Would you say covid cost Trump the White House?
My neighbor believes that absent the disease he would still be President.
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Trump’s idiotic tweets and comments cost him the White House (I voted for him in 2016 and 2020). Never again.
No, I would say being a terrible criminally corrupt ignorant selfish bigot with terrible policies trying undermine almost every government organization, caused him to have a negative approval rating throughout his 2016 campaign and his stay in office, and led to his losing reelection.
I agree with @gondwanalon . It was his political, unprofessional antics.
Looking at the numbers with a little simple math, we can see that it only took 2% of his previous supporters, that is 1 person in 50, who were fed up with his antics. 1 woman in 50 could have decided they had enough of his sexism. 1 person in 50 was sick of hearing about his corruption and non-payment of taxes and . 1 in 50 were angry about his spreading bile and decided he was not the person they wanted to lead the country. You can add other potential strikes.
The bottom line was that 1 in 50 switched and that was all that was needed.
I have often said that I think it played a large role in his loss. I think he won in 2016 because he followed eights years of Democratic rule. I think Trump’s “grievance politics” work better following a presidency of the “other side”. It was always going to be harder for him to win a second term without being able to point at Democrats and talk about how they ruined the country. That was his entire pitch. If things were bad in 2020 he had no one to blame but himself and his administration. And things were really bad because of the pandemic. So yes, I think there’s a good chance he would’ve won had it not been for COVID.
The 2 impeachments didn’t help.
I think his gross mishandling of the pandemic weighed heavy on presidency.
However, I think the incredible amount of corruption, matched with his incompetence (for one, Puerto Rico) angered a wide amount of the non-voting electorate, turning them into voters.
I think, in large part, it did. I also believe that he has caused us to be losing the war against the pandemic. An intelligent president would never have said the things he did regarding Covid and vaccines. Even if…IF…we’d had a president who due to some crazy, magical thinking actually believed those same lies, an intelligent president never would have said those things.
There are two different questions here.
1. Did his non-handling of Covid cause republican voters to not vote for him again in large numbers?
2. Did his non-handling of Covid cause democratic non-voters to come out of the woodworks to vote for Biden to get rid of the orangutan?
For me, the answers to those are:
1. No. In fact, he got about 12 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016. Even someone claiming “never again”, still voted for the guy a second time. And he will do so again when drumpf runs again in 2024.
2. Yes. Biden received 16 million more votes than Hillary did.
I would like to say Trump’s laziness, corruption and incompetence cost him the White House but alas in the eyes of many these are virtues. Covid was just the most blatant example of Trump’s inability to understand let alone manage the issues facing his country.
His sociopathic behavior in dealing with Covid sealed his fate and even without Covid I think he would have lost simply because majority of American voters didn’t want an a-hole at the WH.
Good to hear @gondwanalon. What happened to change your mind?
He would have crushed Biden had there been no pandemic, Though I think Bernie stood a much better chance of winning in that scenario, and I’m confident Bernie would have crushed Trump had that been on the ballot.
I’m going to agree with @gondwanalon on this one. The irrational and un-Presidential behavior is why he lost. Jan 6th sealed his fate. For me, Covid had little to do with it, although he could have handled it better.
And I’ll hand it to Democrats, the continual name-calling, the WS feeling empowered, the protests/riots, all of it was too much for the country to handle another four years. Especially during Covid, which is such a stressful period.
Let’s see, the economy was going great, our trade agreements were much improved, the border was under control, N.Korea was quiet, hell the only thing the democrats could scream bout was the pandemic. Even now the only tool in our arsenal is the vaccine and that was developed under Trump. Democrats were saying it would take a couple of years to make a vaccine, maybe more. Even at the end of the campaign, if the approval had come a few days earlier before the election, Trump may still have won. You’ve got to give the demcrats credit for holding back the approval until after the election. sneaky and underhanded but effective.
His handling of covid hurt him, but it was before covid that he started losing the White House. My Republican friends who voted for Biden were already disgusted with Trump before covid. Encouraging racism and hate and violence and so many of his other destructive antics. A close friend of mine told her parents to stop watching Fox News, and she has been a Republican her entire voting life. Another friend who is a retired social worker who worked at a Psych hospital almost her entire career couldn’t believe she didn’t realize his destructive behavior in 2016 and calls him a narcissist. I can name off six Republican friends in my fairly tight friend circle who thought he was terrible and dangerous. Most of those same friends believe we need to do something about climate change also. It is not just Trump, it is the party at this point.
