HE'S GOING TO TEST POSITIVE, ISN'T HE?

The virus gets closer and closer to the president:

Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, has tested positive for coronavirus....

Earlier this year, Miller married senior Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller. Miller said she is asymptomatic, and that she tested negative a day before testing positive Friday, NBC reported.

Miller was at the White House on Friday morning before her positive result came in, a White House official told NBC. The official told NBC that Miller was showing “symptoms” while she was there....

On Thursday, news broke that Trump’s personal valet has also tested positive.

Trump is cavalier about the virus, is making no real effort to shield Americans from it, and has no empathy for those who've been sickened by it, or for the survivors of those who've died. So I don't think it's in bad taste to ask this question: What happens in November if Trump is infected?

I'm afraid the GOP would benefit regardless of the outcome. If Trump were to die, he'd be our martyred president, even though it would be his own damn fault that he got sick. Mike Pence could be like LBJ in 1964 -- the martyr's VP, with instantly high approval numbers.

If Trump didn't become particularly sick, it would reinforce his voters' belief that COVID-19 is no worse than the flu. And if he did become sick and survived, he'd be treated as the superhero his voter base thinks he is, by the mainstream media as well as by his fans.

So I hope he never gets it. I hope he's as much of a germophobe as he says he is, and he's hand-washing and hand-sanitizing multiple times a day. Trump will be a sympathetic figure if he gets sick, so I hope he stays well.