This started off today as momentum, and now it's beginning to look like a cascade. Joe Biden took himself off the campaign trail after reportedly testing positive for COVID-19, but one has to wonder whether Biden's reconsidering returning. ABC News' Jon Karl just reported that Chuck Schumer told Biden forcefully that it would be best for everyone that Biden pull out.

Hakeem Jeffries also reportedly told Biden the same thing, and Karl comments that a Biden defender says "the whole house of cards will soon come down":

BREAKING

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told President Biden in a private meeting that it would be best for him and the country if he dropped out of the race.

Schumer’s office told ABC’s @jonkarl that he conveyed the views of his caucus in that meeting and did not deny… pic.twitter.com/SLpjNERXGl

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 17, 2024

It's not just the Washington DC establishment telling Biden it's over, either. According to Semafor, Hollywood heavyweight Jeffrey Katzenberg told Biden that Tinseltown money is drying up fast:

Joe Biden met in Las Vegas Wednesday with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the film producer and a top campaign adviser, who conveyed a warning: The president’s donors’ patience is wearing thin, and their cash soon will, too.

Katzenberg, one of Biden’s closest counselors and a conduit to moneyed circles in media and finance, told the president that major donors, doubtful of his ability to win in November, have all but stopped writing the kind of big checks that sustain campaigns in the home stretch, people familiar with the meeting said. One of the people said the donor warning came in a broader discussion of other campaign topics.

Democratic donors have been privately wringing their hands for weeks, but it had been unclear until now whether their concerns had made it to a president whose inner circle has shrunk as calls for him to drop out have grown louder.

Small wonder Joe Biden feels under the weather. That kind of news would make anyone nauseous going into a general election. And now Biden can't claim that no one's told him he can't win. Both his own party leaders and the Hollywood establishment are bailing on him.

Still, Biden may calculate that a few days off the road will allow all of this to blow over -- and he may be right. If Biden doesn't willingly withdraw, Democrats will have no choice but to rally around him again. That includes the Hollywood glitterati, who want to keep their influence in place among Democrats. All Biden will need to do is remind them that the alternative is Donald Trump, and they will glumly circle the wagons. 

But they may not open their pocketbooks much more. Even Hollywood celebs can spot a bad investment. Stay tuned.