NY TIMES
The president erupted recently at his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, after seeing polling data that showed Mr. Trump trailing Joe Biden in several states
Frustrated by a faltering economy that is out of his control, and facing blowback for his suggestion that disinfectants could potentially combat the coronavirus, President Trump had sunk to one of his lowest points in recent months last week. And he directed his anger toward the one area that is most important to him: his re-election prospects.
Mr. Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the exchange, erupted during a phone call with his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, two days after he was presented with polling data from his campaign and the Republican National Committee that showed him trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, in several crucial states.
He lashed out at Mr. Parscale and said it was other people’s fault that there had been fluctuations in a race they were confident about just two months ago. At one point, Mr. Trump said he would not lose to Mr. Biden, insisted the data was wrong and blamed the campaign manager for the fact that he is down in the polls, according to one of the people familiar with the conversation. Mr. Trump even made a threat to sue Mr. Parscale, mentioning the money he has made while working for the president, another person familiar with the call said, although the threat did not appear to be serious.
The lack of easy options to reset his political trajectory has been deeply unsettling to Mr. Trump, who began the year confident about his re-election prospects because of a thriving economy, but whose performance on the virus has Republicans nervous about losing the White House and the Senate in November.
In the phone call last week, for instance, Mr. Trump demanded to know how it was possible that a campaign that had been projecting strength and invincibility for two years was polling behind a candidate he viewed as extremely weak and, at the moment, largely invisible from daily news coverage.
The answer, according to nearly a dozen people inside and outside the White House, lies in factors both beyond the president’s control, such as the economic downturn and the spread of the new form of coronavirus — as well as those in his control, namely, his playing down of the coronavirus over several weeks followed by his own performance at the briefing room podium.
Instead of calming the country or presenting a clear plan of action on testing, Mr. Trump has spent the majority of his time during the briefings nursing his grievances with Democrats and with members of the news media. His own advisers have pleaded with him to curtail the appearances, telling him that they hurt him more than help him.
At one particularly bad outing last week, a day before Mr. Trump screamed at Mr. Parscale, the president mused about the possibility of injecting disinfectants into people’s bodies to wipe out the virus, prompting responses ranging from outrage to mockery.
But Mr. Trump’s firm belief that the daily news conferences have been helpful to him is not backed up in the polls.
“What we’re seeing in polls is that Trump’s personal ratings have gone down even more than his job approval ratings,” said Geoff Garin, a veteran Democratic pollster. “And what that tells me is that all of Trump’s antics are taking a toll on his vote because now more than ever people see his lack of judgment and lack of temperament as being consequential.”
A Quinnipiac University poll last week, for instance, showed Mr. Biden ahead in Florida, 46 to 42 percent. And a recent Fox News poll found Mr. Biden leading Mr. Trump, 49 to 41 percent, in Michigan.
The heated conversation with Mr. Parscale was not the first time Mr. Trump had expressed frustration at his top campaign adviser. But the connection between the candidate and his campaign apparatus has become more distant since the coronavirus outbreak, with Mr. Trump grounded at the White House and no longer able to reassure and re-energize himself with big rallies.
Mr. Trump, increasingly anxious about losing the election, has told his advisers he is worried about hitting Mr. Biden too hard too soon, fearing that they could risk knocking him out of the race altogether. Mr. Trump has continued to see himself as able to determine the outcome of the Democratic primary contest, aides said, despite all evidence to the contrary.
He has mused about Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, whose coronavirus briefings he has been intently focused on, emerging as the Democratic nominee, if Mr. Biden should somehow falter (a fantasy among a number of Republicans, and one that Democrats have made clear won’t happen).
For now, Mr. Trump’s campaign is not airing television ads, the only kind the president cares about. The president nixed a series of ads the campaign was set to air that tried to portray Mr. Biden as close to China; one adviser said this was because Mr. Trump thinks it is too early for such a tough blow.