Has Trump Belatedly Realized He Is Killing His Base?

In numerous posts this blog has looked at vaccine refusers and the disproportionate number of Covid-19 deaths among Republicans and other "conservatives" - I'd call them champions of lies and ignorance - compared to Democrats who have swarmed to get vaccinated.  The right's vaccine hesitancy has been generated by both past statements of Donald Trump and Fox News talking heads who, seemly in a search for higher ratings, have cast getting vaccinated as an attack on "freedom," a theme further disseminated by self-prostituting Republican elected officials.  Meanwhile, the GOP base has been literally dying at an accelerated rate thanks to such insane and deadly disinformation - a reality seemingly lost on Fox News loud mouths and a considerable portion of the GOP.  Thus, it was stunning when Der Trumpenfuhrer supported vaccines in a recent interview and got into a bit of set to with the right wing extremist interviewer who opposes vaccines.   Since Trump never does anything unless he thinks it is a benefit to himself - and only himself - one has to wonder if Trump has belatedly realized that opposition to vaccines is killing his MAGA base.   Another explanation is merely Trump's desire to me in the news, but the recent booing he received  in another interview suggest the former hypotheis might be the true expanation.  Critically, the unvaccinated are much to blame for America's contining pandemic.  A piece in Vanity Fair looks at the possible Trump turnabout.  Here are highlights: 

In a rare dalliance with the truth, Donald Trump championed COVID-19 vaccines in an interview published Wednesday, pushing back on an attempt by the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens to undermine the shots, calling them "very, very good.” The former president’s defense of the inoculations was, of course, as self-serving as anything he’s ever done, and by no means makes him some heroic defender of public health. But it is a welcome—albeit belated—gesture that one hopes will help convince his resistant supporters to finally get vaxxed.

The exchange with Owens began, as most Trump conversations do, with an egocentric boast. “I came up with a vaccine, with three vaccines,” he said, conjuring an image of the former president in a lab coat and goggles in the Oval Office. “All are very, very good. Came up with three of them in less than nine months. It was supposed to take five to 12 years.”

“Yet more people have died under COVID this year,” Owens responded, emphasizing that it was more deaths “under Joe Biden than under you.” She added, “and more people took the vaccine this year. So people are questioning how…”

“Oh no, the vaccines work,” Trump interrupted, telling Owens that “the ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. 

Trump maintained that “it’s still their choice” whether people want to get the jabs or not. But in clearly saying that “if you take the vaccine, you’re protected”—even if it was in the service of annoying self-congratulation—Trump finally advocated for the most effective tool we have to fight the pandemic in a way that he should have done before. Indeed, while Trump has consistently sought credit for the vaccines that were developed while he was in office, he has sent mixed signals about the shots and declined to forcefully advocate for them, even though he, himself, has been vaccinated and boosted.

The results don’t appear to be a coincidence: Counties that went for Trump, who spent his final year in office downplaying the pandemic and politicizing public health measures, have lagged behind counties that went for Biden when it comes to vaccination rates. That resistance has put not only his own supporters at greater risk for the worst effects of COVID —it has affected the nation’s pandemic response as a whole.

With the more transmissible omicron variant surging across the country, Biden has redoubled his efforts to rally Americans around vaccines and boosters—even giving his predecessor credit for their development during an address this week. But such pleas from the Democratic president seem unlikely to move those steeped in misinformation, including those who have been conditioned by Trump to view Biden as illegitimate and by the right-wing media to view vaccines and public health measures as government tyranny.

Vaccine hesitancy can be a complex issue that incorporates multiple factors, not only political affiliation. But for those who might be inclined to listen to Trump, a question remains as to whether he can even convince such holdouts at this point.  . . . But the mistrust he sowed in public health and the politics he injected into the pandemic response have become entrenched to the point that he may not be able to do anything about it, even if he really wanted to. When Trump revealed in an appearance with Bill O’Reilly on Sunday that he had received his COVID booster shot and suggested attendees do the same, his own supporters booed him. He said the jeers came from a “very tiny group” and that, by remaining unvaccinated, conservatives were “playing right into [Democrats’] hands.” But the reaction suggested that some in his base might be out of reach. 

It’s nice that he’s pushing back directly against misinformation—even if it’s because, as he acknowledged to O’Reilly on Sunday, he wants to “take credit” for the life-saving vaccines. It would’ve been nicer, though, if it hadn’t taken him until now to do so.

I suspect many in MAGA land will still refuse to get vaccinated and that base will continue to have a disproportionate death rate.  Trump's turnabout may be a case of too little too late.