s ambitious objectives: defeating Islamic extremists, bringing Iran to heel and achieving what he called the “ultimate deal” between the Israelis and Palestinians. During his term, the Islamic State group lost its territorial caliphate, and attacks by its supporters that once frequently terrified the West have grown rare, although the group remains a potent underground threat, launching frequent deadly attacks in Iraq, Syria and West Africa. The other goals largely eluded him. The Palestinians rejected Trump’s peace deal, and the prospect of its resuscitation appears remote. Iran has resumed enriching uranium — a direct consequence of Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement — which has brought it closer to being able to make a bomb. And its allied militias are rocketing the U.S. embassy in Baghdad so often that the Americans have threatened to close it. Trump prioritized arms sales over human rights, standing by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia after his agents murdered dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi and he waged a disastrous war in Yemen. And his plan to sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates shows signs of setting off a new regional arms race. His emphasis on deal-making, critics say, has ignored all but the economic sources of the region’s many problems. “The Middle East is not a bazaar,” said Lina Khatib, an expert on the region at Chatham House, a London research group. “And to try to solve its crises by treating it that way simply does not work.” Dead Peace Plan, Diplomatic Coup The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the setting for Trump’s biggest failure, may also be where he leaves the most enduring mark. Eager to succeed where no other president had, he confronted the conflict quickly, cheering Palestinians who had dreaded being ignored — only to demoralize them by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the U.S. Embassy, steps widely seen as irreversible. The predicted uprising did not occur, but the Palestinians boycotted Trump. And he pushed them further away, slashing funding, expelling their diplomats from Washington and eliminating a consulate in Jerusalem devoted to their interests. When the long-awaited Trump “Vision for Peace” emerged in January, it read as if it had been drafted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, snubbing the main Palestinian demands and encouraging Israeli annexation of occupied West Bank territory. The Palestinians dismissed it in the most vehement terms. In a twist, though, the talk of annexation made possible a diplomatic coup. Annexation stalled amid Israeli political opposition, but it created an opening for a deal: In exchange for Israel’s “suspending” annexation, the UAE would bring its under-the-radar ties with Israel into the open. The small Gulf kingdom of Bahrain followed. More broadly, what had driven the UAE into Israel’s arms was the Trump administration’s waning commitment to the region and newfound doubts about its willingness to send its military to the rescue, particularly after Trump refused to retaliate against Iran after accusing it of attacking Saudi oil facilities last year. “The Emiratis were looking around for who they could rely on,” said Martin Indyk, a former U.S. envoy to peace talks and ambassador to Israel. The region’s strongest military was the obvious answer. For the Palestinians, it was perhaps the unkindest cut: Much of their strategy to pressure Israel relied on Arab solidarity to deny Israel the acceptance it craved. For the Trump administration, a dud product launch became a marketing bonanza. “We were nimble and opportunistic,” said David Friedman, the ambassador to Israel. Moreover, Kushner argued, the deals with the UAE and Bahrain would eventually force the Palestinians to come around. “They’re only going to be tough for as long as they have the resources,” he said. But few expect the Trump peace plan to be the basis of any future talks. “If you have parameters which are only supported by Israel and rejected by the Palestinians, the Arabs, the Europeans and so on, they’ll probably not hold for long,” said Michael Herzog, a veteran peace negotiator and fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Maximum Pressure, Limited Results Trump focused much of his attention on Iran, which he called the Middle East’s greatest generator of instability through its support for a network of militias active across the Arab world. President Barack Obama had sought to entice Iran with the promise of sanctions relief and engagement with the West, an approach that led to an international agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program. Trump declared that deal