Donald Trump, pictured at Walter Reed in a photo released by the White House on Saturday, took to Twitter on Monday
Donald Trump on Monday morning appeared to be right back to his normal self, firing off a stream of 19 tweets, many all in capitals, at 6am while watching Fox News.
The president, who was admitted to the Walter Reed hospital on Friday after his COVID infection left him feverish and in need of oxygen, could be discharged on Monday afternoon, his doctors said.
On Monday morning the president seemed determined to prove his vitality and energy, unleashing a Twitter storm perhaps intended to illustrate he was back on form.
He began with a 6:19am tweet, highlighting praise from Fox News.
He tweeted: "“I’m voting for Donald Trump. My father is a Union Worker and his 401K has tripled under President Trump.” USA Voter. @foxandfriends
"Thank you, and remember that the Stock Market is getting ready to break its all time high. NEXT YEAR WILL BE THE BEST EVER. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!!!"
“I’m voting for Donald Trump. My father is a Union Worker and his 401K has tripled under President Trump.” USA Voter. @foxandfriends Thank you, and remember that the Stock Market is getting ready to break its all time high. NEXT YEAR WILL BE THE BEST EVER. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
A 401K is a pension plan, which is linked to the stock market.
With the wind in his sails, he then followed up with a rapid-fire series of posts urging people to vote, and promoting his policies.
IF YOU WANT A MASSIVE TAX INCREASE, THE BIGGEST IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY (AND ONE THAT WILL SHUT OUR ECONOMY AND JOBS DOWN), VOTE DEMOCRAT!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
First he claimed that the Democrats wanted to introduce a "massive" tax increase.
Joe Biden, his Democrat rival, has indeed said he would raise taxes, but only for people earning more than $400,000 a year.
He also plans to increase capital gains and payroll taxes.
The Tax Foundation calculates that the Biden tax plan by 2030 would lead to about 6.5 per cent less after-tax income for the top 1 per cent of taxpayers and about a 1.7 per cent decline in after-tax income for all taxpayers on average.
His manifesto also states that he would raise taxes on corporations by raising the corporate income tax rate from 21 per cent (Mr Trump reduced it from its previous 35 per cent level) to 28 per cent, and imposing a corporate minimum book tax.
Mr Trump is yet to produce a specific policy on taxation.
In mid-February, the president suggested that he’d like to pass along a roughly 10 per cent tax cut to middle-income Americans, but has not given details.
"Without further details or clarification, it is difficult to fully analyze President Trump’s second term tax policy agenda," the Tax Foundation says.
"Broad themes of the president’s agenda include providing tax relief to individuals and tax credits to businesses that engage in desired activities, while the status of expiring provisions and tariffs seems uncertain."
Virginia Voters! Your Governor wants to obliterate your Second Amendment. I have stopped him. I am the only thing between you and your Second Amendment. Working hard in Virginia. It’s IN PLAY. Better Vote for your favorite President, or wave goodbye to low taxes and gun rights!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
The president then tweeted that voters in Virginia should choose him, to protect their Second Amendment rights.
Throughout 2020 Mr Trump has used Virginia as an emblem of gun rights.
Democrats promising stronger gun laws took control of the legislature in Virginia in 2019, putting the state at the center of the contentious American debate around the right to bear arms.
Soon after the new legislature was sworn in, the Virginia Senate passed bills to require background checks on all firearms sales, limit handgun purchases to one a month, and restore local governments’ right to ban weapons from public buildings and other venues.
In response, some cities within Virginia have declared themselves "sanctuary" cities for gun owners, under the banner of being "Second Amendment Constitutional Cities."
Virginia Beach passed a resolution stating "its continued commitment to support all provisions of the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, including the right of the people to keep and bear arms."
Under the resolution, the city government will not use its resources to prosecute anti-gun laws, even though any state laws limiting gun use would supersede the local government’s authority.
Mr Trump is hoping that Republicans are voted in in the Senate and House, to reverse the Democrat-led measures.
Democrat Governor Ralph Northam is not on November’s ballot: he is term-limited and cannot run again in the next gubernatorial vote, in 2021.
STOCK MARKET HIGHS. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
The president then tweeted that people should vote for him to sustain the strong performance of the stock market.
During his four years in power, the stock market has certainly boomed — something which the president frequently touts, using it as a poll on his administration.
Excluding dividends, the S&P 500 rose 19.4 per cent in 2017; fell -6.2 per cent in 2018 (though much of that drop took place in December and was quickly reversed); rose 28.9 per cent in 2019; and has gained about 5.2 per cent in the year to September, CityIndex reported.
STRONGEST EVER MILITARY. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
The president touted his investment in the military — he has led record defence spending.
