America has never been in a predicament like the one we are facing now as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now Americans urgently need our government to step up like never before. The economy is being battered by whole sectors falling victim to the pandemic. And the Democratic Party is coming together behind Joe Biden to oust Trump.
- President Trump’s reelection campaign was designed under the premise that the economy would be strong through November, but that’s not true anymore.
- Trump also planned to make socialism a central focus of his attacks. But without Bernie Sanders to run against, this argument becomes a lot less potent.
- Trump campaigned on “draining the swamp” of big government. Now he wants Americans to trust in big government to fight coronavirus and save the economy.
The author talks about how the 2020 SOTU speech was the high point of Trump’s tenure.
...The speech also reflected his optimism about the economy, a sentiment that millions of Americans shared with him at the time, according to polls. Financial markets were soaring and the unemployment rate was at a historic low. That afternoon, the Nasdaq Composite Index had set a record high, at 9,467. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an indicator Trump often touts, closed at 28,807 that day, already well on its way to an all-time high of 29,551 it would hit later that month.
Today the Dow is at 20,087 having dropped precipitously by 32%.
Trump’s sudden embrace of Big Government remedies to deal with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, undercut his attacks on generic “socalism".
With his impeachment trial behind him and his approval ratings the highest they had ever been, Trump seemed perfectly positioned to easily win reelection in November.
And, now, almost all of it is gone.
In just over a month, three pillars underpinning his argument for reelection have all collapsed: The strong economy Trump planned to run on; the Sanders campaign Trump had planned to run against; and the “us vs. them” approach to Washington and the federal government, on which Trump has built his political brand.
But by spearheading a massive handout of federal money through big government programs, Trump undermines one of the central tenets of Trumpism: his belief that the federal government is a corrupt, bloated and broken institution, at that the “unelected bureaucrats” who fill its ranks are not to be trusted.
“The coronavirus crisis has exposed Trump as not being well-prepared and himself as not being a hard worker,” said Matthew Barreto, a professor of political science and Chicano studies at UCLA.
"Trump re-election strategy shifts focus to crisis leadership."
Al Franken said: “The greatest asset that a president can bring to a crisis is credibility.”
Trump’s non stop torrent of lies have stripped him of any credibility. Americans no longer trust anything this president says to the nation. The pandemic has highlighted Trump’s constant outright lies, and his embellishing the facts to minimize the seriousness of the crisis. At the same time he COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the need to have a trusted national leader.
Trump’s claims can’t pass the sniff test.