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Is Trump Hurting his Chances for Re-Election? By Olivia Grout

Posted on by Olivia Grout

Currently, the world is facing the Coronavirus, COVID-19 Pandemic which has taken a toll on almost everyone. Many have been laid off from jobs, faced financial hardships, and have even had their education interrupted. The economy has also taken a hit from this pandemic in the United States and other countries. Specifically, the US hit a recession that was comparable to the recession of 2008 and there was concern of the possibility of an event similar to the Great Depression. We, as a country, are also preparing for a presidential campaign coming this November. This election will determine if Donald Trump will serve a second term as president, or if Joe Biden will become our president. There have been many adjustments to the way that these candidates must campaign and advertise themselves; we’re seeing more online ads then ever before, and less rallying or meet and greets with supporters. For Trump, his campaign was very strong pre-COVID and at the beginning of 2020. Even towards the beginning of the pandemic, you can see that he had many supporters and was continuing to gain support and hold a strong lead against Biden. However, this has changed. In an article published mid-June, NPR analysed six scenarios regarding the election and their results came back with Biden on top. They mention that Trump’s response to things such as the coronavirus, racism, and police brutality have caused this decline in his likeness to win the election. Trump was also forced to replace his campaign manager with less than four months to the election, according to Brookings.

Donald Trump is known for his Twitter fingers, and he has always used Twitter as an outlet for his words. PolitiFact has put together a chain of his response quotes and have changed throughout the pandemic so far. There is also a similar chain like this on the Washington Post. On February 24, 2020 Trump tweeted, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” (Trump). However, according to a statement published by the World Health Organization on March 7th, 2020, not even two weeks later, the number of COVID cases had surpassed 100,000 new cases. That is just in the beginning of the pandemic, Trump’s responses began to get much worse as the numbers increased not only in the country, but worldwide. Most recently, Trump just announced that the United States will be withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO), and it has just recently been announced that Trump has told hospitals and healthcare workers/providers to bypass the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and send all patient information regarding the Coronavirus and COVID-19 straight to Washington D.C. to a central database. This is not Trump’s first jab at the CDC, he has also cut down their staff and questioned their guidelines, as written by The Lancet. This has raised many questions regarding transparency between the government and the people, and has also caused many to question Trump’s main focus; does he really want to end this pandemic and help us, the people, at a personal level, or is he just looking to make the countries image look good in comparison to the other countries dealing with the same issues?

Many more arguments could be made about Trump’s awful response to the pandemic, and his responses to police brutality, racism, and equality haven’t even been mentioned yet. However, these responses have had a very negative effect on the president’s campaign for reelection. Like previously mentioned, Trump is losing in the recent polls and simulations done by multiple news outlets and sources. However, the negative impact can also be seen physically. At his rallies hosted, and on many social media sources, such as Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. At one of Trump’s recent rallies in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the amount of people in the crowd speaks words. According to the Trump campaign, millions had registered to attend and they had been expecting nearly 100,000 people to attend the rally. However, it can be seen in photos that only a couple 100 people, if that, had shown up to show support for the president.

Photo from News Break

Yes, this is only one event out of plenty upcoming, however it has been predicted that this is what many are predicted to look like. Also at this rally, Trump made a comment that he had told administration officials to “slow down testing for the coronavirus” in an effort to make our numbers appear lower, and slower growing. He also made a joke about injecting disinfectants into skin, mentioned  by the National Post. After plenty of critique for this insensitive comment, Trump said that it was just a joke and that he was “obviously kidding”.  Many on social media have spoken up about how they “no longer support President Trump” and will not be voting for him in the upcoming election. There are also rumors questioning that the rally may have “reignited COVID-19”, in an article by The National Bureau of Economic Research.

Although an exact number cannot be told, it can be seen that Trump is losing supporters during this campaign. Comparing and contrasting voter responses, rally attendance, and many other campaigning devices from Trump’s campaign in 2016, it is clear that these campaigns do not have the same amount of support behind them then they did four years ago. It can’t be predicted who will win the November election, however you can see which candidate has a stronger, more supportive following. Due to Trump’s very lazy, and unprofessional response to the pandemic, and lack of effort he has put into fixing this country, it can be seen that his re-election campaign has suffered negatively, and his support has gone downhill. Yes, there are still many loyal supporters and fans of President Trump, and some may argue that nothing Trump ever says or does can change their view. Yet, that ideology can not be applied for everyone of his past or present supporters.

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Olivia Grout

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34 Comments

  1. This post raises a question for me: what is a deal breaker for a voter? From my personal experience, being surrounded by mostly left-leaning people at school, there are people that have seen flaws in Trump from the start. The day he announced he was running, I saw people tally up the things they despised about him, whether it was his ignorant, yet vocal, comments or his views on immigration. I truly have not seen much of a dislike for him until quite recently, when this pandemic swept the nation. Was it the backing out of WHO and disregard of CDC that made his suddenly undesirable as a President? If so, are the voters that gave him the numbers in the 2016 election actually willing to vote for Biden or a third party candidate?

