You do wonder what it will take for Republican supporters to no longer stand behind Donald Trump.
All of the US President’s misdemeanours up until this point pale into insignificance when compared with his actual advice to the American people of injecting themselves with bleach to ward off Covid-19.
Trump claimed afterwards that he was simply being sarcastic – here’s the transcript of his actual wording:
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical doctors with – but it sounds interesting to me.”
Does that sound sarcastic to you?
Reporter: Could you clarify your comments on injections of disinfectants?
Trump: I was asking the question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen…
Reporter: But you were asking your medical experts to look into it pic.twitter.com/T0hzizjgpN— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 24, 2020
Most troublingly, and you do wonder how these people have survived in life until this point, in New York it was reported that there was a spike in the incidences of locals ingesting cleaning products. No, I haven’t made that up.
As if one potentially fatal piece of medical advice wasn’t enough for the President, he then went on to suggest that Americans should bathe themselves in UV light to help kill off the virus’ cell production – again, that is hopelessly dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.
“I’m not a doctor. But I’m, like, a person that has a good you-know-what,” the most powerful man on the planet continued, pointing to his temple.
All of which you might think would make Trump vulnerable ahead of the next Presidential election, which is scheduled to take place in November.
But, according to the latest odds from the Betfair Exchange, nothing could be further from the truth….
Bulletproof Trump?
The charts on the Exchange are interesting, because other than a blip over a year ago Trump has not traded at longer than 2.50 since.
Indeed, when the US Stock Exchange reached all-time highs in February, his odds shortened as far as 1.50.
Even during this coronavirus outbreak, and even for his dumbfounding ‘advice’, he remains the favourite in the market at around the 2.10 mark.
And that price isn’t merely circumstantial, either. Joe Biden has all but been sworn in as the Democrat candidate, and yet his odds have only ricocheted between 2.32 and 2.40 thus far.
Trying to understand why even the most hardened of Republican’s haven’t denounced Trump as yet is difficult to process, although perhaps the tide is starting to turn somewhat. The data agency FiveThirtyEight have been running their own popularity index for the President throughout his time in office, and right now he is at 43.4% approval and 50.7% disapproval, with the remaining 5.9% – almost unbelievably – having no opinion on Trump whatsoever.
Donald Trump Approval Rating via FiveThirtyEight
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on April 10, Trump’s approval rating was 40% – roughly the same as it has been throughout his first term in the White House.
At the moment, you sense he could do or say pretty much anything and still be likely to triumph come November.
Boris Bounds On Amid the Turmoil
You nearly die of a previously unseen virus and then witness the birth of your sixth child – it’s been quite a few months for Boris Johnson.
When the dust has settled on the pandemic, there will of course be a full and frank post mortem into how the UK handled Covid-19, and where improvements could have been made.
It is difficult to be too hard on those in charge – there has never been anything like this in decades if not centuries, and so queries about preparedness and hot potatoes like that are simply after-timing at its best.
Indeed, it seems as if – like Trump – public support for Boris as Prime Minister will remain largely intact, and with the bookies offering such a market he is odds-on to reign in 10 Downing Street until 2024 or later.
Usually in times of political crisis there is a scapegoat or a figure that is thrown under the bus. And, in 2020, you can surely expect this year’s model to be Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Healthcare.
All eyes are on him, and unfortunately he continues to fail in his own set targets – testing 100,000 people a day has still to be achieved weeks down the line.
It’s harsh, but the British public will need somebody to blame when all of this over – expect Hancock to be clearing his desk before the year is out.
