President Donald Trump may be heading for a big loss in November. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and former vice president Joe Biden has consistently led Trump in polls measuring support in their now presumptive general election match-up, and in new Reuters/Ipsos polling, Biden’s leading margin is a full eight percent. In the same polling, 13 percent more people said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic than said that they approved, which is close to the gap between those who disapprove and approve of Trump overall. In that measure, disapproval of Trump leads by 15 percent.
‘More Americans have grown critical of President Donald Trump over the past month as the death toll mounts from the coronavirus pandemic and he now trails Democratic challenger Joe Biden by 8 percentage points among registered voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday.’
In the new polling, 41 percent of respondents said that they approved of Trump’s job performance overall, while 56 percent of respondents said that they disapproved. Concurrently, a full 46 percent of voters overall said they they supported Joe Biden, compared to just 38 percent who said that they supported Donald Trump. In the numbers, Biden has almost nabbed an insurmountable majority, and the numbers mirror what’s been found elsewhere. In the current RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls, Biden has 46.8 percent of the support compared to just 42.4 percent for Trump. The trend continues in polls of swing state voters specifically: Biden leads in polls in Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, among other locales.
Meanwhile, the president has given Americans plenty of reasons to be concerned about his response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Reuters adds:
‘Trump initially downplayed the threat of the virus that has killed more than 80,000 people in the United States, the highest death toll of any country. He has sometimes contradicted disease specialists in his administration, promoted potential treatments that were not found effective and has accused Democratic governors of reopening their states slowly in order to hurt his re-election chances.’
In fact, Democratic governors are simply trying to keep their citizens from dying in even larger numbers. There is still no sure cure for the Coronavirus, and there is no vaccine yet, either. The California State University system announced this week that in light of those concerns, they would be cancelling most in-person classes for the upcoming fall term. That decision affects almost half a million students, as the university system is the largest public university system in the country.
Remember this, every Governor who has sky high approval on their handling of the Coronavirus, and I am happy for them all, could in no way have gotten those numbers, or had that success, without me and the Federal Governments help. From Ventilators to Testing, we made it happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020
Trump has recently seemed to begin to understand the gravity of the situation, and, in response, he’s been trying to claim political points for himself.
This week, he laughably tried to take credit for governors’ successes. He tweeted:
‘Remember this, every Governor who has sky high approval on their handling of the Coronavirus, and I am happy for them all, could in no way have gotten those numbers, or had that success, without me and the Federal Governments help. From Ventilators to Testing, we made it happen!’
In fact, he left governors out in the cold to the point that Maryland had to procure half a million Coronavirus tests from South Korea.
