US President Donald Trump is currently trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden by a huge margin, according to opinion polls. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows that Biden leads Trump by 8 percentage points. It shows that 46% of those surveyed back Biden in the November 3 election, while 38% would vote for Trump. Among the undecided voters, 61%  prefer the democrat. This is in line with other opinion polls. A poll of polls by FiveThirtyEight, shows that Biden has a 7.9 per cent lead over Trump.

To counter these poor poll results, Trump had made some changes to his campaign management earlier this month. Bill Stepien replaced Brad Parscale as Trump’s top advisor heading into the elections.

But, a mere shakeup in the campaign might not be enough for Trump to win the election in November. Here are four important issues that Trump must concentrate on, if he wants to win.

Firstly, The Trump administration will have deal with the Covid-19 pandemic effectively. At the time of recording, the US reported over 4,169,991 cases and 147,333 people were dead. The Reuters polls show that undecided voters are concerned about the novel coronavirus. Only 38% of the public supports Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, including 20% of undecided or third-party registered voters.

After months of blaming China for supressing information on the virus, state governors for the rise in cases, politicising the use of masks and insisting that the nation remove its lockdown measures, Trump is not in a good position on this issue.Now, he is slowly changing. He wore a mask publicly for the first time recently and he has toned down his rhetoric in a press briefing. Here’s what he said.

The second area the American president must focus on is the economy. In pervious podcasts, I have told you how nearly 6.7 million rent-burdened households face eviction once and eviction bans across the country are lifted.  Trump must ensure this doesn’t happen.

Another focus area must be ensuring that enhanced federal unemployment insurance is maintained. Currently, they will expire at the end of this month. This is important as unemployment levels are very high – above  11 per cent — despite the opening up of the economy. If people are deprived of this benefit, they will not be able to purchases essentials, thus adding more pressure on the economy.

According to CNBC, Republicans are considering cutting the enhanced unemployment insurance benefit to $400 per month, but are willing to extend the programme till the end of the year.

There is also talk about another corona aid bill, but the republicans are unwilling to take up the matter with urgency. This brings me to the third thing Trump must do: he must reunite the Republican party, and make them follow his lead.

I have told you in the past about the ‘Never Trumpers’ and organisations like the Lincoln Project are actively campaigning against Trump. I have also told you about the infighting within the Republican party about government spending and coronavirus aid bills also. There is also some infighting among Trump’s advisors on these issues, some reports say. He must address these issues right now.

Lastly, Trump must counter Biden’s economic agenda. I told you last week that Biden had unveiled a $700 billion plan to bring jobs back to the US and promised to promote American products. I told you then that these were all part of Trump’s election promises in 2016. Now, he needs to deliver on them.

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