Piers Morgan, a former friend of the US President, has claimed Donald Trump was “found out” during the coronavirus pandemic. He explained his skill set did not suit the global health crisis and America wants to a “period to reset”. Speaking to LBC, Mr Morgan said: “In many ways, you could say in January he was storming to a very comfortable reelection.
“Then he got hit by the pandemic. And in the same way as Boris Johnson in this country had a particular skills set to get elected in December, in the same way Trump did by being very populist and very upbeat and overtly positive.
“When these rather populist leaders got hit by a very serious health crisis those skills turned out to be very useless.
“In fact what the world needed were more Angela Merkels, former physicists who had the right idea of how seriously to take this and how to take appropriate action.
“Trump I think has been found out by the pandemic.”
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He added: “People are exhausted of the Trump circus in America and I think that when so many have died and you saw all the protests after the George Floyd killing and the cack-handed way he dealt with that too.
“I just feel like he’s had a terrible year and America wants a period to reset and calm down.”
His comments come as pollsters suggest Mr Trump could lose the US election over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
With three weeks to go until the November 3 election, COVID-19 remains “front and centre” for the American voting public, and how the administration has dealt with the pandemic looks set to be the deciding issue.
“This is an election that’s going to be about the pandemic. And if that’s how the Biden campaign can frame it, then that probably gives them an advantage.”
According to Ipsos polls, the former vice president has a 10-point lead on the incumbent. However, as in 2016, the vote looks like it will come down to six key states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Florida.
But polls are not an accurate prediction of what will happen on election day, and traditionally the sitting president has an advantage when it comes to a second-term election. In another closely run race, Ipsos predictions currently give President Trump 50-50 odds of being re-elected.
Ms Newall said: “Polls are a snapshot in time, they’re designed to tell us how the American public views the race right now, not necessarily predicting what we think is going to happen on election day.”