@Jaxk And, the deficit was going up even though the economy was going great. Why is that ok? There is no excuse for not paying down the debt with so much money being made.
Look at it a little differently. If Trump had handled the whole situation – from discovery to vaccine – in a competent and trustworthy way, then he might very well have won the election.
But was dismissive, he had politicians – not competent people – handling the crisis, and he couldn’t get around his own ego.
Self-induced loss.
@Jaxk Trump just rode on the Obama recovery, and may have helped it by dismantling pollution restraints.
”Trump’s idiotic tweets and comments cost him the White House” @Gondowlen. He was.posting idiotic tweets well before he got to the White House. Yet you still voted for him in 2016 and in 2020? I don’t understand.
@JLeslie – I assume your whining about the tax cuts. That’s how they work. You give up a little on the front end to gain massively through economic growth. Given the spending democrats are doing you have no credibility on deficits and should be embarrassed to even bring them up.
@filmfann – You must be kidding. Obama had the slowest most lethargic recovery in history. Bragging about it is absurd.
@Jaxk I have a problem with a lot of the spending, don’t you worry.
Why did we need the tax cuts?
@Jaxk What you think about the long-term prospects of a company that slashed investments in employee training and R&D and then bonuses out executives and issued stock buybacks while taking out major loans to finance it?
@Jaxk that’s crap about Obama’s recovery. Roosevelt had the slowest recovery from our worst recession. Obama had our second worst recession and brought us from the brink of catastrophe to recovery before his second inauguration.
@JLeslie – Tax rate changes don’t work the way democrats say they do. We are constantly being told that some companies make huge profits while not paying any taxes so we need to increase the tax rate. Raising the rate affects those companies that are already paying the current rate Typically small businesses) but have no effect on those not paying. Think about it, if your paying 10% on profits and the rate is increased to 20% your taxes double. If your paying zero at the 10% rate and they increase your taxes to 20%, you’re still paying ZERO. Rate increases bleed the small businesses and middle class dry. Rate decreases help the small businesses and middle class. That’s why I support rate cuts and that’s why Trump did it.
@gorillapaws – I don’t know what point you’re trying to make. I don’t have a problem with any of that if they are trying to improve the companies financial position. Keep the interest rates at zero and people will borrow money. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
@stanleybmanly – You disappoint me. The economy contracted for about three years at the beginning of the Depression but once it turned around the economy grew at rats about 10%. Obama on the other hand saw the economy level and turn around before any of his recovery measures ever spent a dime. His economic plan merely slowed the rate of recovery.
This is probably not the question to be arguing the insipid economic plans of both Obama and FDR so I’ll leave it at that.
@Jaxk I completely agree with what you said. You’re just talking corporate, I’m talking personal taxes. Corporate needs to be addressed also, but that would take much more than just changing tax rates.
@Jaxk I must agree with you that we have no business discussing or comparing recovery records if you do not regard Obama’s bank , GM, etc. bailouts as “recovery measures”.
@stanleybmanly – The bank bailouts were Bush and GM still went bankrupt.
Bush may have initiated the bank bailouts, but it was Obama who with his Congressional majority endorsed and oversaw 350 billion dollars in relief of any bank debt along with the capitalization of those thieving institutions, absolving them of any and ALL responsibility for the meltdown of their making—all of this at the direct expense of borrowers ruthlessly thrown under the bus without consideration. Obama was without question deliberately responsible for pulling the maggot laden financial sector from the brink of ruin through bailing the banks out without ANY requirement for significant reform or regulation. It was an unforgivable outrage as well as a vivid demonstration regarding the collusion of both parties in advancing the interests of fat cats at the direct and visible expense of the people. The recovery MUST be credited to Obama. And any attempt at revision of that history amounts to flagrantly transparent revisionism. You’ll never get away with it. And failed or not, no one can credibly claim the 50 billion GM bailout not a recovery measure.
He lost because the media was out to get him and he played right into their hands with his asinine behavior. Generally being a completely unfit leader does not seem to matter anymore. For example: Joe Biden. Elections are about teams and emotions now.
^^^ That reminds me of an SNL skit. “The media is against me because they print every thing I do and everything I say.”
Trump was his own worst enemy.
^^Remember not all media were critical of him. He has his own propaganda network.
Fox news, that was about it. Even they were critical at times but rightfully so.
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