DES MOINES, Iowa, (Reuters) – Under siege over his handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Presi-dent Donald Trump yesterday cited what he said was his son’s mild bout of the virus as a reason why American schools should reopen as soon as possible.
Republican Trump made the comment about his son, Barron, while at a rally at the Des Moines, Iowa, airport on a mission to shore up support in battleground states that he won in 2016 but is in danger of losing to Democratic candidate Joe Biden barely three weeks before the election.
Biden announced via Twitter that his campaign raised $383 million in September, adding to a campaign warchest that is already dwarfing the Trump campaign. Biden has $432 million cash on hand, the campaign said.
Melania Trump said in a statement earlier in the day that the virus that struck both her and her husband had also infected their 14-year-old son.
“I don’t even think he knew he had it,” he said of Barron, “because they’re young and their immune systems are strong and they fight it off. 99.9% and Barron is beautiful. And he’s free.”
“Barron’s tested positive. Within, like, two seconds it was Barron is just fine now. He’s tested negative, right? Because it happens. People have it and it goes. Get the kids back to school, we’ve got to get the kids back to school.”
Trump has sought to convince states to reopen schools and return to normal, but teachers’ unions have fought the move, arguing that teachers could be infected by their students. Funding for protective measures at schools has been caught up in a partisan fight in Washington.
Trump’s Iowa stop is part of a barnstorming tour across states critical to deciding who will win the Nov. 3 election. He is trailing Biden in national and some battleground state opinion polls.
“Twenty days from today, we’re going to win this state,” Trump said on a windy night in Des Moines, where many in the crowd were not wearing masks to guard against the virus that has killed nearly 216,000 Americans.
On Thursday he will be in North Carolina and Florida, on Friday he will campaign in Florida and Georgia and on Saturday he will speak in Michigan and Wisconsin. All of these are states he won in 2016 but are in danger of going to Biden this year, potentially denying Trump a second term.
He is expected to spend Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada, and then swing through western states.
Trump repeated a vow to bring most U.S. troops home from Afghanistan soon as part of his bid to halt “endless wars.” The promise has raised concerns within the Afghan government that a U.S. pullout could leave the country more vulnerable to the Taliban.
“We’re almost finished in Afghanistan coming in,” he said, adding that he wanted the troops reduced “down to a small number coming home by the end of the year – hopefully the end of the year, shortly thereafter.”
Trump yesterday pulled into a statistical tie with Biden in hotly-contested Florida at 47% vs 49% with a credibility interval of four points, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll showed, though Biden had a 10 percentage point advantage nationally among likely voters.
