Trump looks to spark his campaign
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, under coronavirus quarantine in the White House and restricted from travelling, is grasping for ways to put a spark back in his struggling reelection bid and mount a big comeback with four weeks left until election day.
Trump, who was still contagious, had been looking for options on how to get his message out and cut into Democrat Joe Biden’s lead in battleground states where the November 3 election would be decided, advisers said.
They said they had been discussing Trump delivering a national address, while a speech to senior voters was being contemplated for tomorrow.
Vicepresident Mike Pence’s debate with Democratic vicepresidential nominee Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City will take centre stage today.
Complications abound. Trump aides say he is impatient to get back on the campaign trail and insistent on debating Democrat Joe Biden on October 15 in Miami, but Biden said yesterday he would not participate unless Trump was virusfree.
Any political boost Trump could get from a fresh injection of stimulus money into US pockets appears to be out of reach after he abruptly ended negotiations with Democrats yesterday, with both sides far apart on how much money to devote to a deal.
Both Biden and the top Democrat in the US Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accused Trump of abandoning needy Americans. Republican Senator Susan Collins, facing a tough reelection bid in her home state of Maine, called Trump’s move a ‘‘huge mistake.’’
With layoffs in key industries mounting by the day and threatening the fragile recovery, Trump yesterday urged Congress to quickly pass $25 billion in funding for passenger airlines, $135 billion for small businesses and provide $1200 stimulus cheques for Americans.
‘‘I am ready to sign right now,’’ Trump tweeted.
Trump’s drive to get Judge Amy
Coney Barrett confirmed by the Republicancontrolled Senate before the November 3 election also may be in doubt, since three Republican senators have been infected with the virus and may not be able to vote.
A wave of infections at the White House among Trump’s top lieutenants and press office aides has left the West Wing struggling to find its footing. The latest infection came yesterday when immigration hawk and chief speechwriter Stephen Miller put out word he had tested positive.
ABC News said its count of cases related to the White House was now 23, including Trump and his wife, Melania.
Trump has attempted to use his coronavirus infection to his political advantage, making a dramatic primetime exit from Walter Reed military hospital on Tuesday.
He depicted himself as a man who vanquished the disease and emerged stronger.
But Trump’s handling of the virus has been met with deep scepticism by Americans who have told pollsters he played down the calamity, never did enough to defeat it and has failed to express empathy for the more than 210,000 who have died.
Advisers say Trump wanted to be talking about other issues by this stage of the campaign, to put pressure on Biden.
But his own illness — along with that of White House aides — has forced the pandemic back on to centre stage.
Trump’s absence on the campaign trail has also been costly. He had been expected to go on a swing this week through Western states to raise millions of dollars for a campaign facing a deficit to Biden’s wellfunded effort.
With national polls showing Biden with sizeable leads in many swing states, Trump appears to have his work cut out for him. — Reuters