Latest poll leaves Trump trailing Joe Biden by 14 points in November election
Donald Trump is fourteen percentage points behind Joe Biden, a new poll has found, revealing the vast gap the US president must narrow in the next four months if he is to win a second term.
The New York Times poll matches other recent surveys showing Mr Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, far in the lead as Mr Trump struggles to readjust to an electoral landscape transformed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Biden is not just winning by huge margins among women, voters under 50 and African-Americans, according to the poll, but is also ahead with men, a voting group which has consistently been with Mr Trump throughout his presidency.
The findings will cause further alarm in the Trump campaign as it appears to struggle to find a message that connects with voters after the Covid-19 outbreak forced the spotlight onto Mr Trump’s ability to lead during a crisis.
The pandemic has pushed the US economy into recession, robbing Mr Trump of the booming growth that was the bedrock of his re-election pitch, and left more than 120,000 Americans dead from Covid-19.
A key attack line the Trump campaign had been deploying for months, about how “radical socialists” now dominate the Democratic Party, has also been weakened given Bernie Sanders’s failure to win the party’s nomination.
Mr Trump’s 36 per cent logged by the New York Times is well below the 46 per cent he won in the 2016 election, suggesting many of those with him then are having second thoughts.
Mr Biden leads Mr Trump by 22 percentage points among women, 34 points among those aged under 34 and 74 points among black voters, according to the poll.
Recent surveys have shown that while Mr Biden is trusted best to handle the coronavirus crisis, Mr Trump is better trusted on the economy.
Mr Trump will be hoping for a major change in fortunes in the less than 150 days to go before the vote, which will see both sides holding conventions in August before the much-anticipated head-to-head debates.
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