Trump's support is crashing the most in counties hit hardest by COVID-19: report

An analysis of polling data by Bloomberg News has found that President Donald Trump's support is cratering in counties across the United States that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Pew Research Center polls show Trump’s approval is slipping fastest in the 500 counties where the number of cases have been more than 28 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people," Bloomberg writes. "Pew surveyed voters in late March and the same people again in late June, and found 17% of those who approved of the president in March now disapprove."

The publication notes that older voters have been particularly quick to abandon the president, as people aged 65 and older are particularly vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.

"Seniors in [Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania] disapproved of Trump’s handling of the pandemic, 52 percent to 45 percent," Bloomberg writes. "And by a 26-point margin those voters said the federal government should prioritize containing the pandemic over reopening the economy."

Although the pandemic was initially concentrated in blue states in the northeast, it has since spread to states such as Florida, Texas, and Arizona, where both cases numbers and hospitalizations have surged dramatically in recent weeks. Florida and Arizona are considered two swing states that Trump desperately needs to win in order to have any chance of being re-elected.