Trump, Descent and Danger

 By Hedelberto López Blanch on June 9, 2020

Several surveys conducted in recent days indicate that US President Trump has lost support among the majority of the population due to his inability to come up with a strategy to control the coronavirus pandemic, which has already left over 2,000,000 infected and 118,000 dead, his escalation of repression against demonstrators against racism and police brutality, and his policy of hostile economic “sanctions” against over a third of the nations of the world.

Analysts say that there have been two approaches to the U.S. administration’s handling of the country’s inherent racism: the first was to deliberately allow the Covid-19 to be extended so that the majority of blacks, Latinos and undocumented immigrants who do not have health insurance would die.

Secondly, he attacked African Americans and even encouraged members of the National Guard onto the streets to try to control the protests and at the same time ingratiate himself with right-wing extremist groups and organizations, the fundamental basis of his possible re-election.

Trump’s actions have been so unfortunate that even Democratic representatives, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, knelt for nearly nine seconds in a session of Congress to pay tribute to the memory of George Floyd, recently murdered by a Minnesota cop.

Instead of finding a consistent and peaceful unifying solution in the interest of alleviating anti-racist tensions and protests throughout the Union, Trump, after hurling insults at broad sectors of the population and at state governors, authorized the deployment of active military personnel with express orders to control and repress the citizens with as much force as needed.

Among the attempts to cover up the failure of his administration, he seeks to blame others for his mistakes by claiming China and the World Health Organization were responsible for the pandemic spreading to the United States and then in the biggest fabrication imaginable he accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being behind the outrage of the nationwide anti-racist demonstrations. His lies are really unparalleled in their proportions.

Trump’s lust for power, the outrages he has committed, and the disarray in the polls against his lack luster opponent Joe Biden, also makes him a dangerous man who is capable of even waging war against any enemy to try to gain support while diverting attention from his lack of leadership. His threats against Venezuela, Cuba, China, Russia or Iran have remained constant even through the crisis of the country which means international public opinion must be more alert than ever.

The latest polls from Oxford Economics predicts that Trump will suffer a “historic defeat” in the upcoming  general election in November because of the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and his complete failure in his approach to it. The study was conducted before the anti racist demonstrations and they certainly didn’t help him in the eyes of the general population.

The British organization’s evaluation starts from a scenario of recession in the United States, with the increase of unemployment and inflation which came well before the pandemic and the uprising, calculates that Trump would now get only about 35% of the votes compared to 55% prior to the arrival of Covid-19

“It would take an economic miracle to make the results work in Trump’s favor,” the report says, assuming that the US economy will not have recovered by this autumn with unemployment above 13% and a 6% drop in household income.

In this context, Oxford Economics considers that the Democratic Party despite its weak candidate is on its way to a “clear victory”, although its percentage of votes will depend on voter turnout and this comes amid fears by the Republicans of losing the Senate.

A recent study conducted by EPIC-MIRA, reveals that Biden is 12 percentage points ahead of Trump in Michigan, a pivotal state the Trump carried in the 2016 election.

The result is not far from a national survey conducted by Whitman Insight Strategies that showed a 10 percentage point lead for Biden, giving him 53% of voter support against 43% for the president. Another poll taken on June 3 by Monmouth University determined an 11 percentage point lead for Biden.

As things stand, the tycoon continues to sink in quicksand, but we have to remember that 5 months is a long time in a period of crisis and social upheaval, and with respect for all of humanity a wounded beast is a very dangerous thing.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano-Cuba, translation North America bureau