An opinion article in the Wall Street Journal published Sunday warned that President Trump could be defeated by Democratic front-runner Joe Biden in 2020 if he doesn’t alter his tone.
In the wake of two deadly shootings over the weekend in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, which claimed the lives of 31 people, the president has received criticism for some of his past comments and tweets that were considered “rhetoric” by the article, who further indicated that the president was partially to blame for the weekend violence.
“A President has a special role in the American system even if our politics has elevated the Presidency more than it should,” the article, penned by the newspaper’s editorial board, stated. “Either Mr. Trump restrains his rhetoric or he will pay a consequential political price.”
The editorial board also predicted that Trump could lose huge amounts of his 2016 voters without a drastic change to tone. “Joe Biden’s theme of a return to ‘decency’ and ‘normalcy’ will resonate with even millions of Trump voters if Mr. Trump doesn’t change,” the article warned.
The president condemned “racism, bigotry and white supremacy” in a Monday statement to the nation. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America,” the president said from the White House. “Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul.”
The Sunday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal also espoused the idea that greater attention to mental health issues in the U.S., particularly among young, isolated men, could be a way to curb the amounts of deadly incidents.
“One place for leaders to focus, as we’ve long argued, is mental health,” the article said. “This is a matter of policy more than money … The problem is identifying those with mental illness who are a threat, and then allowing society to intervene to prevent violence.”
The article concluded that a decline in participation in socializing institutions like churches, social groups, and rotary clubs could be leading to further feelings of isolation that cannot be solved with government instituted policy and programs. “Recognizing this reality is not a counsel of despair to do nothing about mass shootings,” they stated, “But revitalizing these private institutions of social capital is crucial to reversing the cultural decline at the root of so many of America’s ills.”
[Related: Biden slams Trump’s ‘divisive’ presidency]
