19 June 2020. PenzaNews. US President Donald Trump is choosing a new slogan for his election campaign, which will be announced in the coming weeks, says The Washington Post referring to its own sources.

Photo: Flickr.com/whitehouse

The article says that the country’s leader decided to change the solemn motto “Keep America Great,” under which the campaign was originally planned, due to the economic collapse triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and protests against violent policing practices that engulfed the US after the death of African American George Floyd.

According to the publication, in recent weeks Donald Trump has been trying to revive his 2016 motto “Make America Great Again” and try out new catchphrases like “Transition to Greatness” and “The Best Is Yet to Come.” At the same time, the election headquarters has rarely used the phrases such as “Promises Made, Promises Kept.”

According to many experts, Donald Trump did not meet the expectations of most Americans. This is confirmed by recent polls indicating that he continues to lose points. So, according to the results of a Gallup service study published on June 4, in just a month, his rating fell by 10 points – only 39% of Americans approve of his activity. This level of support is comparable to the numbers of September 2019, when a scandal around a possible impeachment broke out.

According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, held between June 10 and 16, only 35% of US citizens would now vote for Donald Trump in the presidential election, while 48% of voters are ready to support his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Earlier, CNN published the results of its own survey. The gap between the two politicians was almost the same – 14% in favor of the former US vice president.

In addition, Reuters/Ipsos study says that 57% of Americans do not approve of Donald Trump’s activity as head of state, only 38% support it. This is the worst figure since November 2019.

According to Miles Coleman, Associate Editor, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, University of Virginia Center for Politics, the coronavirus pandemic and the related crisis may be helpful to Democrats although Joe Biden isn’t a perfect candidate for the post of the US president.

In his opinion, the unpopularity of the opponent of the incumbent president could turn the choice between two candidates “into a referendum on Trump,” though Trump himself is not popular: over the past year, his approvals have almost always been just a little higher than 40%.

Commenting on the outcome of Donald Trump’s presidency, Miles Coleman noted that he is a president who thrives on chaos.

“Look no further than his Twitter feed, and you’ll see him launch personal attacks on figures in his own administration, or go on rants against his political enemies, often with little evidence for his claims,” the expert said.

He also drew attention to the fact that the legislative activity of the head of state has been limited since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in 2008.

“His signature piece of legislation was his 2017 tax reform package. Though Republicans have vowed for years to repeal former President [Barack] Obama’s healthcare law, they tried in 2017 but failed. Perhaps Trump’s most lasting legacy will be his influence on the judicial branch. He’s made two appointments to the Supreme Court and under his presidency, Republicans have filled over a hundred vacancies on lower courts,” Miles Coleman added.

Analyzing the potential change in the voting mechanism in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, the political scientist suggested that mail-in voting is going to be popular in the fall.

“Logistically, it could be a challenge, but that the largest state, California, already votes entirely by mail shows that it can be done on a large scale. President Trump is not fond of the idea; he’s taken to Twitter claiming that mail-in voting leads to Democratic fraud. Trump’s accusations aren’t very credible. Utah, for example, is a very Republican-leaning state, but votes largely by mail,” he explained.

Assessing the chances of Donald Trump’s re-election, the expert emphasized that it is still hard to count him off even though he’s not popular.

“As long as he’s competitive in the key swing states, such as Florida and Wisconsin, the Electoral College gives him a path to victory. In other words, it’s still possible that he could lose the popular vote, as he did in 2016, but if he wins enough swing states, he could garner the requited 270 electoral votes needed for re-election,” Miles Coleman added.

In turn, Charles Henry, Professor Emeritus of African American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, suggested that Trump is likely to go down in history as the worst president the US has ever had.

“He has rolled back progress on the environment, health care, consumer protection, civil rights, international cooperation, and other areas too numerous to mention. Moreover, he has diminished the stature of the office through his inability to tell the truth and constant degrading attacks on opponents,” the expert said.

He added that the coronavirus has destroyed the economy that was the major plank on which Trump planned to run.

“Right now I believe Biden would win […], he would certainly be a vast improvement over Trump,” Charles Henry said stressing that “the future is very fluid given the crisis.”

In his opinion, part of Biden’s success will depend on his vice-presidential pick especially given his age.

“There will likely be much more mail balloting which has no more risk than in-person balloting,” the professor noted.

Michael Emerson, Associate Senior Research Fellow at Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), former Ambassador of the EU to Russia, called Donald Trump “a truly bad man.”

“Already early in his presidency his quitting the Paris climate agreement and then failing to support gun control in the aftermath of mass killings were enough for me to label him as morally evil,” the expert explained.

According to him, the situation is also aggravated by sexual scandals, in which the incumbent president was involved – in particular, this concerns the sensational story with a porn actress Stephanie Clifford also known as Stormy Daniels.

“The list goes on and on. […] One can add his ridiculous attempted diplomacy with Kim of North Korea, his bullying of Canada and Mexico over trade; and now on to being at first a coronavirus denier; and most recently his twitter that George Floyd in his coffin would appreciate the drop in unemployment last week – his new lowest point yet in disgraceful remarks,” Michael Emerson said.

Answering a question about Donald Trump’s policies, the expert noted that he “cannot remember” any of his good decisions, and the list of bad ones is “too long.”

In addition, he called disgraceful the presidential tactics in the situation surrounding the murder of an African American and said that he considers the chances of Donald Trump to be re-elected for a second term zero.

“The combination of the covid19 crisis and the George Floyd murder destroys support for Trump, except for the maybe 20% minority of his faithful,” Michael Emerson explained stressing that today the US should be headed by anybody but Trump.

Professor Graham Dodds, Department of Political Science, Concordia University, Canada, shared the view that Donald Trump is not a popular leader, since his approval ratings have been significantly lower than his disapproval ratings for most of his presidency.

“The current crises in terms of the pandemic, the economic fallout, and the widespread protests against the police have called out for effective presidential leadership, which Trump is apparently unable or unwilling to provide,” he said.

At the same time, the expert reminded that the US voting mechanism still allows the incumbent president to hope for re-election.

“In terms of the coming election, Trump’s support is strong enough in enough states that he could win the Electoral College again. Trump could lose some of the states that he surprisingly won in 2016 and still win the presidency again this fall,” Graham Dodds explained.

He noted that by most accounts, President Trump’s response to the wave of protests against racist police brutality has been highly problematic, and even some conservatives have criticized his poor leadership during this crisis.

“He threatened to shoot people and to call out the US military against its own citizens. He told state governors to take the lead and to forcefully dominate the protesters or else they would appear to be weak and fools. […] Anyone else would have given an address recognizing the protesters’ legitimate anger but counseling against violence,” the analyst said.

“Both Barack Obama and Joe Biden did that. And George W. Bush spoke out against racism. But Trump seems incapable of such a response. He can’t get other people to calm down because he can’t seem to calm down himself. And he’s far better at dividing than uniting people,” Graham Dodds concluded.