An 80-year-old man, defying officials' advice to stay home, beamed near a life-sized cutout of a grinning President Donald Trump. But after years of deep division, in the earliest, head-spinning days of the pandemic, a fractured electorate largely viewed Trump's performance through the lens they chose long ago. President Jimmy Carter's approval rating skyrocketed in the weeks after Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran. Trump this week abruptly turned to talking about the virus as a significant threat, and himself as a steady “wartime” leader. “Trump’s never been double-digit approval rating for me, and now it’s like, can you go lower than zero?” he said.

Source: ABC News March 22, 2020 15:56 UTC