Minneapolis is in turmoil. Beijing is flexing its muscles. And there is no immediate end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic that has already claimed 100,000 lives in the United States and shuttered swaths of the economy.
Less than six months before the election, President Trump is being tested like never before, battling crises that range from racial tensions at home to geopolitical shifts in the Far East.
Some are partly of his own making, such as provoking a war with social media companies after a string of incendiary, defamatory, or untrue tweets, while others stem from the sudden emergence of a deadly infectious disease more than 7,000 miles away.
The result is likely to be a long, hot summer of discord.
Opponents see an opening for the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to appeal to a weary public with a message of calm, while supporters say it is a moment for bold leadership.
Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College, said the president could not be oblivious to the electoral trouble he faced and was using tactics that had served him well in the past by exciting his base.
“You have cities on fire, 100,000 dead from coronavirus, unemployment at crisis levels, China. None of that bodes well for the president. His numbers don’t look good at the moment,” she said.
“His hope has to be that he brings out his base in the nine or 10 swing states in very large numbers to overcome a popular vote deficit.”
This week brought fresh trouble in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was videoed pleading for air as a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis.
As demonstrations turned violent, Trump weighed in with a tweet, in which he threatened to step in to bring the city under control with the National Guard, deploying a phrase with dark connotations from the civil rights era.
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he wrote, in a message quickly flagged by Twitter as “glorifying violence.”
On Friday afternoon, minutes before a news conference called to announce tough measures against China over Hong Kong, he tried to clean up the comments. “I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means,” he tweeted, claiming he was referring to other violent deaths that had followed looting.
The controversy sparked a change of plan in the Rose Garden. As the clock ticked past the 2 p.m. start time, aides removed two rows of seats that had been reserved for guests.
Then, after delivering a statement that ratcheted up pressure on Beijing, moving to end Hong Kong’s special trade status and sanctioning individuals responsible for curtailing freedoms in the former British colony, Trump left without taking questions, despite microphones being set up for journalists.
The last-minute alterations could have hinted at a meltdown. But the president appeared unflustered, as if he was thriving amid the chaos, said a senior administration official.
“He seemed very calm and very focused in his press conference today, despite the swirl of crisis talk happening all around him,” he said. “He is truly the calm in the eye of the storm … even some of which is his own making.”
Trump escalated his battle with Twitter over its decision to append fact-checking messages to some of his tweets Friday, calling for the repeal of Section 230 liability protections for social media.
And while coronavirus deaths continue to decline, there remains the risk of future waves of infection as more states scale back their social distancing restrictions.
Administration officials characterized the president as responding authoritatively to circumstances beyond his control.
“The president didn’t ask for any of these things, but he is taking bold actions to lead America during this challenging time,” said one. “COVID came from China and could have been stopped had China and [the World Health Organization] been more transparent. The economy is where it is because of COVID. Minneapolis is a result of failed liberal policies. And Twitter is a result of Twitter attempting to restrict the president’s First Amendment rights.”
They still offer an opportunity to Trump’s opponents no matter who is responsible, according to Democratic strategist Brad Bannon.
He said Trump allies were mistaken if they thought that a divisive campaign based on chaos and crisis would be as effective in 2020 as it was in 2016. This time, his opponents were just as fired up as his own base, giving Biden a clear opportunity to offer a different style.
“I think Biden’s strong suit is that he’s a calming voice. He’s steady. In a time of crisis, that’s a strong selling point,” he said. “Americans don’t like chaos.”
