It’s been nearly a month since Pres. Trump has held a “Keep America Great” campaign rally packed with thousands adoring supporters, the centerpiece of his re-election effort. His team has instead shifted to a fully virtual campaign effort.
Over the last few weeks, coronavirus infections have surged around the world, with the United States reaching crossing over 140,000 cases—a number that now leads all other countries. Hospitals are getting overwhelmed, states are demanding more resources, and the economy — the once crown jewel of the president’s reelection pitch— is crumbling, leaving industries upended and businesses shuttered around the country.
And last week, President Trump signed the largest relief bill in American history: a $2 trillion coronavirus aid package the government hope will slow the spread and aid local governments and businesses impacted by the virus. “We’ll get back to them,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told ABC News when asked about plans for future rallies. “Everybody is in this social distancing situation right now — all campaigns included — but it will pass.”President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally, March 2, 2020 in Charlotte, N.C.In the meantime, Trump has turned the lights back on in the long-dormant White House press briefing room.
Ultimately the briefings have provided the president the regular national stage he’s been lacking while rallies are on hold. The ad shows a clip from March 17th of New York Governor Chris Cuomo praising the president’s early response saying, “His team has been on it.” But the quote is 10 days old and since then the governor has criticized the federal government’s response multiple times.
“It's very different than a pandemic,” historian at Princeton University Julian E. Zelizer tells ABC News. “I think the nature of the enemy, the nature of what has to happen here in the U.S. to fight this enemy is very different than most of the wars that we've had.” The president’s seesaw response and tone around the virus, according to Zelizer, is not only confusing but dangerous. He argues that Trump eyeing the possibility of declaring victory over the virus early could have had detrimental consequences.
In one of the first major tests of the re-election team’s digital capabilities, staffers and volunteers across the country hit the phones from the comfort of their own homes over the weekend. “Zoom was actually the platform that I and others had used to conduct online trainings in the past,” Arizona Trump Victory state director Drew Sexton told ABC News in an interview. Sexton, who notes he and members of his team had been trained on the telecommunication software since last year.
“Trump is a natural online candidate in this setting,” Eitan Hersh, a political scientist at Tufts University, told ABC News. The Trump campaign also has a significant social media and digital media footprint it can utilize during this time. The team’s YouTube channel has over 25 million views, campaign senior advisor Lara Trump hosts a weekly online show called “Real News,” and the team pumps out weekly campaign podcasts.
The Trump team took another step into the online campaign world last Thursday, hosting its first digital event with Lara Trump, national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and political director Chris Carr. The event lasted around 30 minutes, and beyond some technical issues that saw McEnany’s video briefly interrupted, the trio spent most of the event echoing the president and the White House’s defense of the coronavirus response.
Biden’s first few digital events were marked by gaffes, awkward moments, and technical difficulties— which the president’s team jumped on and worked to spread across social media to tar the former vice president and target his mental abilities. And while Biden continues to target the president’s response to pandemic, most Americans have approved of Trump’s actions so far, as an ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Friday shows that 51 percent of respondents view Trump’s management of the outbreak in the United States favorably.Joe Biden livestreamed a press conference on March 23, 2020.Trump has also jumped from seven points behind Biden to a near tie, with the former vice-president ahead by 49% to 47% among registered voters.
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