His most recent budget, in March, requesting $740.5 billion for the military, was only fractionally larger than the current year’s budget, but it is still the largest since the Second World War, even adjusting for inflation.
LAW & ORDER. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Next he tweeted his favourite campaign slogan: law and order.
The president has worked hard to pitch himself as the candidate of law and order, repeatedly stressing his support for — and from — the police unions.
In early September the country’s largest police union endorsed his re-election bid, boosting the message that he is the candidate of “law and order” amid protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
The Fraternal Order of Police, which has more than 355,000 members nationally, said Mr Trump had shown his support and understanding for law enforcement officers facing civil unrest around the country in recent months.
“The FOP is proud to endorse a candidate who calls for law and order across our nation,” Patrick Yoes, the union’s national president, said in a statement.
Mr Biden said at the debate he was the candidate of "law and order with justice".
His campaign said he had been endorsed by nearly 200 former and current law enforcement officials.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Mr Trump said he was the candidate for voters who cared about "religious liberty".
In January, the president signed his most recent bill relating to religious freedoms — protecting students’ right to pray at school, and reversing an Obama-era policy that prevented the government from providing disaster relief to religious organisations.
Similar guidance on religion in schools was first rolled out by Bill Clinton in 1995, but has been repackaged in a bid to win over vital evangelical voters.
The Republicans are determined to win over evangelicals — who are the largest religious group in the US, counting for around 25 per cent of the population, according to Pew.
BIGGEST TAX CUT EVER, AND ANOTHER ONE COMING. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
He promised a new tax cut.
401(K). VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
He said that Americans’ pensions — the 401K scheme — would be boosted by the rising stock market.
BEST V.A. EVER. 91% APPROVAL RATING. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
He touted his reforms to the Veterans Affairs agency.
Yet the reforms are far from complete.
His efforts to expand veterans’ health care beyond the designated VA centres has been stymied by the pandemic.
His secretary of veterans affairs, Robert Wilkie, has been caught up in an investigation into whether he used his authority to discredit a female veteran who said she was assaulted at a veterans health center in Washington DC.
Complaints of harassment at veteran’s centers by female veterans remains high.
Furthermore, black workers at the VA in Kansas City have accused the establishment of racism.
And the shockingly high suicide rate among veterans has remained.
Mr Trump likes to claim he delivered the Veterans Choice Program, which enables some veterans to get care outside of the agency’s health centers, and that “no president’s ever been able to do it, and we got it done.”
The law was in fact signed by Barack Obama. He has simply expanded parts of it, albeit to general approval.
SPACE FORCE. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Mr Trump also boasted about his much-hyped creation of Space Force.
He came up with the idea in June 2018, and it was signed into law in December 2019 — creating the first new military service in more than 70 years, following the establishment of the US Air Force in 1947.
In September the first members of Space Force deployed — to the desert.
Twenty airmen assigned to the 16th Expeditionary Space Control Flight and the 609th Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, transferred into Space Force.
The airmen were already in organic space career fields such as space operations and space systems operations, officials said.
MASSIVE REGULATION CUTS. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Mr Trump promised "massive regulation cuts".
PRO LIFE! VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
The president declared himself, once again, to be "pro life".
BETTER & CHEAPER HEALTHCARE. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Mr Trump pledged "better and cheaper healthcare" — repeating a 2016 campaign pledge.
PROTECT PREEXISTING CONDITIONS. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
He said that people with pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes or heart conditions, would not be prevented from obtaining health insurance — a frequent source of concern among Americans.
FIGHT THE CORRUPT FAKE NEWS MEDIA. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
He also promised to continue taking on the "fake news" media.
SAVE OUR SECOND AMENDMENT. VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Mr Trump then repeated his vow to protect gun rights.
PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH (BRING OUR SOLDIERS HOME). VOTE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
The president said he was ruling on a doctrine of "peace through strength (bring our troops home etc)."
In a little less than an hour, the Twitter storm was over.
Shortly after, at 8:08am, he issued his final tweet — urging people living in "ARIZONA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, OHIO, AND TEXAS" to register before their state’s deadline of midnight on Monday.
TODAY is the LAST day to register to VOTE in ARIZONA, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, OHIO, AND TEXAS! Click below for more information, and let’s #MAGA! https://t.co/gsFSghkmdM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020
Mr Trump’s doctors on Sunday delivered an upbeat assessment of his health, saying that he could even be released from hospital as soon as Monday.
Some medical experts expressed surprise that someone confirmed as being infected with the highly-dangerous virus, and still requiring intravenous drugs, would be sent home.
The White House does have medical facilities within the building, however, where the president could continue his care.
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