a failure for not addressing Iran’s missile program and aggressive behavior and for permitting it to resume unconstrained uranium enrichment in 2030. So he replaced carrots with sticks, withdrawing from the agreement and launching a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at constricting Iran’s finances. In January, Trump took aim at Iran’s regional militia network, ordering the killing of its architect, Soleimani. The approach alienated Western allies but won Trump plaudits from Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, rivals of Iran who resented Obama’s negotiations with their nemesis. “Showing Iran the big stick, that was needed,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati political scientist. “This guy was Public Enemy No. 1 for many countries.” The pressure campaign — including sanctions on Iran’s oil sales and financial transactions — has choked its economy. Its currency plunged nearly 50% against the dollar in the last month. Iranian officials have spoken frankly about the distress but remain dismissive toward Trump. “He hasn’t got a deal, he hasn’t changed the regime, he hasn’t made Iran withdraw from the region, and he has undermined moderates in Iran,” said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert and former State Department adviser. Trump and his allies say the policy has reduced the Iranian threat by degrading its ability to finance militias in Iraq and Syria, the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. “That’s money denied, it’s resources unavailable, it’s terror attacks avoided,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview. Iran has also dialed down provocative activity in the Persian Gulf in recent months, which administration officials cast as a direct result of U.S. pressure. Iranian politicians, however, say it reflects a fear that conflict would only help Trump win a second term. Kushner said Trump’s policies gave the United States a strong negotiating position. “The table’s set. Iran right now is stone-cold broke,” he said. “The goal here hasn’t been to make a deal. The goal here has been to try to set the table to make a good deal.” But such talks seem remote. Iranian politicians said the Soleimani killing would bar the country’s leaders from negotiating with Trump. “Even if he gets reelected, it will be impossible,” said Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, a reformist politician. For now, Iran’s militia network remains active, and its nuclear program is up and running — and rapidly approaching the ability to build a bomb. Changes to Reckon With Regardless who wins the November election, Trump has brought about changes in the Middle East that the next administration must take into account. The momentum toward normalization agreements could continue, with Saudi Arabia, whose stance toward Israel has warmed under Crown Prince Mohammed, looming as the largest potential prize. A future U.S. administration could use that enticement to press Israel for concessions toward the Palestinians. But there is much concern in Israel about how the Palestinians would react to their abandonment by more of the Arab world. With Iran’s government in dire financial straits, some of its regional allies have questioned how long it can hang on. The next administration could use that distress as leverage, even if in the pursuit of drastically different objectives. Trump’s transactionalism may also have limits: Sudan’s new leaders have so far refused to normalize relations with Israel despite substantial financial incentives because doing so could leave them “morally compromised” among their people, said Ofer Zalzberg, Middle East director at the Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation. Still, the id on display in Trump’s policies has earned measured praise in unlikely quarters. Even some critics said Trump’s lack of interest in traditional talking points about democracy and human rights had brought a new frankness to age-old discussions about the U.S.’ dealings with autocrats. “It takes away the illusions some people have convinced themselves of that we used to be a force for good,” said Amy Hawthorne, deputy research director at the Project on Middle East Democracy. “The harm is significant,” she hastened to add. “We don’t get that soft power back right away.” And Robert Malley, president of the International Crisis Group and a former senior Obama administration official for the Middle East, said Trump’s record held at least one lesson for his successors: The prospect of blowback from critics and allies need not be paralyzing. “They may not like what we’re doing,” he said, but Trump had shown that “if it’s in our interest to do it, we just need to forge ahead.”

