No matter his efforts to deny, dismiss, and generally make light of the virus, Trump knew he could not persuade enough Americans outside his hard-core fan base to simply pretend Covid was not a threat, not when nearly 200,000 people had already died, and there was no cure. So while he campaigned at mask-less rallies all but ignoring the pandemic, he pressured his public health officials to deliver rapid, pre-election approval for the shots.
