Trump's campaign strategy is to use race to deflect from Covid-19

https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/trump-s-campaign-strategy-is-to-use-race-to-deflect-from-covid-19-1.1044485

Trump's campaign strategy is to use race to deflect from Covid-19
The US President hopes voters somehow will prioritise saving statues as their country buckles under a pandemic



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Mr Trump often insists he is among the greatest presidents and his aides promote doctored photographs depicting him added to "Mount Rushmore, improved".

This is not just a narcissistic personality run amok. His effort to turn himself into a living national monument is the politically calculated centre of his flagging re-election campaign.

But it is, at the very least, Plan D.

Plan A had Mr Trump running on the strength of an economy he insists was "the greatest in the history of the world", but was essentially what he inherited from his predecessor Barack Obama.

Enter the coronavirus.

Plan B was to pose as the great national unifier fighting the pandemic. But, not wanting the responsibility, he did not craft a national strategy, and instead forced most major decisions on to state authorities.

The US handling of the pandemic is surely among the worst anywhere, with the virus continuing to spread rapidly, over 130,000 Americans dead, and the living no longer allowed into much of Europe.

Plan C was marshalling post-pandemic economic rejuvenation. But with the virus still spreading, a strong economic recovery before November has become fanciful.


Then came nationwide protests against systemic racism following the death of George Floyd in police custody. Voila, Plan D: Mr Trump running as the great white culture warrior chieftain, defender of a national mythology that undergirds white ethnic power and privilege.