Analysis: Trump hardens campaign tone after virus batters economy

But the US is not performing the most coronavirus tests per capita. Multiple countries are performing more tests than the US relative to their populations, including Denmark, Italy and New Zealand.

Fauci’s testimony

Probably not by coincidence, Trump’s news conference and an announcement that the government would send $11 billion in already appropriated funds to states to boost testing came a day before the trusted top infectious disease official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is due to appear remotely in a Senate hearing. Fauci has not shirked from truth telling about the quality of the administration’s criticized testing effort, and Democrats will pepper him with questions designed to draw a damaging response.

But not for the first time, the President trampled over his own message with an ugly controversy involving race that also highlighted his frequent disdain for female journalists.

He snapped at an Asian American reporter who asked him why he was turning a tragic moment into a global competition on testing.

“Maybe that’s a question you should ask China,” Trump told Weijia Jiang, a White House reporter for CBS News who was born in China but moved to the US at the age of 2. Jiang appeared shocked by the President’s apparent conflating of her racial background with China. Trump then cut off the event when another female correspondent, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who had deferred to her colleague, tried to ask a question.

Even before that unpleasant moment, the Rose Garden event was already surreal, as reporters struggled to make their questions audible over muffling face masks as a result of the White House coronavirus outbreak, which graphically undermines Trump’s claims the country is safe to open.

Trump’s boasts on testing, a practice that he suggested as recently as last week was not that important in controlling the virus, may also have been designed to dismiss an impression that he and aides are benefiting from a testing and contact-tracing system that he is yet to provide to the rest of the nation.

Trump’s diminished messaging expectations were just one twist of a typically unchained appearance. In attacking China as the source of the virus, lashing out at former President Barack Obama, advertising his border wall, reminiscing about the previously roaring economy and claiming to have saved tens of thousands of lives, the President offered a glimpse of a campaign strategy apparently being retooled by the day.

But he offered his opponents an opening when he said in initial remarks that in every generation and challenge, America has risen to the task.

“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” he claimed.

Trump later clarified that he meant the US had prevailed in the battle to improve testing — a distinction unlikely to stop his remark popping up in a campaign ad that is likely to accuse him of a “Mission Accomplished” moment.

Trump accuses Obama of a ‘crime’

Trump has defied every expectation since the moment he descended the golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 to launch the most extraordinary political career in modern history. It is far too early to write him off in November, not least because many Democrats live in fear of the scorched-earth presidential campaign he is about to unleash. And the President enjoys formidable advantages in organization in key states and campaign financing over his rival, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

His mood on Monday shows how he will use every lever of the presidency to ensure his political survival.

While more people have died in America from Covid-19 than in any other country and few states satisfy the White House guidelines on stemming infections in order to safely reopen, Trump presented his management of the emergency as a famous victory.

“Thanks to the courage of our citizens and our aggressive strategy, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved,” the President said.

“We will transition into greatness. That’s a phrase you’re going to hear a lot, because that’s what’s going to happen,” Trump said, predicting a strong third quarter, a very good fourth quarter and then pent-up demand being unleashed next year. “It’s a transition to greatness. And greatness is next year,” he insisted.

Trump also signaled a new fallback strategy designed to whip up the fervor of his base by accusing his predecessor of mounting an attempt to cancel out his win in 2016 in what his supporters refer to as a “deep state plot.”

Shortly after Trump spoke, the scope of the Republican election attack became even more clear as Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa pressed the conspiracy theory on the Senate floor.

“The rule of law is at risk if the federal government can get away with violating the Constitution to do what they did to Lt. Gen. Flynn,” said Grassley. “Given all that we know now regarding the fake foundation to the inquiry, it’s time we asked: What did Obama and Biden know and when did they know it?”