Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-05-04)

P O L I T I C S

30

BEAKER:

ALEXANDR

KORNIENKO/ALAMY

Bloomberg Businessweek May 4, 2020

Edited by

Amanda Kolson Hurley

and Rodney Jefferson

○ The contrast between the

leaders has never been sharper

than during the pandemic

is threatening to cost him the White House in the

November election.

In March and early April, as Covid-19 infec-

tions and deaths mounted in the U.S., Trump’s

job approval rating dropped 6 percentage points,

from 49% to 43%, according to a Gallup poll. He

now trails Democratic rival Joe Biden in key swing

states, including Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin,

and Pennsylvania, other surveys show.

Although she’s fighting to defend her legacy on

managing successive financial crises and the ref-

ugee crisis, reelection isn’t a concern for Merkel,

who announced last year she wouldn’t seek a fifth

term as chancellor. That could ease the pain of

delivering a tough message. But she has always

employed a methodical approach to her job, a style

Germans have especially come to appreciate during

the pandemic.

Merkel’s approach hasn’t been flawless. Early in

the crisis the German government issued an export

ban on medical masks, which suggested an every-

country-for-itself attitude. And Merkel, like Trump,

has suffered some criticism for not responding

more quickly to the global outbreak.

But Germany has maintained one of the lowest

coronavirus mortality rates in the world, and the

number of confirmed cases in the country is grow-

ing at just over half the speed as in the U.S. Key

Donald Trump and Angela Merkel were never

destined to hit it off, but with the novel coronavirus

sweeping the globe, the depth of their differences—

in style and substance—has never been more appar-

ent. The pandemic has amplified the two leaders’

most fundamental traits: for Trump, a proclivity to

bask in the limelight and a loose relationship with

the facts; for Merkel, the frankness and clarity of a

scientist who takes comfort in data.

So far, the German chancellor’s approach has

been the clear winner. Merkel’s popularity at home

has soared after she consistently delivered sober

messages about the toll the virus would take on

Germans’ lives.

President Trump has taken a near-opposite

approach. In the early days of the outbreak, he

insisted his administration had it “under con-

trol,” and for weeks he continued to downplay the

impact the virus was set to have on the U.S. When

asked about how his optimism conflicted with the

increasingly visible devastation of the pandemic,

he said, “I’m not about bad news.” Now that denial

Merkel’s Clarity Trump’s Bluster