Pence moving in

As Trump prepares to decamp to his oceanfront club in West Palm Beach this weekend, surrounded by GOP donors and top aides, the vice president will travel to Florida for a Saturday meeting with cruise ship operators about the rapidly evolving coronavirus crisis. The striking split-screen view that has played out this week and will continue in Florida — of a president dispensing questionable theories about the virus and prioritizing his 2020 campaign, while his hyper-focused deputy tackles a life-or-death problem of governance — has put a longstanding Trump practice in its starkest relief yet.

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“Those of us paying attention saw two things on TV this week: Mike Pence doing his best to provide answers and reassurance, and Donald Trump sharing his ‘hunch’ about the severity of this virus,” said one person close to the White House, referring to a comment Trump made during a Wednesday night interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

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Pence canceled a string of campaign appearances in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Carolina this week to tend to states that are grappling with multiple cases of the virus and reassure Americans the outbreak is under control.

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On Thursday, the vice president traveled to a Minneapolis business that manufactures N95 respirators, a type of facemask that can protect health care workers from coronavirus patients, and visit Washington state, where coronavirus deaths reached double digits this week, to meet with Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee and other local officials.

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The side-by-side view was magnified by Pence’s daily updates from the White House briefing room, where he and a team of infectious disease experts and Cabinet personnel calmly responded to questions about containment efforts, test-kit availability and the overall threat of the virus.

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Other presidents have assigned plenty of thorny challenges to their vice presidents — such as foreign trips and task-force assignments — but few have been as critical domestic threats as the latest one.

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Still, the vice president has made a habit of showering his boss with effusive praise during his task force updates, in addition to mentioning items he knows Trump pays attention to —suggesting Pence is keenly aware of the president’s sensitivities.

  Politico

Who in the world isn't?

In many ways, Pence’s unflinching loyalty has been the glue that holds his relationship with Trump intact.

When Trump was asked to name his closest friend in Washington during a Fox News town hall Thursday, for example, the only name he offered was Pence’s.

“Well, I get along great with our vice president. I keep hearing I’m replacing him… every day I hear, ‘He’s going to put this one and that one [on the 2020 ticket].’ But if I did that, it would be a great act of disloyalty,” Trump said.

When he starts denying it, that's when you have to watch your back.

While Pence has taken the lead on the administration’s efforts to combat coronavirus, Trump has made a point to talk about the virus in less conventional ways — including on Twitter and in a phone interview with Hannity — all while his regular schedule continues. He promoted his economic and trade agenda at a gathering of Hispanic business groups on Wednesday and participated in the Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pa., the hometown of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of his chief 2020 rivals.

When he arrives in Florida late Friday, Trump is expected to address members of the Republican National Committee’s finance team at the party’s spring meeting, according to a person familiar with the meeting. He will also headline a series of fundraisers throughout the weekend for his reelection effort, including a donor breakfast on Sunday with Sampat Shivangi, an Indian American physician from Mississippi who will serve as a delegate for Trump at the GOP convention in July.

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But Trump has made minor adjustments to his upcoming travel plans, including adding a trip to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday. He was scheduled to speak at a huge global health technology conference in Orlando on Monday — but the event was canceled due to coronavirus concerns. (Trump remains scheduled to headline a fundraiser at the Orlando home of businessman Bob Dello Russo that day, according to a person familiar with his schedule.)

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“The challenge with Trump is virtually nothing hurts him at all,” said Eric Dezenhall, a crisis management consultant who worked in the Reagan White House. “You can’t judge him the way you judge other presidents. He really can do whatever he wants.”

With the news of increasing spread though, I'm expecting that germophobe Trump won't be running around holding rallies until the coronavirus has run its course, so there's that bit of silver lining.

Trump abruptly canceled his scheduled visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta Friday. A White House official said the president did not want to "interfere with the CDC’s mission to protect the health and welfare of their people and the agency."

Nobody believes that.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: