There’s a potential political time bomb ticking for President Donald Trump in the public reaction to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Polls now consistently show that almost exactly half of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the outbreak. That’s a strikingly solid showing for him given the enormous toll on American life and the widespread and urgent complaints from front-line public health and medical personnel about critical shortages in tests and equipment. Yet surveys simultaneously show that a lopsided majority of Americans believe he mishandled the outbreak’s early stages and failed to mobilize quickly enough against the threat.
Those paradoxical twin verdicts leave Trump standing on a cracked political foundation when it comes to his re-election. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, CNN
Recent polls: President Trump | Coronavirus pandemic