For Trump, defying Mideast truisms produced breakthroughs and backfires

Three weeks from now, we will reach an end to speculation about what Donald Trump will do if he faces political defeat, whether he will leave power like a normal president or attempt some wild resistance. Reality will intrude, substantially if not definitively, into the argument over whether the president is a corrupt incompetent who postures as a strongman on Twitter or a threat to the Republic to whom words like “authoritarian” and even “autocrat” can be reasonably applied.

I’ve been on the first side of that argument since early in his presidency, and since we’re nearing either an ending or some poll-defying reset, let me make the case just one more time.

Across the past four years, the Trump administration has indeed displayed hallmarks of authoritarianism. It features egregious internal sycophancy and hacks in high positions, abusive presidential rhetoric and mendacity on an unusual scale. The president’s attempts to delegitimize the 2020 vote aren’t novel; they’re an extension of the way he’s talked since his birther days, paranoid and demagogic.

These are all very bad things, and good reasons to favor his defeat. But it’s also important to recognize all the elements of authoritarianism he lacks. He lacks popularity and political skill, unlike most of the global strongmen who are supposed to be his peers. He lacks power over the media: Outside of Fox’s prime time, he faces an unremittingly hostile press whose major outlets have thrived throughout his presidency. He is plainly despised by his own military leadership, and notwithstanding his courtship of Mark Zuckerberg, Silicon Valley is more likely to censor him than to support him in a constitutional crisis.

His own Supreme Court appointees have already ruled against him; his attempts to turn his voter-fraud hype into litigation have been repeatedly defeated in the courts; he has been constantly at war with his own CIA and FBI. And there is no mass movement behind him: The threat of far-right violence is certainly real, but America’s streets belong to the anti-Trump left.

So if you judge an authoritarian by institutional influence, Trump falls absurdly short. And the same goes for judging his power grabs. Yes, he has successfully violated post-Watergate norms in the service of self-protection and his pocketbook. But pre-Watergate presidents were not autocrats, and in terms of seizing power over &lt;em&gt;policy&lt;/em&gt; he has been less imperial than either George W. Bush or Barack Obama.

There is still no Trumpian equivalent of Bush’s anti-terror and enhanced-interrogation innovations or Obama’s immigration gambit and unconstitutional Libyan war. Trump’s worst human-rights violation, the separation of migrants from their children, was withdrawn under public outcry. His biggest defiance of Congress involved some money for a still-unfinished border wall. And when the coronavirus handed him a once-in-a-century excuse to seize new powers, he retreating to a cranky libertarianism instead.

All this context means that one can oppose Trump, even hate him, and still feel very confident that he will leave office if he is defeated, and that any attempt to cling to power illegitimately will be a theater of the absurd.

Yes, Trump could theoretically retain power if the final outcome is genuinely too close to call.

But the same would be true of any president if their reelection came down to a few hundred votes, and Trump is less equipped than a normal Republican to steer through a Florida-in-2000 controversy — and less likely, given his excesses, to have jurists like John Roberts on his side at the end.

Meanwhile, the scenarios that have been spun out in reputable publications — where Trump induces Republican state legislatures to overrule the clear outcome in their states or militia violence intimidates the Supreme Court into vacating a Biden victory — bear no relationship to the Trump presidency we’ve actually experienced. Our weak, ranting, infected-by-COVID chief executive is not plotting a coup, because a term like “plotting” implies capabilities that he conspicuously lacks.

OK, the reader might say, but since you concede that the Orange Man is, in fact, bad, what’s the harm of a little paranoia, a little extra vigilance?

There are many answers, but I’ll just offer one: With American liberalism poised to retake presidential power, it needs clarity about its own position. Liberalism lost in 2016 out of a mix of accident and hubris, and many liberals have spent the last four years persuading themselves that their position might soon be as beleaguered as the opposition under Putin, or German liberals late in Weimar.

But in reality, liberalism under Trump has become a more dominant force in our society, with a zealous progressive vanguard and a monopoly in the commanding heights of culture. Its return to power in Washington won’t be the salvation of American pluralism; it will be the unification of cultural and political power under a single banner.

Wielding that power in a way that doesn’t just seed another backlash requires both vision and restraint. And seeing its current enemy clearly, as a feckless tribune for the discontented rather than an autocratic menace, is essential to the wisdom that a Biden presidency needs.

Three weeks from now, we will reach an end to speculation about what Donald Trump will do if he faces political defeat, whether he will leave power like a normal president or attempt some wild resistance.

