Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-06-29)

P O L I T I C S

5

Who’s the

Incumbent Here?

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have pulled a switcheroo,

with each assuming the other’s conventional campaign role

Over the past several months, a presidential race

already upended by a global pandemic and his-

toric recession has developed an odd charac-

teristic that’s making it even more unusual:

President Donald Trump, the incumbent, and

Senator Joe Biden, his challenger, have effectively

swapped roles.

The sitting president is campaigning like an out-

sider, lobbing incendiary tweets and blaming oth-

ers for the failures of the government he himself

presides over. Biden, meanwhile, is acting like a

traditional incumbent, running on his record and

the promise of familiarity.

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Bloomberg Businessweek June 29, 2020

Trump isn’tdoing muchof what a typical

incumbentdoesinanelectionyear.Hehasn’trolled

outanambitioussecond-termagenda.Hedoesn’t

makea bigshowoftryingtounifythecountry.He

isn’tusingtheWhiteHouseRoseGardentohost

foreign dignitaries or captains of industry—unless

you count the MyPillow TV pitchman, Mike Lindell—

to showcase the powers of the presidency and

remind people what he can do for them.

With the lockdown lifting, he’s finally been

able to make use of Air Force One, making swing-

state campaign stops in Arizona and Wisconsin.

But by focusing unwaveringly on his base, he isn’t