President Donald Trump is back at the White House, where his doctor said he no longer has any symptoms of the coronavirus that hospitalized him for three days.
Earlier Tuesday, the president declared an end to negotiations over a new COVID-19 relief package, tweeting there will be no further talks until after next month’s election. However, he said he wants the Senate to prioritize the confirmation of his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
What impact, if any, will the president’s declaration have on his reelection chances?
"I think it’s economically disastrous and politically senseless," said long-time political strategist Bob Shrum. "You saw the reaction of the stock market, which dropped like a rock, as soon as he sent that tweet out. It’s going to mean state and local governments laying off people. It’s going to mean lots of people running out of money because there’s no extension of unemployment compensation."
Shrum is a veteran of many presidential campaigns and Director of the Center for the Political Future at USC, where he is a Political Science Professor at USC’s Dornsife School.
"He wants a strong stock market, a strong economy or a strengthening stock market and a strengthening economy going into the election and I think he just shot himself in the foot," Shrum said. "And by the way, he shot in the foot a lot of Republican Senators who are in tough races who are now also going to pay the price for this."
Stocks dropped suddenly on Wall Street after Trump ordered a stop to negotiations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average swung instantly from a gain of about 200 points to a loss of about 300 points.
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Some wondered if Tuesday’s tweet is part of an overall strategy.
"I think he’s very angry,” Shrum told KCBS Radio's "The State Of California." "I think he came back from Walter Reed very angry. That spectacle on the White House balcony (Monday) night, I think, did him real harm with voters."
The president tweeted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was "not negotiating in good faith." Former Vice President Joe Biden slammed the move.
"He’s had a serious of self-inflicted disasters," Shrum added, referencing the debate, the president’s coronavirus diagnosis, his behavior in the days following the positive test and, now, shutting down stimulus negotiations with four weeks to go before the election.