Trump, sinking in polls, shifts tone on coronavirus
by Sebastian Smith
Reeling from polls predicting defeat in November’s election, President Donald Trump struck a newly serious tone on the coronavirus crisis Tuesday, acknowledging that a disease he has frequently played down would “get worse.”
“Some areas of our country are doing very well,” Trump said at his first formal White House briefing on the pandemic in almost three months.
“Others are doing less well,” the president said. “It will probably, unfortunately get worse before it gets better.”
The return to presidential coronavirus briefings — abandoned in late April after Trump drew ridicule for musing on the potential for injecting coronavirus patients with household disinfectant — was part of a concerted bid to take back control of the message.
After an erratic national response, some 140,000 deaths, and now dramatic surges in new cases across the south and south-west, polls show two thirds of Americans mistrusting Trump’s leadership on the issue.
Polls also show his response to the pandemic driving voters strongly in the direction of opponent Joe Biden in the presidential election, due in just over 100 days.
While Trump makes his latest pivot, Congress is starting to negotiate another large-scale economic relief bill to try and prop up an economy devastated by mass unemployment and shuttered businesses.
An agreement appears some way off, but in Europe, EU leaders emerged from a marathon four-day and four-night summit on Tuesday to celebrate what they boasted was their own historic rescue plan.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel the 750-billion-euro ($858-billion) deal was equal to “the greatest crisis” in EU history. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailed “a Marshall Plan for Europe” that would boost his country’s economy by 140 billion euros over the next six years. (AFP)
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