Three weeks from now, we will reach an end to speculation about what Donald Trump will do if he faces political defeat, whether he will leave power like a normal president or attempt some wild resistance. Reality will intrude, substantially if not definitively, into the argument over whether the president is a corrupt incompetent who postures as a strongman on Twitter or a threat to the Republic to whom words like “authoritarian” and even “autocrat” can be reasonably applied. I’ve been on the first side of that argument since early in his presidency, and since we’re nearing either an ending or some poll-defying reset, let me make the case just one more time. Across the past four years, the Trump administration has indeed displayed hallmarks of authoritarianism. It features egregious internal sycophancy and hacks in high positions, abusive presidential rhetoric and mendacity on an unusual scale. The president’s attempts to delegitimize the 2020 vote aren’t novel; they’re an extension of the way he’s talked since his birther days, paranoid and demagogic. These are all very bad things, and good reasons to favor his defeat. But it’s also important to recognize all the elements of authoritarianism he lacks. He lacks popularity and political skill, unlike most of the global strongmen who are supposed to be his peers. He lacks power over the media: Outside of Fox’s prime time, he faces an unremittingly hostile press whose major outlets have thrived throughout his presidency. He is plainly despised by his own military leadership, and notwithstanding his courtship of Mark Zuckerberg, Silicon Valley is more likely to censor him than to support him in a constitutional crisis. His own Supreme Court appointees have already ruled against him; his attempts to turn his voter-fraud hype into litigation have been repeatedly defeated in the courts; he has been constantly at war with his own CIA and FBI. And there is no mass movement behind him: The threat of far-right violence is certainly real, but America’s streets belong to the anti-Trump left. So if you judge an authoritarian by institutional influence, Trump falls absurdly short. And the same goes for judging his power grabs. Yes, he has successfully violated post-Watergate norms in the service of self-protection and his pocketbook. But pre-Watergate presidents were not autocrats, and in terms of seizing power over policy he has been less imperial than either George W. Bush or Barack Obama. There is still no Trumpian equivalent of Bush’s anti-terror and enhanced-interrogation innovations or Obama’s immigration gambit and unconstitutional Libyan war. Trump’s worst human-rights violation, the separation of migrants from their children, was withdrawn under public outcry. His biggest defiance of Congress involved some money for a still-unfinished border wall. And when the coronavirus handed him a once-in-a-century excuse to seize new powers, he retreating to a cranky libertarianism instead. All this context means that one can oppose Trump, even hate him, and still feel very confident that he will leave office if he is defeated, and that any attempt to cling to power illegitimately will be a theater of the absurd. Yes, Trump could theoretically retain power if the final outcome is genuinely too close to call. But the same would be true of any president if their reelection came down to a few hundred votes, and Trump is less equipped than a normal Republican to steer through a Florida-in-2000 controversy — and less likely, given his excesses, to have jurists like John Roberts on his side at the end. Meanwhile, the scenarios that have been spun out in reputable publications — where Trump induces Republican state legislatures to overrule the clear outcome in their states or militia violence intimidates the Supreme Court into vacating a Biden victory — bear no relationship to the Trump presidency we’ve actually experienced. Our weak, ranting, infected-by-COVID chief executive is not plotting a coup, because a term like “plotting” implies capabilities that he conspicuously lacks. OK, the reader might say, but since you concede that the Orange Man is, in fact, bad, what’s the harm of a little paranoia, a little extra vigilance? There are many answers, but I’ll just offer one: With American liberalism poised to retake presidential power, it needs clarity about its own position. Liberalism lost in 2016 out of a mix of accident and hubris, and many liberals have spent the last four years persuading themselves that their position might soon be as beleaguered as the opposition under Putin, or German liberals late in Weimar. But in reality, liberalism under Trump has become a more dominant force in our society, with a zealous progressive vanguard and a monopoly in the commanding heights of culture. Its return to power in Washington won’t be the salvation of American pluralism; it will be the unification of cultural and political power under a single banner. Wielding that power in a way that doesn’t just seed another backlash requires both vision and restraint. And seeing its current enemy clearly, as a feckless tribune for the discontented rather than an autocratic menace, is essential to the wisdom that a Biden presidency needs.

