--- title: Eric Trump Claims Social Distancing Is a Democrat 'Strategy' description: Eric Trump declared that COVID-19 social distancing measures are part of a "cognizant strategy" for Democrats to win the 2020 election. canonical: https://time.com/5838104/eric-trump-coronavirus-disappear/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-05-17T20:37:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T18:21:00.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Eric Trump Claims Social Distancing Is a Democrat 'Strategy' and COVID-19 Will 'Magically' Disappear After Election og:description: He said that Democrats are trying to take away Trump's rallies, calling them the President's "greatest asset" og:url: https://time.com/5838104/eric-trump-coronavirus-disappear/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5211cf8f2f87376c/698a0e23096a94975d6a8265/Eric-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Eric Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eric Trump Claims Social Distancing Is a Democrat 'Strategy' and COVID-19 Will 'Magically' Disappear After Election twitter:description: He said that Democrats are trying to take away Trump's rallies, calling them the President's "greatest asset" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5211cf8f2f87376c/698a0e23096a94975d6a8265/Eric-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Eric Trump Claims Social Distancing Is a Democrat 'Strategy' and COVID-19 Will 'Magically' Disappear After Election > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: President Trump Says U.S. is In Next Stage of Battle, Reopening [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Says U.S. is In Next Stage of Battle, Reopening](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Kin9toAj.m3u8) (1:38)  _Published 2020-05-06. Speaking at an Arizona mask factory Tuesday, President Donald Trump said the nation is now "in the next stage of the battle" against the coronavirus pandemic: the reopening phase._  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 12, 2023 6:21 PM UTCPublished: May 17, 2020 8:37 PM UTC  Eric Trump at the 45th President Donald J. Trump's address of the crowd for the opening ceremony of the New York City 100th annual Veterans Day Parade and wreath-laying at the Eternal Light Flag Staff in New York on Nov. 11, 2019. Eric Trump at the 45th President Donald J. Trump's address of the crowd for the opening ceremony of the New York City 100th annual Veterans Day Parade and wreath-laying at the Eternal Light Flag Staff in New York on Nov. 11, 2019.Ira L. Black—Corbis  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 12, 2023 6:21 PM UTCPublished: May 17, 2020 8:37 PM UTC On Saturday, Eric Trump declared that COVID-19 social distancing measures are part of a “cognizant strategy” for Democrats to win the 2020 Presidential election, and that the novel coronavirus will “magically” disappear after Nov. 3. In [an interview with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro on Saturday](https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6), the President’s son cast doubt on social distancing measures aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of more than 89,000 Americans. Trump declared that Democrats are “trying to milk” the pandemic by temporarily closing businesses and implementing other social distancing measures, and that they aim to undermine President Donald Trump’s ability to win reelection. > [](https://twitter.com/JudgeJeanine/status/1261830337702707201) “They think they’re taking away Donald Trump’s greatest tool, which is being able to go into an arena and fill it with 50,000 people every single time…,” Trump said. “And you watch, they’ll milk it every single day between now and Nov. 3\. And guess what, after Nov. 3 coronavirus will magically, all of a sudden, go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen.” Trump added that Vice President Biden “loves this” because he is not able to draw comparable crowds to his campaign events. He said that Democrats are trying to take away the President’s “greatest asset”— his ability to connect with the American people, and appear at campaign rallies. Trump’s comments echoed his fathers’. [In February](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5TZ6fTYrsE), President Trump said that Democrats’ criticism of his administration’s response to COVID-19 is “their new hoax.” Several Fox News hosts have faced criticism for downplaying the threat of the COVID-19, especially early in the American outbreak, including Pirro and Sean Hannity. [Research](https://bfi.uchicago.edu/working-paper/2020-44/) released in April by the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics found that viewership of Hannity’s show, compared to a Fox News show which warned viewers of the virus’ threat, is “strongly associated with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic.” In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson called the study “factually wrong.” “The ‘study’ almost completely ignores \[Hannity’s\] coverage and repeated, specific warnings and concerns from January 27-February 26 including an early interview with Dr. Fauci in January,” the spokesperson said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5838104/eric-trump-coronavirus-disappear/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5838104/eric-trump-coronavirus-disappear/"},"headline":"Eric Trump Claims Social Distancing Is a Democrat 'Strategy' and COVID-19 Will 'Magically' Disappear After Election","datePublished":"2020-05-17T20:37:45.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T18:21:00.000Z","description":"He said that Democrats are trying to take away Trump's rallies, calling them the President's \"greatest asset\"","url":"https://time.com/5838104/eric-trump-coronavirus-disappear/","keywords":["White House","Brief","COVID-19","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5211cf8f2f87376c/698a0e23096a94975d6a8265/Eric-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5211cf8f2f87376c/698a0e23096a94975d6a8265/Eric-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Eric Trump","caption":"Eric Trump","creditText":"Ira L. 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