There’s no doubt that Donald Trump wants to pretend the danger of coronavirus has disappeared so he can hold big honkin' rallies to get that ego fix he needs. But even without rallies, he's still campaigning—he’s just doing it in the guise of official presidential events.
It’s not hard to see a theme in the locations of recent official events for both Trump and Mike Pence. Trump has been to Arizona, Pennsylvania, and has a Thursday event in Michigan. Pence has been to Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In other words, they’re campaigning in battleground states. Trump’s stop at a Pennsylvania medical supply plant even featured his campaign soundtrack, in case onlookers missed what was going on.
Trump’s Arizona event featured a local couple he’d met while campaigning in 2016, with Jorge Rivas telling Trump, “All the Latinos are going to vote for you because we think you’re doing . . . a very good job.” Not that it was a campaign event or anything.
Trump and Pence can travel and mingle because they have access to an unlimited supply of rapid coronavirus tests. Joe Biden doesn’t have that luxury—either in his capacity as the presumptive Democratic nominee or as a former vice president—which means it’s not safe for him or his surrogates, like former President Barack Obama, to go out much.
Trump’s “official” travel is coming as he ramps up attacks against Obama in one of his weirdest campaign strategies yet, and as his campaign prepares to unleash its "Death Star" against Biden.