Navigating Coronavirus — May 23

In today’s email, we look at Trump’s latest self-absorbed distraction meant to divide Americans and stoke a culture war, Mitch McConnell’s brazen rejection of unemployment aid while pushing to protect big businesses, and examine this week’s polling which reveals a public still worried about the impact of coronavirus on their health.

Read on for today’s Navigating Coronavirus…

It’s been 86 days since President Trump said we’d soon have zero cases in the U.S. We now have 1,645,000 cases and 97,000 deaths — more deaths than any other country in the world.

NOTABLE NUGGET…

• Trump’s wag-the-dog announcement on making churches “essential” isn’t even in step with his own evangelical base. Earlier this week, we revealed that 58% of Americans oppose reopening in the next few weeks; interestingly, given Trump’s attempt to stoke a culture war by demanding Governors allow churches to hold services this weekend, even his own base of white evangelicals has sizable opposition to reopening.
• THE DATA >> 46% of white evangelicals oppose reopening the country in the next few weeks, while 49% support. (22% strongly oppose, and 24% strongly support.) So Trump isn’t even in line with the very base he’s trying to target with this political diversion.

THE LATEST

Message guidance on the latest developments with President Trump’s handling of the crisis.

1. TRUMP’S POLITICAL SIDESHOWS ARE CAUSING CHAOS AND ENDANGERING AMERICANS.

More than 95,000 Americans have died as Trump tries to stoke a culture war over faith in America. All he cares about is politics and pitting Americans against each other.

• His “announcement” deeming houses of worship “essential” is nothing more than a political tactic meant to generate a day or two of news coverage, positioning himself as champion for his evangelical base, but he has no authority to open them up, and he cannot override state and local orders. All he is doing is causing chaos and putting people in danger.

He irresponsibly tried to shift responsibility and blame to states when it was convenient for him, now he’s trying to play tough by fanning division and playing games.

• TRUMP IN APRIL >> “I like to allow governors to make decisions without overruling them, because from a constitutional standpoint, that’s the way it should be done.”
• TRUMP YESTERDAY >> “The governors need to do the right thing… If they don’t do it, I will override the governors.”
• NAVIGATOR DATA >> 66% of Americans approve of their governor’s handling of coronavirus, again, including 66% of Evangelical Americans and 63% of Trump 2016 voters.

2. TRUMP IS COMPLETELY FOCUSED ON HIMSELF, NOT THE COUNTRY.

Trump spends more time on his poll numbers than the health and safety of the American people. He’s not only more focused on his own political interests than the country, he’s now actively making sweeping decisions on coronavirus based solely on his own political interests.

• WAPO: “Trump’s politically transparent push to reopen places of worship”
• “When it comes to reopening places of worship, he jumped over what’s constitutionally allowed and arguably medically advisable, in an apparent effort to move the country in a direction he thinks is better for his reelection.”

NAVIGATOR TRACKING NUMBERS . . .

FULL TOPLINES >> HERE

• As Trump tries to prematurely reopen the country, Americans remain primarily concerned about their health and many consider themselves vulnerable. Three months into this outbreak, and Americans continue to say their primary concern in this crisis is the impact it will have on the health of them and their families (73% vs. just 27% about personal finances). Among seniors 65+, it jumps even higher, to 84–16%.
• MORE >> About half of Americans consider themselves vulnerable to the virus, but among older Americans, it jumps to 76%.

• Concern about nursing homes has become top concern. We added a new question about how concerned Americans are about people in nursing homes, and it immediately became a top concern, with 87% of Americans worried.
• MORE >> Notably, 59% of Independents blame Trump for lax safety precautions that led to 1 in 3 American coronavirus deaths being in a nursing home.

ECONOMIC CRISIS IN CONTEXT

The latest on how the economic crisis sparked by coronavirus is actually fueled by years of President Trump’s conservative economic policies, focusing today on Trump and his allies’ refusal to help workers and families.

Now that Wall Street has bounced back and big businesses have been bailed out, Trump and McConnell are fighting back against critically-needed efforts to help workers and families.

• CNN: “McConnell shuts door on House plan for jobless funds”
• Trump and McConnell were happy to pour trillions of dollars into corporate bailouts and tax breaks for the rich but are now doing everything they can to stall and limit additional support for workers and families.
• Instead of worrying about the almost 40 million workers who filed for unemployment, McConnell is focused on protecting big business from any liability for putting their workers in danger.
• Here is the reality: Families need more support to make it through this crisis, and the economy won’t truly recover until the people who drive it — workers, families, and consumers — are back on their feet.

This is why Congress must reject Trump and McConnell’s anti-worker agenda and move quickly on sweeping legislation to help workers and families and get our economy back on track.

— -

Navigating Coronavirus is a joint project of Governing for Impact, Groundwork Collaborative, The Hub Project, and Navigator Research.

Know someone else who should be on our list? Have them SUBSCRIBE HERE