Trump still 'going to lose' election amid coronavirus: Anthony Scaramucci
The novel coronavirus has upended the daily lives of nearly all Americans, decimated the economy, and put millions out of work — but it has improved the re-election chances of President Donald Trump, acknowledged SkyBridge Founder and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. Still, he predicted that Trump will ultimately be stymied by the recession and lose in November.
“The odds of him winning have improved for him because this is viewed as a war,” Scaramucci, who has sharply criticized the president since serving as his communications director for just 10 days in 2017, told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief on April 2.
“I still think he’s going to lose,” adds Scaramucci, who pledged last month to campaign against Trump’s re-election and on Wednesday tweeted an image of the campaign logo of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. “There has been no modern president that's been able to withstand a recession in the election year.”
Both Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, the two most recent presidents who failed to win reelection, lost their bids in part due to an economic downturn. Carter, a Democrat, lost to Republican challenger Ronald Reagan in 1980 after a six-month recession that began in January of that year; and George H.W. Bush lost to Democratic challenger Bill Clinton in 1992, not long after an eight-month recession that began in July 1990.
Scaramucci pointed to a bump in approval ratings for Trump that followed the escalation of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. last month but said the political impact of the pandemic is difficult to know at this time.
A Gallup survey released on March 24 gave Trump a 49% approval rating, matching the highest of his presidency, only otherwise seen during the Senate impeachment hearings that resulted in his acquittal. Sixty percent of respondents approved of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the poll found.
“His approval ratings are up right now, although in a lot of the red states, they haven't been affected by the virus the way the coastal cities are or where the international transfer points are in the United States, like New York, or northern California,” Scaramucci says. “We've got a hotspot in Detroit; we've got one down in New Orleans.”
However, the public may be souring on Trump’s handling of the outbreak, according to a CNN poll released on Wednesday that found 55% of Americans think the federal government has done a poor job of preventing the spread of the virus, while 52% disapprove of the job Trump has done to address the pandemic.
“We'll have to see what happens to his political standing and his approval ratings once the pandemic reaches its high point,” Scaramucci adds.
On Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign, effectively confirming that former Vice President Joe Biden will face Trump in the general election in November. A national poll released by CNN on Thursday gives Biden a wide lead of 53% to 42% over Trump among registered voters.
Scaramucci made the remarks during a conversation that aired in an episode of Yahoo Finance’s “Influencers with Andy Serwer,” a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment.
A 31-year veteran on Wall Street, Scaramucci served briefly as President Donald Trump’s communications director three years ago but was fired after ranting to a New Yorker reporter about the president’s staff. In 2005, Scaramucci founded Manhattan-based investment firm Skybridge Capital, where he currently works as a managing partner.
Scaramucci credited the Trump administration for what he considers a more serious approach to the coronavirus outbreak of late, but criticized false information spread by the Trump administration about the pandemic.
“I am very happy with where we are now,” Scaramucci says. “He's made a 180 degree turn. And thank God he did that because it will save lives.”
Trump has touted malaria drug chloroquine as an effective treatment for coronavirus, though the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug as a coronavirus treatment and evidence of the drug’s efficacy in combating the virus remains uncertain.
“The president talks about fake news all the time,” he adds. “But a lot of the things coming out of his mouth are fake science. So what I'm hoping is we can get what's coming from the White House to be more congruent with the reality of the situation.”
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