As the coronavirus destroys the economy, Trump struggles to find a new reelection message.
When President Trump battled impeachment early this year, his reelection campaign staff blasted out Facebook ads, texts and emails to donors and supporters, arguing that he was delivering gonzo job figures and a soaring stock market in the face of bitter partisan obstruction.
“Five weeks ago, it was all going to be about this amazing economic machine that we had built,” said Stephen Moore, an economic advisor to Trump’s 2016 campaign who remains in contact with the White House. “It seems like 100 years ago.”So far, at least, Trump’s campaign has not directly mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic in its Facebook ads. Itthat only vaguely allude to it, casting Trump as a unifying leader for a “nation facing uncharted territory.
“Governors have been seen as more clear and decisive about their actions, and they’ve gotten a lot of credit,” said Charles Franklin, who conducts a monthly tracking poll for Marquette University in Wisconsin, a crucial state for Trump’s reelection prospects. “Trump has been less consistent in his rhetoric about how we should think about the crisis, but the consequences of those actions are less clear.
Trump has done best in polling when he has spoken realistically about the threat — as when he introduced the social distancing guidelines last month and when he extended them on Monday until April 30, with a painful assessment of the potential death toll. Trump has done that on rare occasions. But in many tweets and public appearances, he has lashed out at governors for demanding too much and not being “appreciative” enough — even as their hospitals and morgues overflow — and suggested he might divert resources to those who say nice things about him.
Tim Miller, a Republican strategist who worked on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s failed 2016 presidential campaign and has become a vocal critic of Trump, said Democrats can argue that Trump not only dismissed the danger with his rhetoric, but also failed to act swiftly enough on the information he had.
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