As America’s death toll from coronavirus topped 24,000 yesterday, Donald Trump continued his attacks on state governors and the media who have challenged his authority to end the lockdowns which have devastated the US economy.
He also announced at a Rose Garden press conference that he had instructed his administration to halt funding to the World Health Organisation, claiming that it had mismanaged the coronavirus outbreak in China.
It’s been a combative week, even by the President’s standards. On Monday, he rejected the idea that the decision to end lockdown was up to state governors, claiming he had “total authority” and that “the President of the United States calls the shots”.
Trump believes he has not received nearly enough credit for the federal response to the pandemic. He said: “We’re very close to completing a plan to open our country, hopefully even ahead of schedule.” But he offered few details.
Trump is under intense pressure from some quarters to reopen the country, even as his medical advisors are urging caution. If he were to lift the social-distancing guidelines prematurely, he could be risking another surge in cases.
But with unemployment rising to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the Thirties, and the economy falling into recession, the financial costs of keeping America closed are rocketing.
Profits at America’s banks are collapsing as they set aside money to cover customer defaults caused by the pandemic.
A Wall Street Journal survey of economists this month predicts 14.4 million jobs will be lost in the coming months, bringing the unemployment level to 13 per cent in June, from a 50 year low of 3.5 per cent in February. Around 17 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits in the past three weeks.
Today some 80 million Americans will start receiving government support cheques for $1,200. This is the most visible piece of the government’s multi-trillion-dollar effort to keep the country going. Even the most optimistic projections suggest that a long period of economic stagnation will follow the lifting of the lockdowns.
Trump is now planning to create an advisory council to help him make the decision about reopening the economy. All that is known so far is that he will not be including his daughter, Ivanka, or his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, both of whom have been closely involved in the White House’s response to the pandemic.
With the presidential election in November, Trump has little time to waste if he wants voters to feel any positive effects that might be generated by his response to the crisis before they go to the polls.
Traditionally, times of national emergency have been very good for presidents’ approval ratings, which can soar up into the 70-80 per cent range as Americans rally around their leader. Trump’s ratings, however, are stuck at 50 per cent.
The President’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, yesterday laid out what will likely be the key themes of Trump’s re-election campaign: “President Trump has now assumed the role of a war-time chief executive against an invisible enemy while supporting millions of Americans who are facing health threats and economic hardship as a result of this pandemic. That’s good; the nation needs his steady, confident leadership… The President’s first duty is to protect the health of all Americans and preserve our economy’s ability to bounce back after this unforeseen, foreign-born crisis is over.”
