US election may turn out by the book
As the US presidential election ploughs through its final stretch, President Donald Trump finds himself wading through muddy terrain caused by a flood of new behind-thescenes revelations.
New books on the Trump years are out, complete with extracts to stir interest.
There’s former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s Disloyal, Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s Rage and former FBI deputy assistant director of counterintelligence Peter Strzok’s Compromised. New York Times
reporter Michael Schmidt has a book out. Also due before the November 3 election is a memoir by Rick Gates, a former 2016 Trump campaign aide and a witness in the Russia probe.
Readers may have not yet finished Mary Trump’s study of her uncle, Too Much and Never Enough, or former national security adviser John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened.
Woodward’s book has made the biggest splash, confirming via 18 taped interviews that Trump misled the public about the pandemic.
Woodward writes that national security officials told the President in late January that Covid-19 could be as bad as the pandemic of 1918. On February 7, Trump called Woodward and they talked about a call the President had held with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump said of the virus: “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed . . . It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus. This is deadly stuff.”
But he did not warn citizens at that time, when public co-operation would have been most effective. In February and early March, Trump instead publicly uttered comments such as “I think the virus is . . . going to be fine” and it is “very well under control in our country”. He compared it to the flu and said it would “go away” and “we’ve done a great job”.
Trump told Woodward in March that he tried in his public statements to deliberately minimise the danger. “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic.” The US is on course this month to reach 200,000 deaths and 6.4 million cases.
More revelations will emerge. Each book potentially contains pitfalls for the President and the books have a way of confirming each other with his statements on minorities, the military and other topics.
There is no longer much surprise about Trump’s behaviour to still squeeze out. Many in the US and around the world have become numb to his polarising character, actions and statements. Yet even with low expectations and fatigue, some information can still have an impact, and timing is an important factor.
A story last week in the Atlantic, corroborated by other news outlets, alleging that Trump called dead and captured US military members “losers” and “suckers”, would likely have hit home to many US families. Patriotism and sacrifice as it relates to soldiers is an emotional issue.
Trump was unusually forced into defence over the story. There are a lot of troops and veterans in key swing states. “I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes,” the commanderin-chief said in response. Days later,
Trump tweeted a campaign video showing himself with the military.
Yet according to a previous Trump book, A Very Stable Genius by Washington Post journalists Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, he once told collected generals at a Pentagon meeting: “You’re all losers. You don’t know how to win anymore.”
Trump, who avoided the Vietnam War draft five times, added: “I wouldn’t go to war with you people. You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”
The Atlantic story emerged after a poll of US troops in the Military Times showed Joe Biden was preferred to Trump by 41.3 per cent to 37.4 per cent. In October 2016 Trump had 40.5 per cent support to Hillary Clinton’s 20.6 per cent.
With the election near, every day lost to defending or denying an unpopular position is dangerous for a candidate trying to drive the news in favourable ways — especially Trump who is lagging in the polls, on the wrong side of most issues of concern to voters, as early voting is about to start.
Trump’s approval rating has tended to range from the high 30s to the mid-40s. Previous setbacks have temporarily pushed it to the lower end. Hs solid base is not enough for him to win. He needs other voters who might be persuaded that Trump, for example, would be better at handling the economy.
Should something big happen while early voting is under way, or near election day, it could make a difference for a small number of undecided voters or people unmoved to vote at all.
The books have a way of confirming each other with Trump’s statements on minorities, the military and other topics.