Trump’s reset on virus too late for some

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump has reset his approach to the coronavirus pandemic in a bid to revive sinking poll numbers, but with 100 days until the election his campaign may need more than a change in tone to reverse its slide.
Trump trails Democrat Joe Biden nationally and in
key swing states by wide margins, grappling with a health crisis that’s killed over 146,000 Americans, tipped the economy into recession, and stymied both his administration and Republicans in Congress. Election day is
November 3.
The woes extended to the entire Republican Party, which just ended a bruising week of feuds over what their next aid package should look like, and on other matters as well.
To cap it all off, Trump cancelled the Republican National Convention set for Jacksonville, Florida, weeks after shifting most of the meeting, including his acceptance speech, from North Carolina with great fanfare. While some expressed relief at avoiding what could have become a Covid-19 super-spreader event, it robbed Republicans of a showcase of party unity and an infomercial for a second Trump term.
Trump also wasn’t getting much help from Republicans in Congress. Representative Ted Yoho of Florida, who retires at the end of his term, called Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an obscene name in earshot of a reporter, and has waffled in apologising. Trump and his
allies also attacked Representative Liz Cheney, the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress, for occasionally criticising him. Both eruptions come as suburban women are already breaking from the GOP.
“There are red flags everywhere” for Trump, said polling analyst Tim Malloy of Quinnipiac University, which published two polls showing Biden with a wide lead in Florida and tied with Trump in Texas, two states Trump must win.
Trump narrowly won Florida in 2016 but won Texas by a nine-point margin. “There is nothing in the most recent polling, nationally or in the states, that has a sort of hidden window of solace or escape for him. There is nothing there,” Malloy said.