CAMPAIGN/ELECTION/POLLS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “As President Trump prepares to officially kick off his re-election campaign in Orlando Tuesday night, his numbers are, as he is fond of saying, ‘not good, folks.’ In a new poll of ruby red Texas, less than 40 percent of voters say they would ‘definitely’ re-elect Mr. Trump. Numbers released over the weekend by the president’s favorite media outlet, Fox News, show him trailing Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders and other Democrats. His internal numbers may be even worse, putting him behind Mr. Biden by double digits in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In response, Mr. Trump fired some of his pollsters…It’s reasonable that a politician whose seminal political experience was defying the polls might not fully trust their results. But regardless of what Mr. Trump believes, it’s clear his team is preparing for a very different contest from the one he seems to see. While the president’s efforts may look and sound the same as last time — massive prime-time rallies, nicknaming his opponents, controlling the conversation by tweet — a peek behind the curtain reveals a far more conventional kind of campaign.”
–Lisa Lerer, “Trump’s Conventional Campaign,” The New York Times online, June 17, 2019