The new season of Trump’s pandemic reality show is headed for early cancellation

If only he hadn’t taken the bait when Steven Nelson of the New York Post asked him about Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman accused of aiding Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual abuse of minors.

“I just wish her well,” Trump said.

You could almost hear palms being smacked against foreheads in unison throughout the West Wing. “I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and they lived in Palm Beach,” Trump continued. “I wish her well,” he repeated.

Using a nationally televised briefing from the White House to offer good wishes to the accused procurer for a convicted sex criminal? The new season of Trump’s reality show is off to a shaky start.

Last season, Trump, with his supporting cast of aides and medical advisers, treated the nation to nightly, rambling sessions that offered little information about the spreading pandemic but enthralled viewers with attacks against Democrats and the media and unorthodox advice about fighting the virus — such as ingesting hydroxychloroquine and Clorox. Trump frequently boasted about his “ratings.”

In the new season, the villainous virus is back, this time attacking the South and Southwest. After weeks of denial and false assurances, Trump gave his season opener on the very day that deaths again crossed the 1,000-per-day threshold. His Five O’Clock Follies returned at their original hour — “a good slot,” Trump explained. But in the time off, the show had lost its spark.

The supporting cast was gone, and Trump stood alone on the podium. The star read woodenly from a script he obviously did not want to read.

“Get a mask whether you like the mask or not — they have an impact,” he read, with enthusiasm more commonly seen in hostage videos. We’re “asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene,” he added, eyes seldom straying from text. “We are imploring young Americans to avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings, be safe and be smart.”

He put a happy spin on things — he’s building a “very, very powerful” strategy, has made “tremendous moves,” “did a lot of things that were very good” and has “great people, logistic military people” ready to get vaccines to those “high-risk, wonderful people” — but for once didn’t entirely deny reality. He allowed that there are “I guess you could say also things that we can do better on.”

Earlier in his presidency, people would react with amazement when Trump behaved in a similarly “presidential” fashion. But it’s a difficult act to maintain for Trump, even over a half-hour-long news conference.

ABC News’s Jonathan Karl asked about White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s claim hours earlier that Trump is tested “multiple times a day” for the virus.

“I don’t know of any time I’ve taken two tests in one day,” Trump said.

Trump was asked about the contradiction between his new claim that “it will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better” and his previous claim that the virus would “disappear.”

“The virus will disappear — it will disappear,” Trump reprised.

Does he want Americans to judge him on the ballot in November by how he has handled the pandemic?

Trump replied that “next year’s going to be a record year and I think they’re going to judge me on that.” He then went into a long, unbidden boast about taxes, regulations and “Veterans Choice.” (“It’s called ‘choice,’ ” he explained.)

Trump’s call for mask-wearing would be more persuasive if he were wearing a mask himself, or if he had worn one at a fundraising event at his Trump International Hotel Monday night after tweeting a photo calling mask-wearing “patriotic.”

Asked about the mixed message, Trump pulled a presidential-seal mask out of his hip pocket. He explained that he puts it on in close quarters to protect others. “Anything that potentially can help — and that certainly can potentially help — is a good thing,” Trump said.

This is the right thing to say. Too bad the new season of his pandemic reality show is headed for an early cancellation — not because of the ratings, but because the lead actor clearly hates his role.

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