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The president of the United States has to catch his democratic rival in the final stretch. In the Donald Trump camp, however, doubts about the electoral victory are mounting.
The Last Riot: Donald Trump at his election rally in Janesville, Wisconsin.
Photo: Scott P. Yates / AP / Keystone / 17. October 2020)
There are just over two weeks left in the US election campaign. But for the first time Donald Trump thinks out loud that he could lose and will have to leave the White House in January 2021.
“Can you imagine I will lose?” The president asked fans at an election rally in Macon, Georgia, on Friday. “What should I do then? I’ll say, ‘I lost to the worst candidate ever,’ so I don’t feel good,” Trump said. He may have to “get out of the country, I don’t know.”
Trump could still catch up with his Democratic challenger Joe Biden at the finish line after an unprecedented race to catch up. But more than 25 million Americans have already voted, and long lines are forming in front of polling stations. Democratic strategists in states like North Carolina and Arizona report enthusiastic voters and dream of record turnout, traditionally an advantage for Democrats. And certainly, the president was particularly upset that Biden achieved the highest ratings in the municipal duels of the two candidates on Thursday. (Also read our comment: No one is luckier than Joe Biden).
The restless president
Still, some of the polls predicting the Democrat’s victory could turn out to be false, especially since state forecasts are notoriously unreliable. Trump’s staff also hope to mobilize the remaining contingents of Republican voters in high-voting states like Michigan and Wisconsin: evangelical Christians and out-of-college Americans who rarely or never voted. It takes courage: According to internal polls, it is “mathematically impossible for Biden to win this election,” says former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Meanwhile, the president flies restlessly from track to track, often ending up in states he had easily conquered in 2016. Now they swing like Georgia or Arizona, for example. On Saturday, Trump flew to Michigan and Wisconsin, where he narrowly won in 2016. He campaigns tirelessly for segments of voters who have visibly turned their backs on him: women from the suburbs (“Please, like me!”), As well as older people who have spooked Trump’s incompetent management of the coronavirus pandemic. “I am also a senior,” the president told them recently. But the pandemic follows and threatens to spiral out of control again.
Fatalism is spreading
In any case, Trump’s staff looks at the next two weeks with concern. Fatalism is spreading. Campaign manager Bill Stepien is said to have accepted defeat. In the media reports, Republican strategists are cited who are not particularly optimistic. One indication of the precarious situation is the disengagement movements of the great Republicans who have remained loyal to Trump during the ups and downs of the last four years and who have not criticized him even when they should.
On Wednesday, for example, statements were made by Republican Senator Ben Sasse (Nebraska) that were not very flattering for the president. “You might be wondering, ‘Why the heck did we all think it was a good idea to sell the American people a narcissist obsessed with television?” Trump kissed autocrats “on the butt,” mocked his evangelical voters behind closed doors, and treated the pandemic as a “public relations crisis.” Sasse refuses to campaign for president.
“Unlimited dishonesty”
On top of that, Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly was rumored on Friday to have described the president in his circle of friends as the “most imperfect person” he had ever met. The scope of his “dishonesty” is limitless, said Trump’s former Marine Corps general.
The president is probably now indifferent to such judgments: he is fighting for his political survival. The only thing that matters now is how many loyal voters you can drive to vote.
