Many of us are not surprised to see President Trump putting his own welfare above that of the nation. But why would he embrace a policy that seems to jeopardize his own reelection? That is more of a puzzle.Such recklessness, in defiance of his own administration’s guidance, risks igniting new waves of the disease. That could lead not only to thousands more deaths but also to further devastation of the economy. It’s not far-fetched to think that this blowback could arrive with the cooler weather next fall — just as people are voting in the presidential election. Continue reading.
Tag: Trump re-election
Trump hits serious headwinds in polls on COVID-19 reopening
President Trump is running against the polls with his calls for state and local governments to reopen their economies in an effort to stem the damage from what is likely to be the worst economic contraction in 90 years.
Despite the protests that have garnered attention in Michigan and other states, voters in a series of polls have said they are not yet ready to resume anything approaching daily life as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
This raises some political risk for Trump, who fears a bad economy could swamp him in November, but who could face blame if states reopen too quickly and a new wave of COVID-19 infections hits the country. Continue reding.
Trump takes underdog role in campaign against Biden
President Trump’s campaign is heading into the reelection battle against former Vice President Joe Biden as an underdog, a role the campaign embraced in 2016 and hopes to capitalize on once again in 2020.
The White House has retooled its media strategy, and the campaign is going up early with ads casting Trump as the “comeback” president who will lead the U.S. economy to new heights after the coronavirus-induced meltdown.
The Trump campaign will soon turn its attention to tearing down Biden, casting him as complicit in China’s rise as a global superpower and raising doubts about the former vice president’s fitness for office. A pro-Trump outside group is planning to take up the allegation of sexual assault made by a former Senate staffer against Biden, a charge the former Delaware senator has vehemently denied. Continue reading.
Trump touted reopening. Privately, his team sounded alarms.
Tapes of conference calls of FEMA and HHS officials across the country reveal widespread worries about new waves of Covid-19 infections.
President Donald Trump boasted on May 1 that his success in responding to the coronavirus pandemic has made ventilator, test kit and mask shortages a thing of the past, and that much of the country is ready to quickly send peopleback to work.
“We’ve ensured a ventilator for every patient who needs one,” he said. “The testing and the masks and all of the things, we’ve solved every problem. We solved it quickly.”
But that same day, his own health and emergency management officials were privately warning that states were still experiencing shortages of masks, gowns and other medical gear, according to a recording of an interagency meeting between FEMA and HHS officials across the country, conducted by conference call, which was obtained by POLITICO. Continue reading.
Trump’s tax cut dreams hit Republican resistance
Key GOP senators oppose the president’s top priority for the next coronavirus aid package.
President Donald Trump’s demands for the next coronavirus aid package are running into a stubborn obstacle: his own party.
Asked what he thought of a payroll tax cut, the subject of Trump’s ultimatum for any new bill, Sen. Chuck Grassley didn’t hesitate.
“Right now, not much,” the Senate Finance Committee chairman said, worrying that the tax cut could drain retirement funds or leave older Americans with the view that Congress doesn’t take “seriously” the plight of the Social Security Trust Fund. Continue reading.
Trump ready to turn page on COVID-19, despite crisis-level cases
The White House is preparing to wind down its coronavirus task force, officials said Tuesday, a decision that public health experts warn is short-sighted.
The decision to disband the task force, which includes medical experts, public health officials and leaders from various government agencies, is the clearest indicator yet that the White House is ready to turn the page to focus on the economy, even as doing so could lead to a spike in infections.
Vice President Pence told reporters that the task force may break up around Memorial Day, a timeline he previously cited for when he believes the worst of the pandemic will have passed. Continue reading.
Trump Is Losing Badly — So Prepare For The Distractions
As you probably already knew, the next six months of 2020 presidential campaigning are going to be ugly. I do not say this happily, but I do so based upon a lifetime of watching candidates run for election and reelection. Almost invariably, politicians return to what worked successfully in previous campaigns.
Consider the most recent presidential election of 2016. When exit polls across the nation asked actual voters whether their opinion of the two candidates was favorable or unfavorable, their answers were Donald Trump 38 percent favorable and 60 percent unfavorable, and Hillary Clinton 43 percent favorable and 55 percent unfavorable.
In the same survey, just 36 percent of voters found Clinton to be “honest and trustworthy,” while 61 percent did not. For Trump, the numbers were even worse: 33 percent saw him as “honest and trustworthy,” and 64 percent did not. Continue reading.
Trump erupts at campaign manager as reelection stress overflows
(CNN) — As he huddled with advisers on Friday evening, President Donald Trump was still fuming over his sliding poll numbers and the onslaught of criticism he was facing for suggesting a day earlier that ingesting disinfectant might prove effective against coronavirus.
Within moments, the President was shouting — not at the aides in the room, but into the phone — at his campaign manager Brad Parscale, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. Shifting the blame away from himself, Trump berated Parscale for a recent spate of damaging poll numbers, even at one point threatening to sue Parscale. It’s not clear how serious the President’s threat of a lawsuit was.
Trump defended Parscale in a tweet on Thursday, writing, “Actually, he is doing a great job. I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), & have no intention to do so.” Continue reading.
The two numbers Trump can’t spin
As November nears Trump will continue to bombard us with a dizzying array of statistics that he hopes will demonstrate how great a job he and his administration are doing. We do the most testing in the world. We’re making the most ventilators. We build the most hospital beds. And we will soon again have the best economy in the history of the world.
But there are two numbers Trump can’t explain away: total deaths and job loss. He and his handlers had hoped that the final toll would follow from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model which now predicts 74,073 deaths by August 1. But as of April 28th, we have already suffered more than 56,000 deaths. Unfortunately, in less than a month, the body count is likely to surpass the updated IHME prediction.
What is likely to be the final tally? No one knows, of course. Maybe there will soon be a medicinal treatment. Maybe an effective vaccine will rapidly appear. Maybe summer and sunlight (even without injecting Clorox and chloroquine) will help more than expected. Continue reading.
Trump grapples with a surprise threat: Too much Trump
Some allies worry the president is damaging his reelection prospects with his dominance of the briefing room during a public health and economic crisis.
Donald Trump’s top aides are fiercely debating a question their boss rarely confronted during his decades of jousting with tabloid newspapers, starring on reality TV shows and running a media-soaked presidential campaign: whether there’s such a thing as too much Donald Trump.
A series of missteps during Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is triggering fears among some advisers that the president is damaging his reelection prospects with his communications during the crisis.
White House allies have become exasperated with his dominance at coronavirus task force briefings, a daily rundown of testing and public health updates that Trump has transformed into a performance-art version of his freewheeling — and sometimes conspiracy-filled — Twitter feed. Continue reading.