Trump promises always to protect Republicans....

President Donald Trump was "bored" with the pandemic, seeing it — an average of 850 deaths, each day, since February — as a distraction from all of the "wins," from a new trade deal to a soaring stock market, he wishes he could campaign on instead.

But then senior advisers tried a new approach: they told the president that the coronavirus wasn't just killing liberals in blue states, but hurting Republicans and could spread in swing states.

"Our people." That's the term one senior Trump administration official used in an interview with The Washington Post. On Monday, the paper reported that senior advisers to the president had begun providing him "maps and data showing spikes in coronavirus cases among 'our people' in Republican states."

It worked, The Post reported, the tactic seemed "to resonate" with the president, who then "hewed closely to pre-scripted remarks" in subsequent news briefings. While the messaging on face coverings remained incoherent — they're not without their own problems, Trump claimed — the president was allowing himself to be seen with a mask on, heeding the urging of Republicans battling the coronavirus in their home states.