Trump Has Weaponized Masculinity As President. Here’s Why It Matters

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive to speak to members of the US military during an unannounced trip to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq in 2018.

SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images

When President Trump was released from the hospital after being treated for COVID-19, he had a prescription for how Americans could handle coronavirus.

“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it,” he said in a video from the White House. The apparent idea: that the coronavirus — which has killed at least 225,000 people in the U.S. — could be wrestled into submission.

The way Trump has sold strength as a key part of fighting the virus is echoed by supporters. Garland Thompson was in the cheering crowd gathered outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center when Trump left the hospital. I asked him how worried about Trump’s health he was. He said he wasn’t.