I'm sorry ... you've lost me ...
Sorry.
Canute (look up King Canute) could no more stop the tide than Trump can stop the spread of the virus.
Nature is what it is and does what it will despite the most powerful of people.
In future the virus will be thwarted by many thing- notably by treatments recently devised.
Trump knows that,. He’s not denying the damage it’s causing now.
Seriously, I think the King Canute analogy very helpful now.