Trump is campaigning again but hundreds of thousands of Americans have already voted
Footage of hundreds of people at the world's largest retirement community voting for Joe Biden will alarm the Trump campaign.
Monday 12 October 2020 10:09, UK
The images from the world's largest retirement community should worry Donald Trump.
The Villages, a sprawling complex for the over-55s in Florida, is big enough to be considered its own city. It is also one of the fastest-growing in the US, home to more than 100,000 people.
In 2016, America's retirees helped propel Mr Trump to election victory. It is estimated that a quarter of the country's voters this time are over 65.
So, the news footage of people in 500 golf buggies parading through The Villages, heading to drop off their ballots for Joe Biden, would have been an alarming watch in the Trump campaign headquarters.
The pollsters say Mr Trump's handling of the coronavirus, an illness that threatens the elderly more than most, has caused a dip in support for him among older voters. How can the president protect them from it when he can't even protect himself, they wonder?
It is no surprise then that the president's first post-COVID-19 campaign event will be in Florida.
Cleared to resume in-person campaigning by his doctor, the president will hold the Make America Great Again rally in Orlando which he was forced to cancel when he was admitted to hospital.
In recent days, Mr Trump has appeared energetic, almost euphoric at his recovery and with a real urgency to get out and campaign.
After Florida on Monday, he will hold rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and Iowa on Wednesday.
Sweeping from the senior vote to the blue-collar rust belt and the rural Midwest, the shape of his campaigning is dictated by the picture the polls are painting.
Mr Trump won Florida by 100,000 votes out of nine million in 2016. The polls this time show a tight race.
Mr Trump won Pennsylvania by fewer than 50,000 in 2016 and the polls now have Mr Biden winning.
In Iowa, a state Mr Trump won by 10 percentage points in 2016, he is neck and neck with Mr Biden.
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The national polling looks increasingly bleak for Mr Trump but, if 2016 taught us anything, it is that the polls can't necessarily be relied upon come election day. It is those swing states that will be decisive.
Mr Trump says he is seeing a different set of opinion polls, ones that show him doing well, and that he senses the momentum behind him this time is even greater than it was four years ago.
It is a pivotal week.
Mr Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, begins the confirmation process on Capitol Hill, a significant and contentious moment for America.
It is just three weeks until election day, but the moment of truth has already arrived.
Americans are voting early in their hundreds of thousands.
The verdict of many on Mr Trump's presidency has already been delivered.