Trump has narrow lead in key swing states despite voters' frustrations with coronavirus response

Even as some polls show a majority of Americans are not satisfied with Donald Trump's coronavirus response, the president remains in a dead heat with his apparent Democratic challenger in a handful of key swing states.

In fact, in six battleground states that political experts say will decide November's election, Mr Trump leads former Vice President Joe Biden. Though the lead is narrow, just a single point, it shows that voters are not ready to oust Mr Trump from the White House even as over 45,000 Americans have died from a virus about which the incumbent was warned was headed to the United States early this year.

Democrats, including Mr Biden, have accused Mr Trump of not taking warnings from US intelligence and public health officials seriously. His lukewarm response, they continue to say, has led to over 826,000 confirmed nationwide cases, a sparse testing strategy and a shortage of potentially life-saving medical equipment.

Now, Democrats are accusing Mr Trump of pushing states to end their lockdowns too early and even of encouraging armed protesters to put pressure on governors to get the country up and running to salvage an economy he needs to improve as he seeks a second term.

Voters in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, however, despite joining Americans in other states by reporting displeasure with the Trump administration's Covid-19 response, are not ready to hand the federal keys to Mr Biden.

In those states, Mr Trump leads the former Democratic VP 48 per cent to 47 per cent, according to a poll conducted by Change Research.

Mr Trump is underwater among voters in those half-dozen states for his response to the pandemic, with 52 per cent expressing displeasure compared to 48 per cent who approve.

Notably, in five of the six, the state's governor is considered more trusted to take on the coronavirus than the president. Only in Florida, where Mr Trump is trusted more than GOP Governor Ron DeSantis (45 per cent to 42 per cent), did the president get higher marks than a state leader.

The president has held several political events this year in North Carolina, where he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 3.6 points. But Democratic Governor Roy Cooper is more trusted to deal with Covid-19 by a wide margin over Mr Trump, 12 points.

Trump campaign aides acknowledge they need to hold every state they won last time if he is to win a second term.

During his nightly coronavirus press conference, the president was again bullish for states to start revving up their economies.

"Since we announced our guidelines on opening up America, as we call it, I say opening up American, and we add the word 'again,'" Mr Trump said. "But that is what it is we are [doing], opening up America again.

"Twenty states representing 40 per cent of the US population have announced that they are making plans and preparations to safely restart their economies in the very near future," he said. "They are moving along pretty quickly. Three announced today, as you know. And they're going to be doing it safely. They are going to be doing it with tremendous passion."

Despite polling data that suggests Americans are more concerned with their families' health and safety, Mr Trump then declared: There is, they want to get back to work. The country wants to get back to work."

But the Change Research survey suggests, in those six states, Americans remained concerned about beating the virus – even if their worries about the respiratory disease appears to be waning.

Bucking the president's desire to begin returning to normalcy even as the virus begins overrunning rural hospitals, the polled found 62 per cent of people are concerned about opening the country too quickly.

Seventy-two per cent of those surveyed say they are more concerned about their families health than any financial impacts from the virus and the lockdown. Just 28 per cent ranked a financial a more grave concern.

Social (distancing) unrest

But there are significant signs that Americans' patience in those battlegrounds with the national shutdown – and one another – is slipping.

For instance, two weeks ago 42 per cent of those surveyed by Change Research reported others taking social distancing and other anti-Covid measures too far. Now, that figure is over half: 52 per cent.

Meantime, as the Trump administration and some Democratic governors and congressional leaders spar daily over the pace of testing, availability of testing kits, and the federal government's proper role in testing, voters in the six swing states have major concerns.

Seventy-one per cent of those surveyed have serious concerns about testing even though Mr Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have said this week the country has enough kits on hand and is testing people as a rapid enough rate to defeat the virus.

The testing rate is now about 150,000 daily; some experts say it needs to be as high as 500,000.

The president and his public health team say, as the widely respected federal infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci put it, "testing isn't everything."

On Tuesday evening, Mr Trump appeared fixated on the total number of tests administered, rather than what Democrats and health experts say is a more accurate barometer: Per capita testing rates.

Asked by a reporter "what went wrong with the testing," the president got a little testy.

"Ready? Are you ready? Again, I will say it for the fifth time. We have tested more than any country in the world, and some of the countries are very big, okay?" he snapped back.

"More than any country in the world," he contended. "We have one of the most successful, if you call mortality rates because one person and I always say ... one person is too many, but we have done very well. Our testing. If you add them all up, we have tested more."

The answer is one among a handful of stock statements the president has taken to repeating over and over when asked about testing kit availability, when he was first warned about the virus, his opting against a national testing strategy, and other daily questions.

'Testing, testing, testing'

Top Democratic leaders have hammered the president on testing, but remain without the votes to force his hand on the issue.

"Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have an unease with science. If they didn't, we would have long ago come to testing, testing, testing, testing in its fullest way. Testing, contact tracing, isolation much sooner than we did," Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Tuesday.

"Their delay and denial caused death because they didn't respect science and they don't favour governance," the California Democrat said. "Now, they have to get used to the idea that the path to the future, to opening up our economy and our society again, is through science, science, science and governance, governance, governance."

Yet, many states with Republican governors are moving their territories closer to opening up. One GOP governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, said his residents are ready to take care of "vital needs" – like their hair.

"Either later this week or early next week, we will be talking about a broad-based opening up in the state of Texas, making sure that all of retail and, get this, it's about time a lot of people in the state of Texas are going to have the opportunity to go to a hair salon and start taking care of their vital needs," he told Fox News. "But, most importantly, we want these entrepreneurs, these small businesses, to have the opportunity to open up."