How to take things in hand? Until the coronavirus crisis, President Trump could look to the future, and the presidential election in November, with some confidence. The economy, its main workhorse, was running at full speed. The unemployment rate had dropped to 3.5%, unheard of for half a century, Wall Street was juggling records, and despite certain ad hoc tensions, relations with China, the great economic rival, remained rather cordial…
On January 22, it seems an eternity ago, President Trump answered with confidence to a question on the coronavirus: "The situation is completely under control (...) Everything will be fine". It's hard to go wrong more heavily.
In four months, the "Chinese virus", as the president calls it, has turned the economic and health situation upside down. More than 66,000 deaths, nearly 1.2 million confirmed cases. In shock, the economy contracted sharply in the first quarter and the second will be worse. The “Fed” has injected billions of dollars into the economy, but more than 30 million Americans have lost their jobs and the unemployment level could reach 18%… raising the specter of a deep recession or even depression.
PODCAST. Donald Trump and the coronavirus: a slow awareness (Part 1)
Constantly taken against the numbers, overwhelmed by the turn of events, contradicted by some of his advisers like the famous Dr. Fauci, challenged by powerful governors, Trump seems in the ropes. But the New York billionaire launched his counterattack. On three major axes.
1. Confidently deny his untimely statements which downplayed the gravity of the situation. "I always thought that the coronavirus was a real problem," he says, "that it was a pandemic." I knew it was a pandemic long before there was any talk of a pandemic. ” False. The WHO, among others, had declared that it was a pandemic long before it, but Trump does not care. And he is forcing to rewrite history. "We have taken all the necessary initiatives," he said last week. If we hadn't done what we did, there would have been a million deaths, maybe even more, maybe two million. ”
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2. Go after China . At first he simply accused him of having reacted slowly and concealed the magnitude of the problem. Thursday he mentioned punitive taxes ... Sunday, on Fox, he declared that China "had made a mistake, they tried to stop the fire and they did not succeed". Its Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, the former CIA boss, went further, claiming without giving details that "enormous evidence" showed that the virus came from a laboratory in Wuhan, the epicenter of the crisis in China. Trump has promised a report on the issue will be released soon.
3. Boost the economy . Anxious to recruit his troops, the president presents himself as the only one capable of realizing this promise "We have built the strongest economy in the world, he reminded a few days ago, we will do it a second time". And, as time presses, and while conceding that the Covid was going to make more than 100,000 deaths here, he advocates a very rapid deconfinement, encouraging his supporters to demand the end of confinement in the states controlled by the Democrats.
Will the strategy of the billionaire businessman, who has become an ace in political marketing, be effective for November? Far too early to tell, but the latest Gallup national poll would seem to prove him right. 49% of Americans, against 42% last month, approve of his work. Maybe a block effect around the president? In any case, the best score since the start of his term ...
PODCAST. Donald Trump and the coronavirus: a slow awareness (Part 2)