Trump’s inner circle urges him to release a vaccine PSA as his supporters increasingly refuse to get the shot

In one poll, 47 percent of the president’s supporters say they won’t get the jab - after he spent the entire pandemic spreading misinformation and downplaying the virus

Members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle have urged him to consider releasing a public service announcement on the benefits of getting vaccinated against Covid-19 after he was inoculated behind closed doors and as new polls showed his supporters were reluctant to schedule their shots. 

In a statement to the New York Times, Joe Grogan, Mr Trump’s former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, said he believed having the former president create “a public service announcement would be very helpful”. 

Though Mr Trump had not been formally approached about the opportunity, according to one adviser who spoke to the newspaper, Mr Grogan has reportedly received numerous calls to discuss a potential PSA featuring the former president.

Mr Trump declined to receive his Covid-19 vaccination on camera, unlike many other prominent Democratic and Republican leaders, and growing research showed vaccine-reluctant Republicans were opposed to the jab, including 47 percent of his supporters in a NPR/PBS/Marist poll released Thursday. 

Among President Joe Biden’s supporters, just 10 percent said they would not receive the vaccine. The new administration has meanwhile sought to overcome vaccine reluctancy by bringing local, religious and cultural leaders into the national conversation surrounding Covid-19 and public health — while shooting down the idea of featuring Mr Trump in one of their own PSAs. 

Read more:

• GOP ‘being eaten alive’ by Trump - follow US politics live
• Daughter-in-law of Trump’s right-hand man is cooperating with financial probe
• Trump thanks Washington Post after ‘find the fraud’ story corrected

Mr Trump has called the vaccine “beautiful” and released statements after leaving office largely taking credit for the international scientific breakthrough, and encouraged his supporters to get vaccinated during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee. But the former president has also spent the entirety of the pandemic spreading misinformation about the virus while downplaying its impact on the country and its citizens, leading to a death toll of more than 534,000 people nationwide, according to the latest tracking data.

In one statement since leaving office, Mr Trump said about the vaccine: “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”

As the New York Times noted, Mr Trump was not invited to partake in a PSA featuring other former US presidents discussing the benefits of the vaccine. 

While the focus on vaccine hesitancy has largely surrounded the Black community, new polls continued to show Republicans and self-identified supporters of the former president indicating their refusal to get inoculated, with 49 percent of Republican men in the NPR/PBS/Marist poll indicating they won’t get the jab. 

Mr Biden told reporters on Monday he was focused on recruiting the local experts who can meet Americans where they are, rather than working with his predecessor on the issue. 

“I discussed it with my team, and they say the thing that has more impact than anything Trump would say to the MAGA folks is what the local doctor, what the local preachers, what the local people in the community say,” he said at the White House. 

Mr Trump did not initially disclose when he received the vaccination. He contracted Covid-19 after politicizing safety measures put in place to prevent the spread of the virus, including wearing face masks, mocking Mr Biden during the debates for wearing one whenever he traveled the country.