The myth that
Donald Trump is
a great businessman who can handle money well has been refuted several times.
He kept his real estate empire alive with the millions he received from his father.
Later he drove various companies to the wall.
Time and again, Trump was short of money in the course of his career.
Even now, in the election campaign, Trump may run into a cash flow problem.
Actually, his campaign fund was always full of donations, but now it turns out that his team has squandered a good $ 800 million in the past few months.
The money went on, among other things, TV advertising, employee travel and party convention planning.
Brat Parscale, the president's former campaign leader, got the money through like a "drunken sailor," writes the New York Times.
Allies of the president in the party are alarmed.
According to US media reports, Trump should think about adding a good $ 100 million from his personal fortune.
Icon: enlarge
Former Trump campaign leader Brat Parscale: Did he squander money like a "drunken sailor"?
Photo:
Paul Sancya / AP
Meanwhile,
Trump's challenger
Joe Biden is
breaking records in terms of donation income.
In August alone, he made a good $ 365 million, more than any other US presidential candidate before him.
Possible money problems are denied in the Trump team.
Trump himself said that a lot of money had to be spent on advertising in the past few months to counter the "fake news".
He is also ready to inject money from his own pocket.
But there is still a lot of money left, Trump said.
"Much more than in 2016."
Really?
The begging e-mails that Trump's team is currently sending en masse to potential donors do not exactly sound like everything is in order with the till.
"Please pay a contribution," Trump wrote to his followers, almost pleading.
"Don't forsake me!"
Hit The Road, Joe
The US election campaign is entering a new phase: Despite the corona crisis, both Donald Trump and Biden are now going out into the country more, socializing.
The counterparties choose different approaches.
Trump is trying to revive his old mass events.
To this end, he usually gathers a few hundred fans at airfields.
Joe Biden has smaller meetings, with a few dozen followers at most.
The Democrat keeps minimum distances and seldom takes off his mouth and nose protection.
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Campaigner Joe Biden: Mostly wearing a mask in public
Photo: KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS
For Biden in particular, the increased travel activity is a big step, yes, even a change of strategy.
While Trump has never completely given up short trips to the country in the past few months, the challenger stayed at home most of the time.
He only communicated with the outside world via video call, also to minimize the risk of infection for himself.
Biden didn't have to do much either: it was enough for him to watch Trump make mistake after mistake in fighting the pandemic.
Vote competition
Obviously they recognized in the Biden camp that this reluctance could no longer be sufficient in the final phase of the election campaign.
Biden is currently showing in exactly those "Battleground States" that he has to win if he wants to beat Trump: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
He meets trade unionists, gives interviews to local media and gives speeches on site.
At the same time, Trump is also traveling there.
It is an almost curious race to watch.
When Trump performs in Pennsylvania, Biden will be there the next day.
If Biden travels to Michigan, Trump shows up soon after.
If Biden's runner-up, Kamala Harris, is in Wisconsin, Trump's runner-up, Mike Pence, will stop by.
The strenuous exhibition in the North and Midwest today goes back to the 2016 election campaign: Hillary Clinton had neglected the old Democratic strongholds of Wisconsin and Michigan.
You practically did not show up there.
Trump, on the other hand, was often there.
So he could win there.
Obviously, Biden does not want to repeat this mistake this time.
That's what the polls say
Donald Trump was able to shorten the distance to Joe Biden in the polls after the Republican party conference.
His gains are - at least so far - not strong enough to catch up with Biden.
There have been a good dozen polls since the party conference, all of which continue to see Biden ahead of Trump.
In June, Biden was ten percentage points ahead of the incumbent, now, on the average of all national surveys by RealClearPolitics, he is 7.1 percentage points ahead of the incumbent.
Biden comes to 49.9 percent, Trump to 42.8 percent.
For comparison: Hillary Clinton was only 2.1 percentage points ahead of Trump in 2016 at the same time.
Even in the particularly hotly contested states, Biden continues to hold the lead.
However, the gap to Trump is sometimes small here.
In
Wisconsin
and
Arizona
, Biden is 5 percentage points ahead of Trump, in
Michigan
it is 2.6 percentage points and in
Pennsylvania
3.9 percentage points.
In
Florida
, Biden's lead is only 1.2 percentage points, in
North Carolina
0.6 percentage points.
There is an interesting trend in the state of
Ohio
, which is also part of the "rustbelt" in the north.
There Biden is now an average of 4 percentage points ahead of Trump.
Here the democrat could improve.
Much to Trump's annoyance, the strategists in the President's camp had long assumed that Ohio would be a safe bet for them.
Now they have to fight to keep the previous stronghold.
This is important: the state delivers 18 of the total of 270 electoral votes that it takes for the overall victory.
That's more than Wisconsin (10) and Michigan (16) and almost as many as Pennsylvania (20 votes).
The election campaign bankruptcy of the week ...
... is the
boat parade
for Donald Trump in Texas, where five boats capsized last weekend.
Since then, the president's fans, whose boats landed at the bottom of a lake, have had to put up with a lot of ridicule.
The downfall is symbolic of the state of Trump's entire election campaign, according to the Democrats.
The fact is: The boats of the Trump fleet did not sink because of a storm, but there were simply too many inexperienced hobby captains on the way.
Wrong maneuvers created dangerous waves that capsized smaller boats.
So the Trump fans practically sank themselves. Fortunately, nobody was injured.
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Pro-Trump fleet in Texas: five boats sunk themselves
Photo: Bob Daemmrich / imago images / ZUMA Wire
Another aspect faded into the background in the excitement: Donald Trump likes to be celebrated as the hero of the little man.
At the various boat parades for the president that you see in this election campaign in Texas, Florida or on the Great Lakes in the north of the USA, there is not so much of the charm of the working class to be felt.
Here, wealthy, white America is more likely to be on the road for the president: Many of the sports boats or yachts are recognizable with expensive engines, leather seats and high-tech.
So you can guess where parts of Trump's tax gifts have gone.
Our US stories of the week
I would like to recommend these two stories from our US election campaign team over the last few days:
Out and about with right-wing extremist militias in the USA: Trump's shadow army
Explosive allegations against Trump: Commander in Chief in the crossfire
I wish you a nice week!
Heartily,
your
Roland Nelles
