https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-outspending-biden-in-presidential-campaign-ad-wars Trump vastly outspending Biden in presidential campaign ad wars President Trump’s campaign has outspent Democratic challenger Joe Biden's by nearly a three-to-one margin since the general election campaign got underway a month and a half ago. The former vice president’s campaign has spent roughly $8 million to run ads since early April, when Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as his last remaining rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ended his White House bid. Those figures come from Advertising Analytics, a leading ad tracking firm. The president’s reelection campaign and the allied Make America Great Again Committee have spent approximately $21 million to run ads during the same time period. Biden’s ad buys have been solely on digital. The former vice president hasn’t run ads on broadcast or cable TV since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic brought to a halt nearly all in-person voting in presidential primaries. One such digital ad charges that Trump was “unprepared” and “indecisive” as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. “When coronavirus came, Trump froze like a deer in the headlights,” the narrator in the ad says. While Biden’s been absent from the airwaves the past two months, the Trump campaign’s spent nearly $10 million the past couple of weeks to run TV commercials. And to the contrary of the Biden campaign's message, their first big ad blitz touts the job the president is doing to combat the pandemic. The campaign's commercial, released early this month, includes a clip of Trump declaring during his State of the Union Address in early February that “my administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.” And the ad uses clips from two top Democratic governors – Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California – complimenting the president. The disparity between the two campaigns on TV ad spending comes as the Trump campaign – as of May 1 – had a massive cash-on-hand advantage over the Biden campaign. While the Biden campaign’s yet to run commercials on TV during the general election, two major pro-Biden super PACs have been airing spots in support of the former vice president. The president has also enjoyed support on TV from the leading pro-Trump super PAC Looking ahead, Advertising Analytics has upped from $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion its estimate of how much will be spent on ads in the presidential general election. With five and a half months to go until the November election, the most recent polls indicate Biden ahead of Trump. A Fox News national survey conducted May 17-20 showed Biden with a 48-40 percent lead over Trump among registered voters. And an average of all of the most recent polls compiled by Real Clear Politics indicates Biden with a 5.5 point advantage.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-disapproval-climbs-coronavirus-deaths-near-100000-1506426 Disapproval of Donald Trump climbs higher as coronavirus death toll nears 100,000 in U.S. By James Walker On 5/26/20 at 5:16 AM EDT President Donald Trump's disapproval rating has continued to climb this month as coronavirus deaths have neared 100,000 in the U.S., according to new data. The FiveThirtyEight approval rating tracker found that Trump's average disapproval rating stood at 53.5 percent on Monday—putting it at its highest level since mid-January. By comparison, the president's average approval rating slumped to 42.7 percent—a little more than three points down on his post-acquittal peak last month. Trump's net disapproval rating stood at just under 11 percentage points as of Monday, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average. President Donald Trump speaks to the press on the South Lawn of the White House prior to departing on Marine One May 21, 2020 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images The fall in the president's average approval rating came as U.S. coronavirus deaths topped the 98,000 mark, accounting for more than a quarter of COVID-19 deaths worldwide. According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, more than 1.6 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the U.S. thus far, along with 98,223 related deaths and 379,157 total recoveries. Brazil and Russia, the countries with the second and third highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases, have recorded less than a quarter of the confirmed cases in the U.S. Despite the ongoing spread of the virus, all 50 states have started reopening to varying degrees, with some allowing restaurants and bars to start business again as other states only lifted restrictions on workplaces and outdoor areas. President Trump has repeatedly encouraged state authorities to reopen the country and its economy as pandemic-related business closures and job losses mount. A YouGov poll published last Friday found that 53 percent of surveyed Americans either "strongly" or "somewhat" disapproved of the commander-in-chief's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. More than three-quarters of adults (77 percent) also said they believed Trump could have done more to reduce the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic if he had acted sooner. Asked whether they personally trusted the president to be honest about the threat posed by the novel coronavirus, 56 percent told pollsters they did not trust Trump. A majority also said they were more concerned about the novel coronavirus' impact on public health (62 percent) than the economic impact of the pandemic. Almost seven-in-ten (69 percent) said they were concerned about the U.S. lifting restrictions too quickly in an effort to boost the economy out of its downturn. Sixty-five percent told pollsters America should fully reopen when public health officials were able to track and trace new coronavirus cases, while only 35 percent said the U.S. needed to be reopened as soon as possible to curb the economic damage of the pandemic.