Welcome to week five of Washington DC's
official coronavirus lockdown, though most of us
have now been working from home for the best
part of two months.
The topic occupying a lot of people's minds
in the city this week is Donald Trump's reputation.
After a tumultuous week last week in which he appeared
to suggest injecting antiseptic might be a treatment
for the virus, before then insisting that he was being
sarcastic, the president this weekend abruptly cancelled his
daily media appearances.
The Washington Post reported that this
was because he had been presented with polling evidence
showing that he was slipping in the polls
and falling behind his rival Joe Biden in certain key swing
states.
His advisers apparently had told him
that his occasionally erratic media
performances were to blame.
Well, it is certainly true that Donald Trump's rating
has fallen in recent weeks after a bump
during the initial phases of the outbreak.
But then the same is true for pretty much every major world
democratic leader.
Countries across the world have rallied
behind their governments in the early stages of this crisis,
before then asking slightly tougher policy
questions about those governments responses
in recent weeks.
The remarkable thing for Donald Trump
is how stable his approval ratings have remained
throughout all of this.
In fact, his approval rating has remained
within a band of 35 per cent to 45 per cent
for pretty much the entirety of his presidency.
Compare that with Boris Johnson, for example,
whose approval ratings started off this year at around 48
per cent before soaring to 66 per cent just a few weeks ago
and then drifting slightly to 60 per cent.
What that tells me about Donald Trump
is that pretty much most Americans have made up
their minds about him.
Just under half like him.
Just over half dislike him.
That really hasn't changed throughout everything -
throughout the Russia allegations,
throughout the impeachment inquiry,
and now throughout the coronavirus outbreak.
That doesn't, however, mean that he is
set to lose the next election.
Remember that in 2016 he lost the popular vote to Hillary
Clinton but won enough of those key swing states
to beat her in the overall election.
The same could happen this time around regardless
of coronavirus.