"What is at stake here for Trump is re-election", says Dr Andrew Moran, Head of International Relations and Politics.
Date: 27 March 2020
As the USA overtakes China with the most cases of Covid-19, President’s Trump’s claim that Americans will be returning to work soon and that the churches will be open by Easter is, not surprisingly, being widely ridiculed. The President’s apparent optimism has been tempered by his medical advisers who regularly paint a different picture.
What is at stake here for Trump is re-election. His whole presidency from day one has been about the economy. Until recently, he could claim that unemployment was at an all-time low and the stock market was booming. That has now changed as the USA faces unprecedented levels of unemployment and a stock market that has collapsed. His cuts to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the inadequate provision offered by the country’s private health care system have been exposed, and his contradictory, ever-changing messages on how to meet the challenges Covid-19 poses have become a source of frustration and anger for a growing number of Americans.
Trump has suggested that the aggressive measures required to tackle the virus may not be worth the extended economic distress that will be required. As the numbers contracting and dying from the virus increase, many Americans may take a different view.
