Trump lags in polls as US anti-racism protests spread

New US polls show President Donald Trump is losing to likely Democratic challenger Joe Biden by 10 percentage points as anti-racism protests spread across the country.

The polls, conducted by ABC News and The Washington Post, showed Biden leading the president 53 percent to 43 percent among registered voters. Biden’s edge in a poll from the same organizations had been just 2 points two months ago, 49 percent to 47 percent.

The protests, that first broke out over the killing of African-American man George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, have exploded across the US as voters were already grappling with the coronavirus crisis and its economic impact.

The polls drew Trump’s ire on Monday, with the president, who is seeking re-election in November, taking to Twitter to complain about what he called “heavily biased Democrat Poll” amid signs he is feeling the pressure.

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Other polls haves shown similar results. A Yahoo News-YouGov poll released Monday put Biden’s lead at 8 points, 48 percent to 40 percent. A Fox News poll released May 21 put Biden up by an identical margin. In the RealClearPolitics national polling average, Trump trailed Biden by almost 6 points on Monday evening.

This came as US protesters braced for another night of confrontation on Monday, with Washington, New York and Los Angeles among the cities imposing curfews.

Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University and one of the few prominent observers to predict Trump’s 2016 victory, said the president is “really in much worse shape than he was five months ago.”

“There will be an electoral price to be paid for what is going on in the country,” Lichtman added regarding the fallout of the coronavirus crisis, exploding unemployment, economic disruption and snowballing social unrest.

Biden on Monday met local leaders at a predominantly black church in Wilmington, Delaware. He posted a photo on Twitter of himself taking notes while an African American woman spoke, adding the message that “leaders listen.”

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This came as Trump called on US governors to crack down on protesters, vowing to deploy US military if states cannot control the protests.

The US president warned late last week in a tweet that "once the looting starts, the shooting starts" — though he denied the next day that he was threatening to shoot protesters.

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US media said Trump is facing voters, who have grown weary of his ever-combative approach, as Democrats say he is simply not able to unite the nation or show empathy, regardless of the political consequences, The Hill said.

Republicans also voiced concern over Trump’s approach to the widening anti-racism protests.

Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Monday that “it would be helpful if Trump would change the tone of his message.”

Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker, also a Republican, said at a news conference that, “At so many times during these past several weeks, when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it was simply nowhere to be found. Instead, we got bitterness, combativeness and self-interest.”

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