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This is one of those clever situations where it doesn’t matter if Trump turns out to be right or wrong on any of the stated or unstated premises of his position statement. He has positioned himself perfectly on this issue. Same as how he initially responded to Covid in March/April 2020.

Media thought they had him over a barrel, and every. single. death. would be laid at his feet, week after week, if he didn’t shut down the entire economy. It was a terrible position to find himself in, but the emotional stakes were so high, and the fear factor was off the charts, and toilet paper was gone from the shelves. So Trump took the “heads I win, tails you lose” approach to the whole situation. You say we don’t have enough ventilators? I’ll give you more ventilators than any country has produced in a short time in the history of the world. Not enough masks? We’ll get mypillow and other companies on that right away, until you have masks coming out your ears. Not enough hospital beds in NYC? How about I send you this little ship to help out. Desperate for a vaccine but it just can’t be done before the election? Operation warp speed! The White House is downplaying the severity of the situation? OK you slouches, I’m holding a press conference every afternoon at exactly the time you’d like to go home and knock off work for the day and you have to come sit and listen to me and dozens of “experts” talk about all the things we’re doing to take care of the American people. If you don’t cover it, people will realize you were the one not taking it seriously! And if you do cover it, people will see and hear with their own eyes and ears that the USA is mobilizing against this threat from nearly every possible angle, and no one could possibly be taking it any more seriously than we are. Every single thing they threw at him was a 100 mph beanball and he consistently hit them out of the park.

Trump would have loved to salvage the economy, that’s his businessman’s instinct, he understands that sickness and sadly even loss of life are part of reality and you can’t shut down the world’s economic engine over a “pandemic“ that has a minuscule mortality rate. But the media didn’t leave him that option, so he took their own weapons and beat them about the head and ears until they shut up.

They are trying to do the same thing to him with the vaccines issue now. I keep seeing headlines with “Republicans this”, “Republicans that”, and how terrible Republicans are on the vaccine. But the headlines do not say “Trump is paranoid about the vaccine.” They cannot say that because he made the vaccines, he took the vaccine, and he’s out there encouraging everyone to take it or consider taking it. To talk about the issue at all in relation to Trump, they almost have to give him some credit. If one or more of these vaccines turns out to be the holy grail, all hail to President Trump! If all the vaccines turn out to be sort of OK, then a pat on the back to President Trump for doing more than the Democrats or the media or the establishment thought could ever be done on the priorities they defined for him, and thank you President Trump for letting us take our masks off! And worst case, if the vaccines turn out to have seriously negative long-term effects, Trump may not come out smelling like a rose, but the gamble was probably worth it in response to the intense full court press and full frontal assault of 2020 and 2021 on all things Covid. And just like with the masks, he always said I’m not the expert, talk to your doctor and make the decision that is best for you, unlike the vaccination Nazis who want to pull you onto your front porch and give you the jab right there.

Notice what Trump actually said and didn’t say above. He did not say everyone should take the vaccine. He certainly did not say everyone must take the vaccine. What he said was essentially do you guys think the vaccine is so important that everyone must take it? Well just remember why they are not: it’s because you clowns have destroyed your credibility completely. It’s not my fault. I’m not telling people not to take the vaccine. Trust would have been far more effective than mandates, but you all have squandered your trust forever.

Biden is “way behind schedule, and people are refusing to take the Vaccine because they don’t trust his Administration, they don’t trust the election results, and they certainly don’t trust the Fake News, which is refusing to tell the Truth.”

Once again, the media and the Dems threw an impossible curveball that no one else could hit, and he knocked it out of the park, then took their weapons and began beating them about the head and neck.

This is not 2016. He doesn’t have an unfiltered big megaphone to the people from a frustrated press that can’t figure out how to turn off his mic. He has to be extremely strategic with every statement and response, so that he forces the media to give some coverage to his words, or at least prevents them from telling some of the lies they wish they could tell about him. Trump is well aware that the main reasons for people refusing vaccines currently are not about lack of trust in Biden, or the elections, or the media. But he takes the darts they hurl at him and deflects them back at their own core vulnerabilities. The guy is a strategic communications genius.

No one on his side should worry about his statement, or worry that he really really really wants you to take the vaccine. Trump is going to make hay, and people are going to do what people want to do, and he’s fine with that.