Donald Trump is going through a rough patch. The American president sees his campaign arguments evaporating one after the other. The economy, which he touted as the best in history, and whose rapid recovery he announced after the Covid-19 epidemic, is in the midst of a recession, and unemployment remains at historic proportions. The pandemic, whose head of state hoped to turn the page after the spring months, has resumed with new vigor. It is now hitting the Republican-majority states head on, which he thought he could count on in the November election, particularly Florida, Texas, and Arizona. The United States has surpassed the 3.2 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, and the number of deaths, which has reached 135,000, is on the rise.
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Instead of disappearing, the two crises, health and economic, combine, the first having forced to reverse the reopening measures taken by several States. Election rallies were also prevented. Trump had to cancel the weekend planned for his campaign in New Hampshire, officially for weather reasons. The event was to be held outdoors, but health and political considerations may also have been taken into account. The president's previous rally, held in late June in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was held outside a half-empty hall. The state has since seen the number of Covid-19 cases increase significantly. If the health situation continues to deteriorate, it is not even certain that the republican convention, moved from North Carolina to Florida, can be held at the end of August.
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As a concession to the gravity of the situation, Trump, who had so far carefully avoided being photographed while wearing a mask, and was criticized for thus encouraging those who were resistant to this prophylactic device, was finally seen masked during his visit to the Walter-Reed Military Hospital on Saturday in Washington. "I have never been against masks, but I think you have to wear them depending on the time and place," he said.
Most importantly, the polls are not good. The voluntarism of the president, who would like to get out of the Covid period and encourage economic recovery, appears to be out of step with reality. 67% of Americans are not convinced by its management of the health crisis. The director of the Center for Infectious Diseases, Doctor Anthony Fauci, who in recent months has become a media celebrity at the same time as one of the most listened to voices on the epidemic, is no longer consulted by Trump. "He's nice but he made mistakes," said the president in a recent Fox News telephone interview. But many Americans disagree.
Signs of fatigue
Four months before the presidential election, Trump is worryingly behind Joe Biden. The latest estimates give him an average of ten points behind his Democratic opponent. Even if the lesson of 2016, when the Republican had won the poll while the polls gave him the loser for almost the entire campaign, is remembered, his delay is this time more important than against Hillary Clinton. It looks more like Jimmy Carter's when he tried to get re-elected in 1979.
Equally worrying is Joe Biden's strange popularity. Despite, or perhaps thanks to his absence from the media, the Democratic candidate garners support. Without electoral rallies or public appearances, Biden seems above all to benefit from his absence, leaving the president to bury himself alone, faced with a crisis of historic magnitude. The former Obama vice president, the most classic politician, does not seem to offer as much outlet as Hillary Clinton for the mockery and attacks of her Republican opponent.
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Most importantly, the Trump machine is showing signs of fatigue. Even if he shows impressive resilience, the American president gives the impression of being overwhelmed in the face of events over which his sarcastic outings on Twitter and his accusations made against his adversaries have no hold. Several times he found himself on the defensive, even posting a message to justify his rounds of golf in the midst of a national crisis.
His decision to commute the prison sentence of his former friend and adviser Roger Stone, convicted of lying to investigators about Russian interference in the 2016 election, was greeted coldly, even in Republican circles.
Devastating portrait
The Supreme Court's ruling, which ruled last week that the president had no right to refuse to disclose his tax returns to the justice system, was also a serious setback for Donald Trump. The president, who since 2016 has stubbornly refused to publish details of his tax situation, saw the two Conservative judges, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, whom he himself appointed, vote against him. "In our system of government, as this court has often said, no one is above the law. This principle applies, of course, to a president, " said Justice Kavanaugh.
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To add to her worries, attempts to prevent the publication of her niece Mary Trump's book have failed. Title Too much and never enough, the book is due out next Tuesday. Written by the daughter of his older brother, who died prematurely, the book, according to the American press, paints a devastating psychological portrait of the president. Trump is described as a brutal character, lacking in respect and empathy, but also suffering from deep insecurity, compensated by a pathological propensity for self-satisfaction. If this work is not the first to paint the American president in unflattering features, it is, like that of his former national security adviser John Bolton, published a few weeks ago, written by someone who had known personally the President.
Described by the classic anonymous sources quoted by the American press, Trump has been heard in recent weeks frequently complaining about the bad luck that strikes him.
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Presidential election in the United States: Trump believes the 2020 election "is as important as the 2016 election" - Watch on Figaro Live