There will be no Trump coup

President Donald Trump’s long rants and seemingly erratic behavior last week — which some doctors believe might have been fueled by his use of dexamethasone, a steroid, to treat COVID-19 — renewed a long-simmering debate among national security experts about whether it is time to retire one of the early inventions of the Cold War: the unchecked authority of the president to launch nuclear weapons.

Trump has publicly threatened the use of those weapons only once in his presidency, during his first collision with North Korea in 2017. But it was his decision not to invoke the 25th Amendment and turn control over to Vice President Mike Pence last week that has prompted concern inside and outside the government.

Among those who have long argued for the need to rethink presidents’ “sole authority” powers are the former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, considered the dean of American nuclear strategists, who has cited the fragility of a nuclear-weapons control chain and the fear that it can be subject to errors of judgment or failure to ask the right questions under the pressure of a warning of an incoming attack.

Trump’s critics have long questioned whether his unpredictable statements and contradictions pose a nuclear danger. But the concerns raised last week were somewhat different: whether a president taking mood-altering drugs could determine whether a nuclear alert was a false alarm.

That question is a new one. The military’s Strategic Command often conducts drills that simulate actual but inconclusive evidence that the United States may be under nuclear attack. Such simulations drive home the reality that even a president asking all the right questions could make a mistake. But they rarely simulate what would happen if the president’s judgment was impaired.

“A nuclear crisis can happen at any time,” Tom Z. Collina, the policy director at the Ploughshares Fund, a private group that seeks to defuse nuclear threats, noted last week in an opinion piece. “If such a crisis takes place when a president’s thinking is compromised for any reason,” he added, “the results could be catastrophic.”

Traditionally, presidents have temporarily conveyed authority — including nuclear launch authority — to the vice president when they anticipated being under anesthesia. Ronald Reagan took that step in 1985, and George W. Bush did so in 2002 and 2007. There was no indication that Trump was unconscious, but there was reason to be concerned that the cocktail of drugs he was given could impair his judgment to make the most critical decisions entrusted to a president.

Last week in telephone interviews with Fox News and Fox Business Network, Trump said he was no longer taking experimental medications but was still on dexamethasone, which doctors say can produce euphoria, bursts of energy and even a sense of invulnerability. On Friday, he told Fox News he was off the drug, which he appears to have taken for less than a week.

But during that week, his prolific Twitter activity and rambling interviews led many to question whether the drugs had accentuated his erratic tendencies. His doctors’ refusal to describe with any specificity his condition or treatment only played up the concern.

“The history of obfuscating the medical condition of presidents is as old as the Republic,” said Vipin Narang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has studied the nuclear command-and-control chain. “The issue here is that the dex” — shorthand for dexamethasone — “can make you paranoid and delusional.”

“We don’t know how much he was given,” Narang said. “And if he gives an order in the middle of the night, and no one is there to stop him, we are dependent on his military aide not to transmit the order or the duty officer at the national military command center to stop it.”

The military’s standard response is that it would carry out a “legal order” after authenticating that it truly came from the president. But that narrow answer does not address the problem that no other senior officials — the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the commander of Strategic Command, which has responsibility for the nuclear arsenal — are required to sign off.

Government officials refuse to say whether they were taking any special precautions when Trump was taking the drugs. In conversations over the past week, which they would not hold on the record, several pointed to the stories surrounding Richard Nixon’s last days in office in 1974. He was drinking heavily and talking to portraits on the walls, and his aides feared he was emotionally unstable.

His secretary of defense, James Schlesinger, a hawkish cold warrior, said he instructed the military not to react to White House orders on nuclear arms unless they were cleared by him or Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Schlesinger died in 2014, and Kissinger, now 97, has said that he had no knowledge of such an arrangement.)

