- With the coronavirus crisis posing the most serious threat to his reelection prospects yet, President
Donald Trump is resorting to tactics from his populist playbook to shore up support. - In recent days the president has declared his backing for anti-lockdown protests, claimed China may have spread the coronavirus on purpose, and announced a total immigration ban.
- Experts say that while the tactics have helped Trump secure the backing of Republican grass roots in the past, they may not be enough to save his presidency this time.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The coronavirus pandemic has, in many ways, ruthlessly exposed President Donald Trump's limitations as a leader.
His early attempts to downplay the likely impact of the outbreak now look like a catastrophic misjudgment, with the US recording the highest number of infections and deaths in the world. His administration's response to the crisis has also poorly coordinated, and mired in infighting.
But faced with a collapsing economy, his poll ratings on the slide, and his chances of reelection in real danger, Trump isn't abandoning his old political playbook. In fact, he's doubling down on it.
He's using the same tactics deployed through the myriad crises that have beset his presidency, and he's banking on them see him through his worst crisis yet.
Trump renews his favorite attacks from 2016
Over the weekend Trump took a step that even Republican governors have balked at — tweeting his support for protests against the social-distancing measures his own administration has urged Americans to follow, and the lockdown measures state governors have imposed to slow the spread of the virus.
As part of the same tactical maneuver, he's renewing lines of attack familiar from his 2016 presidential campaign: targeting Muslim Americans and foreign powers, namely China.
At a press briefing last Saturday, the president claimed without evidence that mosques were receiving special treatment to stay open during statewide lockdowns, while Christian churches were compelled to shutter. Critics have accused the president of stirring Islamophobia.
He also claimed that China may have deliberately allowed the disease to spread — a conspiracy theory circulated by some Republican lawmakers for months, and which advisers believe will appeal to his base.
And on Monday the president announced a suspension on all migration to the US — a move widely interpreted as a stunt to appeal to core supporters, rather than a substantive policy move, given existing border closures and visa freezes put in place during the crisis.
—Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) April 21, 2020
These actions will likely be central in Trump's vast online efforts to get reelected in November.
"We know from Trump's 2016 campaign that the blend of transgressive statements, press conferences, local rallies, and online advertising were important to his success. We're seeing this model emerge as part of his response to
"He's behaving as if the election campaign is underway, which of course it is in reality, even if the coronavirus is the only issue on the agenda at present. He'll be thinking ahead to the summer."
Trump lights the fire under anti-lockdown protests
Trump has long cast himself as an outsider and a leader of ordinary Americans against the machinations of a corrupt liberal elite.
On Monday, Politico reported that several of the president's key moves over the past week were designed to portray himself as the champion of America's post-lockdown resurgence, and to blame lockdown measures as a partisan ploy to undermine his presidency.
Chadwick pointed to the fact that the states in which most protests have taken place — like Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, and Virginia — all have Democratic governors.
"He can score political points against his opponents in a locally-focused way that might serve to dent support for [Democratic candidate Joe] Biden in those areas come November, while also deflecting some attention from Trump's own approach to managing the emergency," said Chadwick.
"His encouragement of the protests might also serve to energize his political supporters on the ground in these states."
This is a massive gamble that could fail
Some observers believe Trump's deliberate attempt to stir divisions while America faces one of its gravest public-health crises as a dangerous move that could damage the president's standing among moderates and independents, among whom there is strong support for lockdown measures and opposition to the protests.
After an initial "rally round the flag" bump in the polls as the crisis took hold, Trump's ratings are falling — with only 44% of Americans now approving of the job Trump is doing, according to a tally of polls by FiveThirtyEight.
Trump is taking a big gamble in casting himself as the champion of an insurrectionary movement to reopen America's economy, say some strategists, because if restrictions are lifted a second, deadlier wave of infections could sweep across America.
"I don't know if it will be an effective route for the president to take, to pit himself against any Democratic governor, because at the end of the day the consequences of reopening the economy too soon will destabilize the strong positioning the president has," Mattie Duppler, a Republican strategist, told Bloomberg.
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