Jonathan Chait: “Trump’s recent polling bump is real. The important context, though, is that every leader is getting approval bumps, and almost all of them are getting much bigger ones than Trump…”

“The double-edged sword of public opinion on the presidency is that Americans give the chief executive too much credit for good times and too much blame for bad ones. They expect presidents to solve all problems, even ones beyond the office’s capacity. Trump has conspicuously failed even to pantomime what that kind of leadership looks like. Mostly he talks about other things to blame: China, the Obama administration, various Democratic governors, General Motors, and the supposed (and clearly untrue) fact that ‘nobody saw this coming.’ He said on camera, ‘I don’t take responsibility at all,’ a line that will appear in almost every Democratic ad, because it violates Americans’ most fundamental requirements of their leaders.”

“Trump’s management of the coronavirus has been shambolic. Even the superficial communication of his management has been a disaster. His present, very modest high watermark in polling is a reservoir of goodwill that he is rapidly squandering. If he winds up winning reelection, it will be in spite of everything he has done so far.”