Listen to this article

US President Donald Trump and his advisers are suggesting a high-octane replay of the closing two weeks of his 2016 campaign. Their nonstop travel for packed rallies filled with attacks on alleged Democratic corruption in a bid was to reignite the outsider spirit that defied the polls once before. His opponent Joe Biden has maintained powerful ratings, in spite of the health authorities discouraging his largely mask-less outdoor events. President Trump is now trying to reassemble the core elements of his 2016 upset win, including news coverage of red-hatted spectacles. He also called for a criminal investigation of his rival and the mischaracterization of allegedly leaked documents in the final stretch of the campaign. On Saturday, a Trump rally in Ohio has shown how much he is reaching back to 2016.

President Trump informed the crowd and referred to wrongdoing by his opponents. He said, “There’s something going on. It happened this time four years ago, this time more”. Trump mentioned Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama for allegedly spying on his campaign. The crowd then started chanting “lock him up”, earlier chanted against Hillary Clinton as “lock her up” in 2016. Trump said, “It’s much better if I say, No, no, no, please”. President’s advisers have mentioned that data from the rallies and fundraising have indicated a late surge in support is again possible in spite of polls show the president trailing. Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said, “There are striking similarities to the president’s campaign in 2016, a tight race, enthusiasm advantage, and clear momentum down the stretch for Donald Trump”.

Point to be noted that Democrats have dismissed the narrative that conditions are coalescing for a repeat of 2016 as wishful thinking on the part of a president who is clearly losing. Beyond the specter of a devastating pandemic that he has failed to contain, they said, Trump is now the incumbent with a record that has energized Democrats in an almost unprecedented way. The Biden team said that American voters are looking for calm and competence. Trump’s attempts to draw parallels to his first campaign ran headlong into harsh epidemiological realities. The coronavirus epidemic forced Trump to scale back and cancel the events. These events include the nominating convention and his handling of the issue. Large gatherings give Trump a personal morale boost; his aides have been joking on Air Force One about the relatively quiet optics of Biden’s drive-in events.