At what point do you think that Trump might have lost his chance at re-election?

[super6646]

Covid response. Had he stepped up and not been a raging narcissist that cared for the stock market more than lives this would’ve been a trump win, and the close race in-spite of that only reaffirms my belief

[Hope For A New Era]

No single point. Death by a thousand cuts.

If I had to point to one, I'd point to the first week or two after Floyd as when the tide turned most decisively in favor of Democrats. That's when we started getting big leads in polls. The national environment (according to polls, mind you) went from D+4 to D+8.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Covid response. Had he stepped up and not been a raging narcissist that cared for the stock market more than lives this would’ve been a trump win, and the close race in-spite of that only reaffirms my belief

I must admit, i was disappointed with his COVID-19 response.

COVID-19 was a perfect excuse for Trump to close the foreign border to the outside World.

But he played personality battles with Dr Fauci instead of getting out of the way.

All Donald had to do was:

1. Nail the foreign border shut.
2. Keep the internal border travel limited.
3. Any US returning citizens quarantine in Alaska for a month.
4  Listen to Dr Fauci and Dr Birx for testing, masks etc.
5. Shut up and sit back.

It is easy in hindsight, but Trump would still be President if he just shut up and listened more to the experts.

He tried to be everything to everyone and when he got infected, the US voting public lost confidence.

[win win]

He never had a chance. Donald Trump was never going to win a reelection, during a pandemic and a recession

[Motorcity]

I think Trump would have won if it wasn't for COVID

I think he would have won if he passed a larger stimulus

I think he would have won if he did a good job at the first debate

Ironic, like Hillary four years ago there are a good many things that could have contributed to a close loss

[BaldEagle1991]

I also have a feeling his “losers and suckers” on the military bombshell story might have made a slight impact among some traditional Republican bases, such as military families. He lost those guys after that came out.

[ElectionsGuy]

He never had a chance. Donald Trump was never going to win a reelection, during a pandemic and a recession

He's on track to lose the tipping-point state in the electoral college by less than 1 (WI, PA, or AZ). Literally just a 1-2 point movement from 2016. The whole 'he never had a chance' thing doesn't make sense.

[redjohn]

He never had a chance. Donald Trump was never going to win a reelection, during a pandemic and a recession

He's on track to lose the tipping-point state in the electoral college by less than 1 (WI, PA, or AZ). Literally just a 1-2 point movement from 2016. The whole 'he never had a chance' thing doesn't make sense.

This was always going to be a race for turnout, and Biden happened to have enough people on his side who probably already leaned towards him turn out. Trump also had a very impressive turnout of people who agreed with him. Seems like this race was always going to be much closer than many of us expected just by virtue of the insane enthusiasm (for voting) from both sides.

[Lincoln Republican]

When he started locking toddlers up in cages

[ProudModerate2]

In summary this (above). trump was a disaster on everything related to Covid.
He actually could have won the election, regarding this terrible disease/issue, if he just cared about lives.
But his Selfish, Nutjob, A$$hole instincts got in the way ... again.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

When Covid began.

X2

This was a winnable election and he blew it. How many politicians have taken a crisis and were skilled enough to turn it to their advantage?

Most world leaders running for reelection in the post-COVID-19 environment so far.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

When the COVID-19 response was botched.

[BaldEagle1991]

When Covid began.

X2

This was a winnable election and he blew it. How many politicians have taken a crisis and were skilled enough to turn it to their advantage?

Most world leaders running for reelection in the post-COVID-19 environment so far.

Yep. I think New Zealand’s PM is one good example of someone using a crisis to an advantage and they won the next election for it.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

When Covid began.

X2

This was a winnable election and he blew it. How many politicians have taken a crisis and were skilled enough to turn it to their advantage?

Most world leaders running for reelection in the post-COVID-19 environment so far.

Yep. I think New Zealand’s PM is one good example of someone using a crisis to an advantage and they won the next election for it.

The South Korean administration as well - it got a legislative supermajority while Ardern got an outright majority under a proportional representation system (both really impressive). The biggest blowout for an administration happened in Bolivia but that government wasn't even elected to begin with.

[BaldEagle1991]

When Covid began.

X2

This was a winnable election and he blew it. How many politicians have taken a crisis and were skilled enough to turn it to their advantage?

Most world leaders running for reelection in the post-COVID-19 environment so far.

Yep. I think New Zealand’s PM is one good example of someone using a crisis to an advantage and they won the next election for it.

The South Korean administration as well - it got a legislative supermajority while Ardern got an outright majority under a proportional representation system (both really impressive). The biggest blowout for an administration happened in Bolivia but that government wasn't even elected to begin with.

I have a feeling the SK and NZ elections were international precursors to Biden’s win.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

When Covid began.

X2

This was a winnable election and he blew it. How many politicians have taken a crisis and were skilled enough to turn it to their advantage?

Most world leaders running for reelection in the post-COVID-19 environment so far.

Yep. I think New Zealand’s PM is one good example of someone using a crisis to an advantage and they won the next election for it.

The South Korean administration as well - it got a legislative supermajority while Ardern got an outright majority under a proportional representation system (both really impressive). The biggest blowout for an administration happened in Bolivia but that government wasn't even elected to begin with.

I have a feeling the SK and NZ elections were international precursors to Biden’s win.

They got NUT maps so it’s not really comparable

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

It is easy in hindsight, but Trump would still be President if he just shut up and listened more to the experts.

You act like that's possible though. It was never a realistic scenario because Trump is a stupid and pathetic man incapable of good judgement. He was always bound to  up eventually, and changing that means changing literally everything else about his presidency.

[QAnonKelly]

When he did the China travel ban but not Europe and then COVID got to the NYC metro area from the latter.

[Hermit For Peace]

With all due respect, when he opened his mouth.

[Meclazine for Israel]

When he missed out on buying Greenland.

[JGibson]

The quadruple whammy of his botched handling of the COVID pandemic, his Bible photo-op that was caused by teargassing protesters, the first debate between Biden and Trump, and the positive COVID test.

[Rep Jessica]

Less careless Covid response and probably a slightest more upfront affort to fix our trade and outsourcing problem. I don't think BIden is going to do anything to fix our problems as a country and he'll probably make it much worst.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I agree that it was a "death by a thousand cuts." He ended up being the Hillary Clinton of this year: constant bad media story after bad media story that kept voters engaged against him, especially Democrats and other anti-Trump voters who immediately learned from hindsight not to get complacent and to turn out in elections. Trump was just lucky that polls distorted how the race looked for most of this year. Everything Trump did over four years did indeed catch up with him and culminate with this year's pandemic and racial unrest in a stable race but there wasn't as much of a disparity as the polling suggested, given the close election. Trump's fostering of our country's polarization worked to his advantage again and blunted the impact of his many downsides and in that sense this race was probably always close to 50-50 with Trump's campaign and perceptions of his presidency making just enough of a difference for him to end up losing.

I do think that he would have lost at his worst had the election taken place during the second week of October or so, after his catastrophic debate performance and recovery from the virus while learning nothing from either of them. Again, he was lucky that those moments faded from Americans' memories a bit over the next two or three weeks before election day. Nothing as significant really happened after that point and may have allowed him to recover.

We seriously dodged a thermonuclear warhead this year with him actually managing to lose.