Trump tightens campaign tone after coronavirus hits economy



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Trump’s original catchphrase, “Make America Great Again.” It was nimble enough to fit in a red baseball cap four years ago. He had been running in 2020 on a “Keep America Great” platform that puffed out his chest. But his new catchphrase “We will transition to greatness” next year shows how he will now have to sell off the promise of a painful economic restoration, a case that became even more difficult after his own erratic management of the pandemic.
The president’s apparent mission Monday was to quell the impression that the White House is in disarray after the discovery of several cases of Covid-19 in the west wing. Trump stood in a context of Stars and Stripes and misleading signs that read: “The United States is leading the world in evidence.”

But the USA USA They do not perform most coronavirus tests per capita. Several countries are conducting more tests than the US. USA Relative to their populations, including Denmark, Italy, and New Zealand.

According to a CNN poll released Tuesday, most Americans continue to say that the US government. USA You are doing a bad job of preventing the spread of Covid-19. And while Trump’s overall approval rating remains at around 45%, the president’s numbers for handling the coronavirus outbreak have worsened, and only 36% say they consider Trump a reliable source of information on the outbreak.

Fauci’s Evidence

Trump tries to highlight test funding, but receives questions about availability
Probably not by coincidence, Trump’s press conference and an announcement that the government would send $ 11 billion in funds already allocated to states to boost testing came the day before the top infectious disease trusted official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, appears remotely at a Senate Hearing. Fauci has not eluded the truth about the quality of the administration’s criticized testing effort, and Democrats will greet him with questions designed to elicit a damaging response.
Fauci told The New York Times in an email Monday night that he intends to tell the Senate that reopening the country too quickly “will not only result in unnecessary suffering and death, but will actually delay us in our search. to get back to normal. “

But not for the first time, the President trampled on his own message with a nasty race controversy that also highlighted his frequent disdain for women journalists.

He yelled at an Asian-American journalist who asked him why he was turning a tragic moment into a global test competition.

“Maybe that’s a question they should ask China,” Trump told Weijia Jiang, a White House reporter for CBS News who was born in China but moved to the United States at the age of 2. Jiang seemed surprised by the president’s apparent confusion over his Fund race with China. Trump then interrupted the event when another female correspondent, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who had deferred to her colleague, tried to ask a question.

Even before that unpleasant moment, the Rose Garden event was already surreal as journalists struggled to make their questions audible about facial masks as a result of the White House coronavirus outbreak, which graphically undermines Trump’s claims that the country is safe to open.

An unemployment rate that could reach 20% in the coming months and permits that become permanent job cuts in many areas would be disastrous for any president seeking a second term. Trump must deal with that burden amid a still raging pandemic and face the possibility of a spike in already high infections caused by the first state openings he has encouraged out loud. Democrats will argue that Trump’s denial and erratic leadership allowed the virus to take hold and caused the collapse, causing an even greater challenge to his electoral resistance.

Trump brags about testing, a practice he suggested as recently as last week was not as important in controlling the virus, it may also have been designed to rule out the impression that he and his aides are benefiting from a testing system and Tracing contacts that he is yet to provide to the rest of the nation.

Trump’s diminished messaging expectations were just a twist on a typically unchained appearance. By attacking China as the source of the virus, lashing out at former President Barack Obama, announcing his border wall, remembering the previously roaring economy and claiming to have saved tens of thousands of lives, the president offered a glimpse of a campaign strategy apparently being restructured by the day.

But he offered his opponents a chance when he said in his opening remarks that in every generation and challenge, the United States has risen to the occasion.

“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” he said.

Later, Trump clarified that he was referring to the USA. USA He had prevailed in the battle to improve evidence, a distinction that is unlikely to stop his comment in a campaign ad that is likely to accuse him of a “Mission Accomplished” moment.

Trump accuses Obama of a ‘crime’

Trump has defied all expectations from the moment he descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 to launch the most extraordinary political career in modern history. It is too early to rule it out in November, especially since many Democrats live in fear of the scorched earth presidential campaign that is about to unleash. And the President enjoys formidable advantages in organizing in key states and campaign financing over his rival, presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

His state of mind on Monday shows how he will use each lever of the presidency to ensure his political survival.

While more people have died in the United States from Covid-19 than in any other country, and few states comply with White House guidelines on infection prevention to reopen safely, Trump presented his handling of the emergency as a famous victory.

“Thanks to the courage of our citizens and our aggressive strategy, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved,” said the President.

“We will make the transition to greatness. That is a phrase that you are going to hear a lot, because that is what is going to happen,” Trump said, predicting a strong third quarter, a very good fourth quarter, and then pent-up demand will be unleashed. year. “It is a transition to greatness. And greatness is next year,” he insisted.

Trump also pointed to a new recovery strategy designed to accelerate the fervor of his base by accusing his predecessor of staging an attempt to cancel his 2016 victory in what his supporters call a “deep-state plot.”

“Obamagate. It’s been happening for a long time. It’s been happening since before he was elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened,” Trump said without evidence. Asked by a journalist to identify the crime. had accused Obama in a tweet Of committing, he replied, “You know what the crime is. Crime is obvious to everyone.”
The conservative media machine is pulsing with the reverberations of Attorney General William Barr’s decision last week to drop the charges against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded twice guilty to lying to the FBI in a case that emerged from the Russia investigation.

Shortly after Trump spoke, the scope of the Republican election attack became even clearer when Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa pressed the conspiracy theory on the floor of the Senate.

“The rule of law is at risk if the federal government can get away with violating the Constitution to do what they did to Lt. Gen. Flynn,” Grassley said. “Given everything we know now regarding the false underpinnings of the investigation, it is time to ask: what did Obama and Biden know and when did they find out?”

CNN’s Arman Azad and Manu Raju contributed to this story.



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