President Donald Trump has worked to counter the Democratic program with trips and jabbing at Biden. In addition to airing his thoughts on Twi…
Back in 2016, Trump was criticized for failing to release detailed policy plans akin to those of his rival, Hillary Clinton. What Trump did do was lay out a vision for a new America — one driven by a nationalist self-interest and disregard for Democratic norms.
In the years since, Trump has acted on that vision, making good on his nativist immigration rhetoric, tearing back regulations on business and transforming America's role in the world by abandoning multilateral agreements and upending decades-old alliances, cheered on by many of his most loyal supporters and generating great alarm among his critics.
But will that matter when more than 175,000 Americans have died and more than 5.5 million have been infected by a virus that has hit the U.S. far harder than other industrialized nations?
"I think the golden egg of Trump's reelection effort is going to be the promises kept, such as getting two Supreme Court justices in power and keeping America out of foreign wars like Afghanistan and Iraq," said Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian at Rice University. "The problem he has is that his COVID response wasn't on the ballot in 2016 and he's gotten poor marks on how he's handled the pandemic. So that's put a wrinkle in his promises kept talking points."
