Trump is Lost: Does Not Realize His Fate Lies With the Virus Not With His Daily Lies

Virus What Virus: It's a DEM Hoax to Take Me Out

(I'm going to be here here until Hell freezes over)

“It’s the virus stupid” (see article below) and so is Donald J. Trump (my assessment).

Fine article here from NY Magazine (The Intelligencer):

Between the plague-of-frogs atmosphere of 2020 so far and Trump’s efforts to make the presidential election revolve around his racist law-and-order campaign and a miracle economic recovery (that’s so not happening), it’s easy to get confused or conflicted about what will actually decide the fate of the 45th president.

The New York Times explains that there’s ever-increasing evidence that COVID-19 is going to be the deciding issue in this presidential election:

“Even more than the economy in 2008, coronavirus is the dominant issue in American life today. It poses an immediate health risk to Americans, and the effort to contain it has profound consequences for the course of the American economy. It is the rare issue that takes precedence over the economy for voters, who have told pollsters they would rather address the coronavirus, even at risk of hurting the economy, than reopen the economy at the risk of public health.”

“In this sense, the fight against coronavirus has the potential to define American politics the way an armed conflict might: It poses a threat to the health and safety of the public, and voters support the effort to defeat it even at a significant economic cost.”

For Trump, at least, the fight against COVID-19 hasn’t provided the sort of rally-round-the-flag lift that national leaders often get during a war, despite his efforts to personify the virus as a foreign enemy (e.g., calling it the China Flu, etc.).

The politics of COVID-19 seems simple: It has become the dominant issue in American life, and voters have reached an overwhelmingly negative view of how the president has handled it. Not surprisingly, Trump’s standing has suffered. 

His approval rating has fallen to around 40% among registered voters, and his position against Joe Biden has deteriorated at a similar pace.

Harry Enten of CNN points out that poll after poll shows a tight relationship between presidential vote choices, approval of the president’s handling of the coronavirus, and which candidate would do a better job on the issue. 

The relationship between attitudes about coronavirus and the presidential race is clearer than for any issue in recent memory.

It’s quite possible to accept that without giving short shrift to other issues, for the simple reason that Trump’s terrible handling of COVID-19 is not just a health-care issue but also an economic issue, a racial-justice issue, and even a rule-of-law issue as Trump (1) stumbles around alternating between asserting near-dictatorial authority over national life during the pandemic, or (2) sloughing off responsibility on others (never himself he said awhile back). 

There’s not much question that the public’s negative assessment of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus is dragging down all his other numbers:

His average coronavirus approval rating (from Real Clear Politics) has dropped steadily from 50% on April 1 to 38.7% now.

His overall job-approval rating slid from 47.1% on April 1 to 41.9% now.

His personal favorability rating was 44.5% at the beginning of April, but now is 40.2%. 

That is also happening with his handling-of-the-economy approval rating – long his most-positive number.

One of the most regular outlets asking about that metric, the ABC–Washington Post poll, has Trump’s economic approval rating steadily dropping from 58% in January, to 57% in March, to 53% in May, to 49% in July, and now averaging is 48.4%.

Even if you don’t view Trump’s handling of COVID-19 as his biggest problem now, it’s clear his problems are bigger than his opportunities.

Gallup regularly asked people to identify the most important issue at any given moment. As of June COVID-19, poor leadership and racism together accounted for 60% of “most important issue” preferences.

That compared to 19% for the economy and a mere 3% for Trump’s new favorite, crime & violence.

With COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and (more gradually) deaths again escalating, particularly in those states that took Trump’s advice and began easing business restrictions prematurely, he currently has a choice between reversing his attitude of denial and rationalization about the pandemic or simply hoping conditions improve by November.

Basic Summary: But just as perceptions of presidential stewardship of the economy tend to get frozen in place a few months before elections, it is unlikely voters are going to forget this administration’s poor handling of the coronavirus, even if conditions were to improve this the fall. 

Unlike yesterday’s economic woes, the 143,000 Americans who so far have died from COVID-19 won’t be easy to forget. And there is no way he can credibly blame Joe Biden or Democrats for all that.

My 2 cents: The full article is at the link – check it out – very good analysis of who Trump truly is: That is a very poor leader which is the exact opposite of what we expect our president to be in such a crisis as this – and they don’t get any worse than public health and safety.

He simply has not risen to the task – everything but.

Also see the next post below —  it is related.

Thanks for stopping by.