It goes further than this. Weeks before COVID, Trump lamented that he didn't have "a Katrina" like Bush. He literally said something along the lines of, "I wish there was a national tragedy that I could take advantage of so that people would re-elect me."
And it was given to him. On a silver platter.
Now, my guess is that if he was given a war or something storm based, he would have had the opportunity to roll out the military or some other fascist bullshit but COVID was a battle of science, something he doesn't believe in.