Long on the defensive about the federal coronavirus response, President Trump is starting to go on the offense against his Democratic challengers.
"Today, we saw Joe Biden continue to politicize a pandemic and to show his appalling lack of respect for the American people," Trump declared at a White House press conference. "That's what it is. At every turn, Biden has been wrong about the virus, ignoring the scientific evidence and putting left-wing politics before facts and evidence."
Trump argues that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee opposed travel bans and supports one-size-fits-all national policies that would keep economy-crippling lockdowns in place past the recommendations of scientific advisers.
"Sleepy Joe opposed both the China and the Europe travel bans. You know that," Trump said Thursday. "He opposed the China travel ban that I instituted very early and the Europe travel ban that I instituted quite early." Trump then invoked Dr. Anthony Fauci: "He said that President Trump made a great decision when he put the ban on China."
Trump slammed the idea of a national mask mandate while urging voluntary wearing of protective face coverings when social distancing isn't possible. "If the president has the unilateral power to order every single citizen to cover their face in nearly all instances, what other powers does he have?" he asked. "That's why he refused, Biden, to take questions. He couldn't answer any of them."
"It's about time," said one Republican operative. "While the Democrats are far from blameless, Trump continues his ridiculous narrative that there's nothing to see here. And it's killing him in the polls."
After a brief rally in March, the public gave Trump increasingly low marks on his handling of the pandemic. It is a major reason Biden has overtaken him in the polls. The former vice president has accused Trump of giving up on trying to contain the virus. His new running mate, Kamala Harris, went even further.
"This virus has impacted almost every country," the Democratic senator from California said. "But there is a reason it has hit America worse than any other advanced nations. It's because of Trump's failure to take it seriously."
Democrats point to rising case numbers and nearly 170,000 deaths in the United States, including just under 1,500 on Wednesday alone, as evidence of Trump's failure. They also point out Biden is not calling for a federal policy mandating masks, just urging state governors to do so nationwide. Trump contends that the Democrats' solution is "locking all Americans in their basements for months on end.”
"The president has done exactly what the federal government should be doing — support state and local efforts," said Republican strategist Bradley Blakeman. "It is up to the states to care for their own populations. President Trump has never once denied federal support to state and local governments — be it personnel, equipment, or financial assistance."
"My administration has exercised the authority under the Defense Production Act to a number (and related authorities) 78 times, dispersing over $3.5 billion to speed the development and manufacturing of essential materials," Trump said Friday, later adding, "I've used the DPA more comprehensively than any president in history."
"By invoking the DPA, we mobilized the extraordinary productive might of General Motors to manufacture ventilators," Trump continued. "GM repurposed the Kokomo, Indiana, plant in just 17 days (an all-time record) and has now produced over 21,000 ventilators." He also cited substantial increases in N95 mask production.
"Overall, we've increased N95 mask production by 400 million masks a year," said Trump. "Now, the media might say, 'Why not 500? Why not 600?' Nobody has seen numbers like this ever."
The pushback comes at a precarious time for Trump. A PBS Newshour/NPR/Marist poll released on Friday found that 53% of U.S. adults trusted Biden to cope with the coronavirus, compared to only 37% for the president. This is driving Trump's slide to a 39% job approval rating overall. The same poll had Biden leading Trump among registered voters 53% to 42%.
This suggests Trump has his work cut out for him in terms of convincing voters he is up to the task, even as his allies find the perceptions unfair.
"One size does not fit all — what is good for California is not necessarily good for South Carolina," Blakeman said. "Most criticism of the president’s actions are by failed Democrat regimes and left-sympathetic media. Humans cannot stop hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, solar flares, tsunamis, or pandemics. We can only seek to mitigate and get through the natural disaster with as few casualties as humanly possible. It is too easy to blame and deflect responsibility."
“To Joe," Trump said at the White House, "I would say stop playing politics with the virus."
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