While neither Pence nor Nikki Haley want the coronavirus to spread in America—nor does Trump, but for political reasons—I can only imagine Haley is ecstatic that Pence is overseeing coronavirus response. It's Trump's way of fast-tracking replacing Pence with Haley on the ticket.
PS/ My point: there's no evidence from Trump, in his three-plus years in office, that he cares how many Americans die from Coronavirus or any other cause. The only thing that matters is re-election. He's using Pence's assignment to Coronavirus prevention as a political strategy.
PS2/ It's long been speculated that Trump believes he needs a woman on the ticket with him in 2020, and that that woman will be Haley. The complication is that Trump can't have a VP who will blow the whistle on him. Mike Pence has proven himself a suitably unscrupulous henchman.
PS3/ It now seems Pence is being set up for failure by being placed in charge of a potential disaster that Trump has already telegraphed he'll take no responsibility for, and preposterously expects to be a non-issue for his re-election. All this points to Pence being a fall guy.
PS4/ We knew Trump would use the possible death of untold numbers of Americans for his political advantage if possible. It appears his first act was to use it as an "open option" to replace Pence on the ticket whenever the political winds suggest it would be profitable to do so.
PS5/ One miscalculation Trump may be making is that he presumes Pence will be his toady forever. In fact, if Pence thinks he's going to be hung out to dry just before the GOP convention in August, he might well implicitly threaten Trump with ceasing to be so conveniently quiet.
PS6/ On the other hand, look what happened with Bolton. Trump's Republican toadies are so cowardly that they believe they must stay loyal to Trump to at least some degree even after they leave his service, lest they be barred from Republican politics for the rest of their lives.
PS7/ Obviously, all this is speculation. However, it's also consistent with Trump's past conduct/statements and the patterns we've seen in his political messaging/strategy. Not *one* American can *possibly* think Trump is making decisions based on a concern about American deaths.
PS8/ It also became clear during the Ukraine probe that Mike Pence is a possible weakness for Trump, inasmuch as Pence was much more involved in what Trump was doing in Ukraine than the evidence the House put forward suggested. The Coronavirus gives Trump new leverage over Pence.
PS9/ That is, if Pence does his best as the de facto Coronavirus czar but the virus predictably spreads anyway, Trump can magnanimously keep Pence on the ticket in part as a way of ensuring his continued loyalty. Not that Trump has much reason to fear, but he *is* a paranoid man.
PS10/ More important than any of the musing in this thread is that it's now clear Trump intends to play politics with the lives of hundreds of thousands or theoretically millions of Americans. I believe it started with his deployment of Pence, but I don't believe it'll end there.
NOTE/ I do hear those of you saying that what Trump really wants is to ensure a Trump dynasty by putting his son Don, or Ivanka, on the ticket. I see what you're saying, but I think it is four years too early. One of those two will very likely run for president in 2024 or 2028.
