While the media seems solely focused on the virus and Donald Trump….
Below the the surface?
Trump & Co. are running full stream on their political campaign for the November election …
The internally focused Trump NEVER stops…
The controversy over immigration came only days after Trump sent a series of all-caps tweets urging people to “LIBERATE” Virginia, Michigan and Minnesota. All three states have Democratic governors and have seen protests against social distancing restrictions.
The tweets drew fierce criticism, including from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee(D), who accused Trump of “fomenting domestic rebellion.”
It may be no accident that these moves come as the initial bump Trump received in the polls over his handling of the coronavirus crisis falls away.
A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll conducted between April 14 and April 19 indicated 54 percent of adults nationwide considered Trump’s response to the crisis to be “poor” or “not so good,” while only 44 percent rated it “excellent” or “good.”
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, conducted between April 13 and April 15, showed a similar pattern, with 44 percent of registered voters approving of Trump’s response and 52 percent disapproving.
Even more troubling to Trump’s supporters, there are some indications that older Americans — broadly, the group at the gravest risk if they develop COVID-19 — are increasingly dubious about Trump.
This is particularly important for two reasons. Older people reliably turn out at high levels in elections, and they have been a key pillar of Trump’s electoral coalition.
In 2016, Trump bested Democrat Hillary Clinton 52 percent to 45 percent among the over-65s, according to exit polls.
Several recent polls have shown some erosion for the president with older voters. The most recent example came on Wednesday, in a Quinnipiac University poll of Florida.
The poll showed Trump underwater among people 65 years old and over in the Sunshine State both in terms of his general job performance (44 percent approval to 53 percent disapproval) and in terms of his response to the coronavirus (47 percent approval to 50 percent disapproval).
Those numbers are particularly striking because Trump won that segment of Florida voters by 17 points in 2016, according to exit polls.
A return to the “greatest hits” of the 2016 campaign — a hard line on immigration, a disdain for the media and elites, and a call for “America First” policies — may be a way to try to turn those numbers around.
There are, clearly, swathes of Trump’s base — not just among older Americans —who are enthused by the tactics.
“I think he has done a great job and, among our supporters, an overwhelming majority think he has handled this crisis well,” Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin….