Trump launches final, two-day frenzy of campaigning in bid for surprise win

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday launches his final, two-day sprint of campaigning across the battleground states of the 2020 election in a dramatic bid to defy the polls and win a come-from-behind victory over Democrat Joe Biden.

Facing what appears to be a narrow path to re-election, Trump is to make stops in states likely to prove pivotal in deciding if he will remain in the White House for four more years or whether he will become the first president since George H.W. Bush in 1992 to fail in a bid for a second term.

Biden, who has made Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic the central theme of his candidacy, will campaign on Sunday in Pennsylvania, a state that may well decide the winner of the election.

On Sunday and Monday, Trump will stage 10 rallies – five a day – making it the campaign’s busiest stretch. The Republican incumbent aims to generate enough momentum to drive an overwhelming turnout by his supporters on Tuesday, Election Day.

On Sunday, the president will hold rallies in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. On Monday his campaign has scheduled events in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and two in Michigan.

He will close out the two-day swing with a late-night rally on Monday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same location where he finished his campaign in 2016. In his improbable victory four years ago, he took Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, three states that for decades had gone in the Democratic column.

Weighing down Trump is a rising number of coronavirus infections. The country has recorded more than 9 million cases, with nearly 230,000 people dead.

Trump has played down the virus and says his opponents are using it against him. He warns that a Biden presidency would lead to another virus lockdown, which the country cannot afford.