Has Trump successfully politicized the pandemic?

(Image credit: Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

published 22 May 2020

A new poll from Politico and Harvard's School of Public Health found that Americans are broadly concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic — 78 percent of respondents called their state's outbreak a "serious problem," including 88 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Republicans, and 77 percent of independents. But there is a sharp new partisan divide about how to respond.

When asked if nonessential businesses — like hair salons, gyms, malls — should be allowed to reopen in their state, 51 percent said no, not until the spread of COVID-19 has been contained, while 46 percent said yes. But 61 percent of Republicans favored opening all businesses now, as President Trump has been forcefully pushing, while 69 percent of Democrats backed keeping nonessential businesses closed, a position most public health experts prefer.

"What we have here is a very real partisan split that you don't expect to find in a public health epidemic," Robert Blendon, the Harvard health policy professor who helped design the poll, tells Politico. "I think the president and many Republican leaders in the Congress have really defined getting the economy going as a critical issue, where Democrats don't buy into that focus." The poll was conducted May 5-10 among 1,007 adults and has a margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points.

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Trump has been trying to get Americans to subscribe to the idea of transitioning to a feeling of normalcy, and he has succeeded in one way, John Harris argues at Politico: "The incumbent president has managed to make American politics the first arena of national life to return to something recognizable as normal." Harris explains:

Campuses are still closed, and may yet be for months to come. Most people still don't feel it's safe to visit aging relatives. ... But political culture has returned to something close to its pre-pandemic state. People are filled with resentment and malice toward their fellow citizens. They are arguing over eccentric or ephemeral controversies. They are sanctimoniously and often hypocritically denouncing the sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy of their opponents. Above all, many influential voices across the ideological spectrum are united in the assumption that the most important subject — constant and all-consuming — to be thinking and talking about is Trump. [John Harris, Politico]

Trump is "trying to get American politics back to normal, as he understands the word," Harris writes. "At least in some narrow ways he knows it's working." Read his column at Politico.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.