A fight between the US President and his election campaign manager, Brad Parscale, over a recent drop in Trump’s poll numbers reportedly resulted Trump threatening Parscale with a lawsuit, The Guardian reports.
The argument happened last Friday as the number of US deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic reached 50,000 and Trump’s suggestion that injecting disinfectant could be used to treat coronavirus continued to be met with alarm, despite the President walking back on the comments.
According to multiple sources, Trump repeatedly swore at Parscale and said he would not lose to Joe Biden – the Democrat frontrunner – in November’s presidential election.
The President later tweeted that Parscale “is doing a great job”.
“I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), and have no intention to do so,” he wrote.
But the story highlights a serious problem for Trump.
Despite his approval rating briefly surging at the start of the pandemic, the President’s polls have slumped since then. Many blame his performance at the White House’s daily coronavirus briefings – where he has criticised the media for questioning the slow government response and pedalled misinformation (such as the disinfectant comments).
But the President has said he doesn’t “believe the polls” and the election does not represent a referendum on his administration’s handling of the pandemic.
Other would argue that it does.
