PRESIDENT Trump has "erupted" at his campaign team saying “I am not f**king losing to Joe Biden” as the coronavirus crisis sees his poll ratings plunge.

Trump made the outburst when he was presented with worrisome polling data that showed his support eroding in a series of battleground states as his response to the coronavirus comes under criticism.

While Trump saw some of the best approval ratings of his presidency during the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis, his reelection campaign has been hindered by a flailing US economy and an upsurge of criticizm.

New surveys by the Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign also revealed he was trailing the former Democratic vice president in many key battleground states.

Trump was reportedly told he would have lost the Electoral College if the election had been held earlier this month.

DEFIANT

However, Trump reacted with defiance to the news, incredulous that he could be losing to someone he viewed as a weak candidate.

“I am not f**king losing to Joe Biden,” he repeated in a series of heated conference calls with his top campaign officials, according to five people with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the line from the White House, Trump snapped at the state of his polling during a series of calls with campaign manager Brad Parscale, who called in from Florida; RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, on the line from her home in Michigan; senior adviser Jared Kushner; and other aides.

Trump's political team urged him to curtail his daily coronavirus briefings, arguing that the freewheeling combative sessions were costing him in the polls, particularly among seniors.

After a disastrous press briefing last week, where Trump drew sharp criticism for raising the idea that Americans might get virus protection by injecting disinfectants, aides encouraged him to stay out of medical issues and direct his focus toward the economy.

The president had asked: "And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and – is there a way we can do something like that?

"By injection inside or almost a cleaning. As you can see, it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs."

We built the greatest economy in the world … I’ll do it a second time.

According to people familiar with the incident, Trump vented much of his frustration at campaign manager Parscale, who served as the bearer of bad news.

In a tweet just after midnight Wednesday, Trump denied that he had recently shouted at his campaign manager and said that “he is doing a great job.”

"Just told that Fake News @CNN is falsely reporting that I was recently shouting at my campaign manager over made up nonsense," Trump said.

"Actually, he is doing a great job, I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), & have no intention to do so. Just FAKE NEWS!"

Just two months ago, Trump planned to run for reelection on the strength of an economy that was experiencing unprecedented employment levels.

“We built the greatest economy in the world,” Trump has said. “I’ll do it a second time.”

Trump’s political team warned that the president’s path to reelection depends on how quickly he can bring about a recovery.

Trump rose in approval ratings over February and March but took a significant hit in April, data from statista reveals.

April's polls show a substantial lead for the former Vice President with many trusted polling organizations showing a healthy six-point lead average for Biden over Trump in the general election.

USA Today shows a large 10-point lead, while a FOX News poll from the beginning of the month shows the two candidates tied at 42 per cent.

Trump continues to hold steady support from blue-collar white voters which will be critical to his re-election bid.

Regions where the president traditionally draws support was found to overlap with those most vulnerable to the pandemic, a Reuters analysis showed.

The analysis found one in five of Trump’s 2016 voters live in areas where health and economic factors heighten their risks from the coronavirus.

As the coronavirus rages on, more than one million Americans have been confirmed to have been infected with the virus and at least 63,000 people have died.

ROAD TO RECOVERY

But other aides, business leaders and economists predict a far longer road toward recovery.

Aides acknowledged that the president’s signature rallies would not be returning anytime soon, with some doubting that he would be able to hold any in his familiar format of jam-packed arenas before Election Day, Nov. 3.

Aides have also grown particularly worried about Michigan – which some advisers have all but written off – as well as Florida, Wisconsin and Arizona.

Trump announced Wednesday that he will visit Arizona next week — his first trip outside Washington in a month — as he looks to declare that much of the nation is ready to begin reopening after the virus.

He also said he hopes to soon visit Ohio, a battleground state that Trump carried handily in 2016 but that aides see as growing slightly competitive in recent weeks.

Trump has long distrusted negative poll numbers — telling aides for years that his gut was right about the 2016 race, when he insisted that he was ahead in the Midwest and Florida.

The president mocked Biden early last week, his presumptive general election rival, for being “stuck in his basement” in his Delaware home during the pandemic.

"We have a sleepy guy in the basement of the house that the press is giving the free pass to who doesn't want to do debates because of COVID," Trump said last week.

"We've done a good job and gotten very little credit for the good job that we've done because of the media," he continued, insinuating that reporters give Biden favorable treatment.

"You have a large portion of the media automatically giving that guy a pass."

Earlier this month, former staff assistant Tara Reade filed a sexual assault complaint against Biden and accused him of attacking her in the Senate corridor in 1993.

Biden has since denied the allegations, but acknowledged the complaint and promised to "be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future."

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