If Schlesinger’s account is true, it was “certainly extralegal,” Narang said. There is no evidence that anyone around Trump, including Pence or Defense Secretary Mark Esper, whom Trump has reportedly frozen out of key decisions, had any enhanced authority while the president was on medication.

The “sole authority” tradition is unusual among the world’s nine nuclear powers; even Russia requires two out of three designated officials to sign off on a nuclear launch. While the Constitution says that only Congress can declare war, the speed of bombers and missiles made clear during the Cold War that there would be no time to convene Congress or mount a defense. As a result, Congress began delegating to the president all powers to use nuclear weapons during Harry Truman’s administration. He is the only president who has ordered a nuclear strike.

Officials from many nations felt the immense pressure surrounding such a decision during a simulation of a launch exercise conducted this year at the Munich Security Conference, the leading gathering of the West’s national security officials. Volunteers donned virtual reality headsets and were put through the head-spinning flow of data that comes in as a president faces a 15-minute window to decide whether to launch ground-based missiles before they are destroyed.

There were tiny hints throughout that suggested there could be a false alarm, but the evidence was muddy.

“The last finger I would want on the nuclear button,” said Hans M. Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group in Washington, “is that of a president on drugs.”

It is not a new problem: John Kennedy took powerful pain medications, though there is no evidence that his judgment was impaired during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the United States and the Soviet Union came to a nuclear exchange.

But no one understands exactly how the drugs given to Trump interact. And according to scientists, the most common mood enhancements associated with dexamethasone are mania and hypomania, a euphoric state. The hallmarks of hypomania include inflated self-esteem, increased talkativeness, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, distractibility and absence of restraint to engage in activities that could invite personal harm.

Not surprisingly, the military imposes strict limitations on the officers who oversee the nation’s nuclear forces. Known as the Personnel Reliability Program, it assures that the authority is vested in people “who demonstrate the highest levels of integrity and dependability” and whose behavior is observed “on a frequent and consistent basis.” A 1991 study said thousands of nuclear personnel were decertified every year.

Peter D. Zimmerman, a physicist and former government arms scientist, said few things better illustrated the confused nature of the American effort to prevent a single individual from launching a nuclear strike than the “two-man rule” in nuclear silos, submarines, bombers and the nation’s coast-to-coast atomic complex.

The rule requires the presence of two authorized people for any step involving access to the armaments or the launching of a nuclear strike. “No unaccompanied person ever approaches a nuclear weapon,” Zimmerman wrote in a 2017 opinion essay. “It’s a basic precaution against theft, misuse or sabotage.”

But it does not apply to the commander in chief, whether in the Oval Office or at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

A president could misjudge the situation or become impulsive, Zimmerman noted in an interview. “And the consequences,” he said, “would be horrendous.”

President Donald Trump’s long rants and seemingly erratic behavior last week — which some doctors believe might have been fueled by his use of dexamethasone, a steroid, to treat COVID-19 — renewed a long-simmering debate among national security experts about whether it is time to retire one of the early inventions of the Cold War: the unchecked authority of the president to launch nuclear weapons.

