Trump's new attack line on China places relations as the focal point of the 2020 election cycle

US President Donald Trump has spent a lifetime building a public image and selling the idea of success rather than actually accruing any relevant experience in governing. It is, in fact, very difficult to find any marked success or significant contribution to society from him as nearly all of his wealth was accumulated through blatant tax evasion if not fraud, as a bombshell New York Times investigation from 2018 found.

Nonetheless,Trump has succeeded politically and still, regrettably, continues to fool many by constantly surrounding himself with admirers, pinning his failures on others, and, most importantly, controlling the conversation.

Trump's administration stands apart from others in the past in its non-stop campaigning. Trump appeals to his base by directly engaging with them and drawing crowds to engorge himself in approval. In between golf rounds, Trump continued to campaign in 2020 – holding 10 campaign rallies since the time the Chinese and American Centers for Disease Control began information sharing on COVID-19, feeding his echo chamber more and more.

By framing every challenge as a matter of public relations rather than a problem needing true action, Trump has shown this most cynical and perhaps gravest disadvantage of American politics, which is that the public perception of governing can be just as, if not more, important than governing itself. In a recent CNN poll, it turns out that Americans are starting to notice his botching of the pandemic response. Keenly sensitive to his public image, Trump found a new culprit for his mess in China.

It should be remembered that Trump initially praised China's response to COVID-19 in a Tweet on January 24, saying: "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi."

But, in an effective stunt, Trump has now placed the blame for his government's response against COVID-19 on China out of sheer opportunism. According to data by Gallup and the Pew Research Center, American opinions toward China are at a historic low, and it is suggested that it may not even be due entirely to the pandemic. Years of negative stories from both conservative and liberal media against China have shown to compound Trump's need to save face during this crisis, warming the issue up for Trump to capitalize on.

Even a majority of Americans believe China should pay some sort of reparations to other countries over COVID-19, which Trump has hinted at. Imagine for a second if China demanded the US pay reparations, plus 100 years of back interest, for the so-called Spanish flu pandemic (first reported on a military base in Kansas). These stunts get attention, might even produce favorable polls for an election cycle, but they don't produce results or solve problems. Unfortunately, these results are becoming less important in the American political performance.

The Trump playbook is as follows – start a debate by saying something controversial and let others carry on the debate. He gets people talking and has them look his way. By doing so, he controls the conversation, its rules, and how people first engage with a topic, thus shaping a conceptual framework for political life in the country. He also knows that language matters, especially when setting the tone of a conversation, which is why he comes up with catchy nicknames to insult his political opponents (Sleepy Joe, Pocahontas, et al).

It's also why he insists on calling SARS-CoV2 the "Chinese virus", despite the WHO agreeing in 2015 to best practices in naming human diseases that would omit regions so as to avoid stigmatizing people groups. He frames the naming as a uniquely current issue, framing the WHO as being in China's pocket and helping China in its "cover up."

So far, Trump is capitalizing on this lack of nuance and balanced discussion in a new ad by attacking the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, on the basis of supposedly being wed to China somehow. He has now strung both China and Biden together into one ultimate enemy which he hopes will carry him again to the White House. The worst part about this angle is that it could actually work.

The Chinese government for its part has released a carefully curated and well-corroborated timeline of events totally available to any fact-checkers. Predictably, Western media has ignored this side of the story. Will anyone have the courage to fact-check Trump on China or raise any of these issues during the presidential campaign? It may be too early to call, but it's clear that Trump's 2020 campaign is shaping to campaign equally against China as it will against the Democratic Party, and potentially others. This is a deep shame for the American people, who desperately need real leadership in these troubling times.