There’s some tea being spilled in the Republican party and word on the street is Donald Trump may drop out of the 2020 presidential race if he believes he has no chance of winning, a GOP operative reportedly told Fox News.
The eyebrow-raising claim comes in a report from Donnie’s favorite news outlet that cites a number of GOP insiders who are concerned about Trump’s re-election prospects amid poor polling numbers, the Independent reports.
While Trump’s campaign called the report “fake news,” Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, currently holds an average lead of nine points over Trump, according to a tracker of 2020 polls by RealClear Politics.
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Based on data, it appears Trump has lost support from older white voters, a group that was crucial to his narrow 2016 victory. Now, Trump is also trailing Biden in almost all the swing states.
“It’s too early, but if the polls continue to worsen, you can see a scenario where he drops out,” one anonymous GOP operative reportedly told Fox News.
Charles Gasparino, the author of the Fox News report, said in a series of tweets that he had spoken to “major players” in the Republican party for the scoop. One of them described Trump’s mood as “fragile” as his chances of a second-term looked increasingly dim.
Another of the GOP sources cited in the report said of the likelihood that Trump will drop out, “I’ve heard the talk but I doubt it’s true. My bet is, he drops if he believes there’s no way to win.”
Trump has repeatedly called out polling that shows him far behind Biden. Last month, he tweeted that Fox News “should fire their Fake Pollster. Never had a good Fox Poll!”
And on Monday, Trump tweeted: “Sorry to inform the Do Nothing Democrats, but I am getting VERY GOOD internal Polling Numbers. Just like 2016, the @nytimes Polls are Fake! The @FoxNews Polls are a JOKE! Do you think they will apologize to me & their subscribers AGAIN when I WIN? People want LAW, ORDER & SAFETY!”
But polls from all polling organizations actually show Trump consistently behind by similar margins. In particular, they have shown high levels of disapproval over his handling of the pandemic and mass protests calling for racial justice after the police killing of George Floyd.
Trump’s campaign warned people to not believe the “fake news.”
“Everyone knows that media polling has always been wrong about President Trump – they undersample Republicans and don’t screen for likely voters – in order to set false narratives,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Fox News. “It won’t work. There was similar fretting in 2016 and if it had been accurate, Hillary Clinton would be in the White House right now.”
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