President Donald Trump’s long rants and seemingly erratic behavior last week — which some doctors believe might have been fueled by his use of dexamethasone, a steroid, to treat COVID-19 — renewed a long-simmering debate among national security experts about whether it is time to retire one of the early inventions of the Cold War: the unchecked authority of the president to launch nuclear weapons. Trump has publicly threatened the use of those weapons only once in his presidency, during his first collision with North Korea in 2017. But it was his decision not to invoke the 25th Amendment and turn control over to Vice President Mike Pence last week that has prompted concern inside and outside the government. Among those who have long argued for the need to rethink presidents’ “sole authority” powers are the former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, considered the dean of American nuclear strategists, who has cited the fragility of a nuclear-weapons control chain and the fear that it can be subject to errors of judgment or failure to ask the right questions under the pressure of a warning of an incoming attack. Trump’s critics have long questioned whether his unpredictable statements and contradictions pose a nuclear danger. But the concerns raised last week were somewhat different: whether a president taking mood-altering drugs could determine whether a nuclear alert was a false alarm. That question is a new one. The military’s Strategic Command often conducts drills that simulate actual but inconclusive evidence that the United States may be under nuclear attack. Such simulations drive home the reality that even a president asking all the right questions could make a mistake. But they rarely simulate what would happen if the president’s judgment was impaired. “A nuclear crisis can happen at any time,” Tom Z. Collina, the policy director at the Ploughshares Fund, a private group that seeks to defuse nuclear threats, noted last week in an opinion piece. “If such a crisis takes place when a president’s thinking is compromised for any reason,” he added, “the results could be catastrophic.” Traditionally, presidents have temporarily conveyed authority — including nuclear launch authority — to the vice president when they anticipated being under anesthesia. Ronald Reagan took that step in 1985, and George W. Bush did so in 2002 and 2007. There was no indication that Trump was unconscious, but there was reason to be concerned that the cocktail of drugs he was given could impair his judgment to make the most critical decisions entrusted to a president. Last week in telephone interviews with Fox News and Fox Business Network, Trump said he was no longer taking experimental medications but was still on dexamethasone, which doctors say can produce euphoria, bursts of energy and even a sense of invulnerability. On Friday, he told Fox News he was off the drug, which he appears to have taken for less than a week. But during that week, his prolific Twitter activity and rambling interviews led many to question whether the drugs had accentuated his erratic tendencies. His doctors’ refusal to describe with any specificity his condition or treatment only played up the concern. “The history of obfuscating the medical condition of presidents is as old as the Republic,” said Vipin Narang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has studied the nuclear command-and-control chain. “The issue here is that the dex” — shorthand for dexamethasone — “can make you paranoid and delusional.” “We don’t know how much he was given,” Narang said. “And if he gives an order in the middle of the night, and no one is there to stop him, we are dependent on his military aide not to transmit the order or the duty officer at the national military command center to stop it.” The military’s standard response is that it would carry out a “legal order” after authenticating that it truly came from the president. But that narrow answer does not address the problem that no other senior officials — the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the commander of Strategic Command, which has responsibility for the nuclear arsenal — are required to sign off. Government officials refuse to say whether they were taking any special precautions when Trump was taking the drugs. In conversations over the past week, which they would not hold on the record, several pointed to the stories surrounding Richard Nixon’s last days in office in 1974. He was drinking heavily and talking to portraits on the walls, and his aides feared he was emotionally unstable. His secretary of defense, James Schlesinger, a hawkish cold warrior, said he instructed the military not to react to White House orders on nuclear arms unless they were cleared by him or Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. (Schlesinger died in 2014, and Kissinger, now 97, has said that he had no knowledge of such an arrangement.) If Schlesinger’s account is true, it was “certainly extralegal,” Narang said. There is no evidence that anyone around Trump, including Pence or Defense Secretary Mark Esper, whom Trump has reportedly frozen out of key decisions, had any enhanced authority while the president was on medication. The “sole authority” tradition is unusual among the world’s nine nuclear powers; even Russia requires two out of three designated officials to sign off on a nuclear launch. While the Constitution says that only Congress can declare war, the speed of bombers and missiles made clear during the Cold War that there would be no time to convene Congress or mount a defense. As a result, Congress began delegating to the president all powers to use nuclear weapons during Harry Truman’s administration. He is the only president who has ordered a nuclear strike. Officials from many nations felt the immense pressure surrounding such a decision during a simulation of a launch exercise conducted this year at the Munich Security Conference, the leading gathering of the West’s national security officials. Volunteers donned virtual reality headsets and were put through the head-spinning flow of data that comes in as a president faces a 15-minute window to decide whether to launch ground-based missiles before they are destroyed. There were tiny hints throughout that suggested there could be a false alarm, but the evidence was muddy. “The last finger I would want on the nuclear button,” said Hans M. Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group in Washington, “is that of a president on drugs.” It is not a new problem: John Kennedy took powerful pain medications, though there is no evidence that his judgment was impaired during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the United States and the Soviet Union came to a nuclear exchange. But no one understands exactly how the drugs given to Trump interact. And according to scientists, the most common mood enhancements associated with dexamethasone are mania and hypomania, a euphoric state. The hallmarks of hypomania include inflated self-esteem, increased talkativeness, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, distractibility and absence of restraint to engage in activities that could invite personal harm. Not surprisingly, the military imposes strict limitations on the officers who oversee the nation’s nuclear forces. Known as the Personnel Reliability Program, it assures that the authority is vested in people “who demonstrate the highest levels of integrity and dependability” and whose behavior is observed “on a frequent and consistent basis.” A 1991 study said thousands of nuclear personnel were decertified every year. Peter D. Zimmerman, a physicist and former government arms scientist, said few things better illustrated the confused nature of the American effort to prevent a single individual from launching a nuclear strike than the “two-man rule” in nuclear silos, submarines, bombers and the nation’s coast-to-coast atomic complex. The rule requires the presence of two authorized people for any step involving access to the armaments or the launching of a nuclear strike. “No unaccompanied person ever approaches a nuclear weapon,” Zimmerman wrote in a 2017 opinion essay. “It’s a basic precaution against theft, misuse or sabotage.” But it does not apply to the commander in chief, whether in the Oval Office or at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. A president could misjudge the situation or become impulsive, Zimmerman noted in an interview. “And the consequences,” he said, “would be horrendous.”

