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US protests won’t derail Trump’s re-election chances, says expert

According to the pundit, specific feature of the current election campaign in the US is that the instrument of achieving social harmony that has always been in place in the country is jeopardized now

US President Donald Trump AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

US President Donald Trump

© AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

MOSCOW, June 25./TASS/. The coronavirus pandemic, mass protests against racial inequality and police abuse in the US have not derailed chances of President Donald Trump to be re-elected in November, Valery Garbuzov, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies, said on Thursday.

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"Of course the problems are not fewer in number than back in January. However, all these unexpected developments — the pandemic and protests — have not derailed Trump’s re-election chances. Simply, the voters will be seeing him from a different angle then," Garbuzov told an online session of the international forum ‘Primakov Readings’ looking into strategic consequences of crises in the US.

According to the expert, specific feature of the current election campaign in the US is that the instrument of achieving social harmony that has always been in place in the country is jeopardized now. "Currently, differences in the US have probably reached their peak when a compromise as an instrument of overcoming them is in jeopardy. This is seen not only in Congress, not only in media, but the streets have also joined this process now," Garbuzov emphasized.

He explained that the most substantial elements of the current campaign are an economic crisis, the pandemic and street protests that have brought to the surface one more factor — the issue of racism.

As for Trumps’ problem at the moment, he said "he has lost all the electoral luggage that was there in January, and now Trump has to change it in process."

"This is exactly what he was doing. The focus is new now — the battle against the pandemic. Now, accusations of racism have been added, which is not entirely fair, since many are saying now that Trump has done even more than Barack Obama. That is why I believe that today this election still remains a referendum on Trump, since just the same he is the central figure of all discussions, everything is concentrating on him," the analyst pointed out.

Mass protests and unrest began in many parts of the United States following the death of Afro-American George Floyd. During his arrest on May 25 the police used excessive force. All four officers who participated in that operation were dismissed and faced official charges. The US National Guard was commissioned to help local law enforcers restore order. Nighttime curfew had to be imposed in about 40 cities, including Washington and New York.

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