Time is running out. Donald Trump has only one hundred days, as of July 26, to restore his image and maintain the hope of a second term. The task promises to be difficult between now and November 3, election day. As he finally admitted on July 21, he is far from having finished with the main subject of concern of his fellow citizens, the Covid-19 pandemic which “Will surely, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better”.
Severely judged by the Americans, his management of the health crisis explains the significant dropout noted in the public for a few weeks about his action as president as well as voting intentions in his favor. It threatens two pillars of Donald Trump’s electorate: whites and voters aged at least 65, who are particularly exposed.
The resumption of contaminations in mid-June led to an increase in the number of deaths attributed to the virus, which should exceed 150,000 before the beginning of August. It has forced the governors of the states now most affected, overwhelmingly Republican, to resume precautionary measures too quickly abandoned. The consequence was not long in coming: after four months of decline, unemployment, which had slowly fallen after its explosion in March, started to rise again on July 23, compromising the economic recovery with fanfare promised by Donald Trump.
Two symbolic defeats
The President of the United States has resumed his almost daily briefings in an attempt to erase the disastrous impression maintained by weeks of denials. But they were especially marked by the recognition of two symbolic defeats. After having been ambiguous, he resigned himself on July 21 to advising the wearing of a mask to curb the pandemic, a position adopted for two months by his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
On July 23, Donald Trump was also forced to cancel the large Republican rally scheduled for Jacksonville, Florida on August 27, where he was to officially accept his party’s nomination for the presidential election. Joe Biden had also been ahead of him by announcing on June 24 that the Democratic convention scheduled for Milwaukee (Wisconsin), from August 17, would be essentially virtual, delegates and elected representatives of Congress being invited to follow it from a distance.
This cancellation turned out to be all the more mortifying since Donald Trump had demanded in June the relocation of this event initially planned in North Carolina, in Charlotte, as part of the national convention of the Grand Old Party, to avoid health constraints. imposed by the democratic governor of that state. The choice of Florida, which has meanwhile become the epicenter of the pandemic, has proved disastrous.
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