Trump’s virus treatment revives questions about unchecked nuclear authority

donald-trump

Donald Trump, News on Donald Trump, stories on Donald Trump, articles on Donald Trump, Donald Trump stories at Wion, Donald Trump news, Donald Trump latest news

donald trump

US election 2020: With 20 days to go, Trump offers kisses to his supporters at Florida rally

Morning news brief: Trump in Pennsylvania rally, Russia accused of cyber attack and more

We're going to crush the virus very quickly, it's happening already, says Trump in Pennsylvania rally

US Election 2020: Joe Biden, Donald Trump duel in battleground states

From rural India, he worshipped Trump and built a shrine

Telangana: Ardent fan of Donald Trump dies 'depressed' after US President's Covid-19 infection

Gravitas: Trump wants to kiss his supporters, Why?

Democrats grill Barrett on healthcare: Evades answers on abortion, gay marriage

Transgender man pursues dream to serve in US military: Hopes for waiver or change in policy

Trump holds support from Suburban women: Trump's Pennsylvania rally

Trump's Supreme Court pick says she is not 'hostile' to Obamacare, dodges on abortion

Reuters poll shows Biden lead over Trump growing in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania

'I feel so powerful': Trump returns to campaign trail after testing negative for coronavirus

Morning news brief: Updates on Trump's health and election campaign, and more

Trump defectors help Biden build leads in Wisconsin and Michigan

Donald Trump's SC nominee Amy Coney Barrett faces democratic opposition on Obamacare law

Imagining the Trump presidency that wasn’t

Fauci says Trump campaign ad twisted his words on coronavirus

The conflict of validity vs reliability | U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

Dr. Fauci says Trump campaign ad twisted his words on Coronavirus

Another superspreader event ahead? | U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

Dr. Fauci says Trump campaign ad twisted his words on Coronavirus

Twitter flags Trump tweet for violating its rules on COVID-19 information

Trump resumes campaign with Florida rally 10 days after COVID-19 disclosure

Pakistan bans TikTok, citing Morals. Others cite politics.

Donald Trump claims immunity from COVID-19 ahead of rallies