At a meeting with his campaign advisers late last week, President Donald Trump erupted with anger as he looked at his latest falling poll numbers and the criticism he was getting regarding his tepid response to the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reports. But instead of attacking those in the room with him, Trump aimed his ire at campaign manager Brad Parscale, who joined the meeting via phone:

“Shifting the blame away from himself, Trump berated Parscale for a recent spate of damaging poll numbers, even at one point threatening to sue Parscale. It’s not clear how serious the President’s threat of a lawsuit was.”

It remains unclear what exactly Trump thought he might sue Parscale for, but the angry outburst had apparently been building for weeks as the president’s poll numbers continue to tank and his likely Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, gains traction among voters:

“Faced with an increasingly uphill battle for reelection and aides trying to steer him in new, sometimes conflicting directions, Trump has grown increasingly unnerved in the last week about his reelection prospects. Lashing out at Parscale was just the most recent manifestation of that anxiety.

“‘He’s p*ssed because he knows he messed up in those (coronavirus press) briefings,’ one Republican close to the White House said of Trump lashing out.”

Two days before Trump’s threat to sue Parscale, the Trump campaign had received a new collection of internal polls that showed the incumbent president falling further behind with just over six months remaining until voters cast their ballots:

“Parscale … and several other top political advisers briefed him on internal campaign and Republican National Committee data showing the President was heading for defeat in key battleground states. Parscale, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other advisers urged him to scale back his daily, combative news conferences and pointed to data showing that the briefings were hurting him with critical swing voters in those states.”

With many states now reopening their economies, the death toll from COVID-19 — which currently stands at 61.000 — may increase exponentially over the next couple of weeks, which could send Trump’s poll numbers plummeting again. And that may lead the president to dump Parscale and find a new campaign manager, even though the real problem is his own incompetence.

Featured Image Via Twitter