  2. Olivia,
    I truly loved your post, I couldn’t agree more with you. I do believe that it’s been Trump solely the main reason why he’s hurting his few chances of being re-elected.
    In my opinion, he even sacrificed the lives of thousands of Americans just to being re-elected. He’s been joking at masks, social distancing and most importantly, he opened the world’s biggest economy just because he needed voters; sacrificing lives.
    I hate saying this but I don’t have a clear view of who should win these elections, but Trump is definitely going downhill on polls… Who knows what can happen in November.

    Great job!
    Alfredo Serrano Figueroa.

  3. I agree with the fact that the way Donald Trump has handled most operations during the Covid-19 pandemic could be enough evidence for people to vote against him in the upcoming election; however, I disagree (so some extent) that people should hold him accountable for his posts on social media. Donald Trump’s posts on social media, Twitter for the most part, have caused quite a concern among most people about whether America is poised for a bounce-back from the Covid-19 pandemic. As stated in an article from FOX News, Trump acknowledged that he often regrets sending out certain posts, and he went on to say, “We put it out instantaneously, we feel great, and then you start getting phone calls — ‘Did you really say this?’ I say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ and you find out a lot of things.” Again, while Trump could’ve gone a different way in handling operations during the Covid-19 pandemic, I think it’s a little over-the-top to hold him accountable for his posts on social media.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-admits-often-regrets-tweets-barstool-sports-ceo

  4. I find this blog post to be very interesting, as this is something that I, myself, am wondering. Could this pandemic be the final nail in the coffin for Trump’s chances at re-election? I think it’s clear to nearly everyone, maybe even some of the staunchest Republicans, that the way Trump and his administration has handled this pandemic is absolutely disastrous. I believe that many people will cast a vote against him this November simply in an attempt to get a President who will better handle the pandemic in office. It’s fairly certain that the coronavirus will not disappear in January, when a new President would take office, so I think people may vote for another candidate with the hopes that they could clean up some of the mess Trump has made. I think that this pandemic has seriously hurt Trump’s campaign and his chances at getting re-elected, and there’s not really enough time before the election to turn things around, in my opinion. The Trump administration may seriously be in trouble.

  5. I agree that although Trump said that he got the COVID-19 under his control but then the cases just surpassed 100,000 in March. I also feel that his chance of becoming the president again is very small and limited, compared to his opponent, Joe Biden. However, his decision when wanting to withdraw from the WHO is because he suspects that the organization is “going easy” with China and he will cooperate with them only if they less depend on China. I like how you add a critical question into your argument about if Trump wants to keep a good image of the United States or he wants to end this pandemic. This raises questions and wonders in my mind about his actions during this pandemic. In my opinion, your arguments are strong and connect to what we learn in class. Excellent job!

  6. All you are saying about how the President Trump reacted to the pandemic is an absolute truth. The response was very late. But his main mistake was when he published to the whole world the remedy from the coronavirus, which was not proven by the professionals and the scientists have never showed evidence for this medicine. People are led by the country full of politicians and business people, such as Donald Trump himself. As the trust is blind people have no other choice but to follow the rules that are established by the governmental officials and also trust the President who posted the medicine that is not even helpful during the pandemic crisis. As you said the president Trump is famous for his Twitter posts. Do you think it gives him the advantage or the disadvantage for the upcoming election? I think his actions especially during the pandemic decreased his chances of being elected. However, Donald Trump has a lot of connections and also support from the other counties as he is a businessman primarily. This may give him an advantage in the upcoming election. The same situation had happened when he was elected for the first time four years ago. No one was expecting this outcome, however, somehow, he gained respect and trust from the citizens and won the election. What is the main reason why the campaign behind Donald Trump does not have enough support as of right now?

  7. I find your view on Trump’s election very fair but we have to look at the facts a bit more. Rallies aren’t gonna have high numbers of people because of Covid even though many republicans can be very ignorant of such issues. You do bring up a great point about Trump and his twitter and yes he should get off it, but let us not forget what happened when Trump went against Clinton in 2016. A month or two before the election, he had stopped using twitter so much and the public started to view him much more positively because of it, so I wouldn’t doubt that he would do it again. I also would like to beg of you not to look into polls and simulations right now or really ever unless its the real deal. It leads to less voter turnout because people believe in the polls and choose not to vote. This ultimately led to Trump’s victory.

  8. The 2020 election will commence like nothing America has ever seen before. The recent activity, be it the handling of the pandemic, or the sharp rise in activism around the country, has shown that Trump’s campaign is not invincible. More people are beginning to realize his faults, thus Biden is growing in popularity. Polls have Biden ahead of Trump as of now, and Trump is afraid. This is clear in his attempt to push back the election. While such an act would be unconstitutional and completely unnecessary, Trump is likely worried that he will not win re-election, causing such a response. Despite the current polls putting Biden ahead, the actual results of the election may shock everyone, just as the 2016 election did.

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  11. Not surprised. In this milenia,PolitiFact has put together a chain of Donald Trump response quotes and have changed throughout the pandemic so far.

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