WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, under coronavirus quarantine in the White House and restricted from travelling, is grasping for ways to put a spark back in his struggling re-election bid and mount a comeback with four weeks left until Election Day.
Trump has been looking for options on how to get his message out and cut into Democrat Joe Biden’s lead in battleground states where the November 3 election will be decided, advisers said.
They said they had been discussing Trump delivering a national address, while a speech to senior voters is being contemplated for Thursday.
Vice President Mike Pence’s debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City will take centre stage of the campaign on Wednesday.
Complications abound. Trump aides say he is impatient to get back on the campaign trail and insistent on debating Biden on October 15 in Miami, but Biden said on Tuesday he will not participate if Trump is not virus-free.
The White House’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said on Wednesday that Trump was eager to get back to work in the Oval Office. He has been working from a makeshift space in his residence in the White House since returning on Monday from three days in hospital. “He wanted to go to the Oval yesterday. If he decides to go the Oval we’ve got safety protocols there,” Meadows told reporters, adding there would be adequate personal protective equipment and ventilation.
He described Trump, who has received treatment with a steroid that is normally used in the most severe cases, as being “in very good health.”
Any political boost Trump could get from a fresh injection of stimulus money into Americans’ pockets appears to be out of reach after he abruptly ended negotiations with Democrats on Tuesday, with both sides far apart on how much money to devote to a deal.
Both Biden and the top Democrat in the US Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accused Trump of abandoning needy Americans. Republican Senator Susan Collins, facing a tough re-election bid in her home state of Maine, called Trump’s move a “huge mistake.” “The president turned his back on you,” Biden said in a Twitter post.
With layoffs in key industries mounting by the day and threatening the fragile recovery, Trump late on Tuesday urged Congress to quickly pass $25 billion in funding for passenger airlines, $135 billion for small businesses and provide $1,200 stimulus checks for Americans.
“I am ready to sign right now,” Trump wrote in a tweet. Meadows said he was not optimistic that a deal could be reached and that the Trump administration backed a more piecemeal approach. “We’re still willing to be engaged, but I’m not optimistic for a comprehensive deal. — Reuters
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