Trump’s GOP Challengers to Debate Without Him: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- At least two candidates challenging President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination will face off in a debate this month, but they shouldn’t count on the incumbent to show up.

Confirmed candidates at the event put on by Business Insider are former Congressman Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld. Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who announced his candidacy over the weekend, has yet to confirm.

Trump has not replied to an invitation to the forum, Business Insider said. But on Monday the president derided his Republican rivals, and said he didn’t want to give them “any credibility” by debating them.

The chance that any of the insurgents can best Trump is very small. The president has an 85% approval rate among Republicans, according to a YouGov poll released Sunday. In addition, the Republican National Committee has canceled four states’ presidential primaries, with more likely to follow.

The debate will be held in New York on Sept. 24.

Tim Ryan Is Now Streaming on Spotify (3:31 p.m.)

Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello shouldn’t worry about their song “Senorita” losing its ranking as most-streamed summer hit, but presidential candidate Tim Ryan’s “A New and Better Agenda” is now available on Spotify.

The album contains 10 recordings of the Ohio congressman summarizing his policy plans on issues ranging from immigration to college affordability and “regenerative agriculture.”

“There’s been so many people across the country doing this work, I want to join you, I want to throw gas on these fires that are burning in the United States,” Ryan said on his “Outro,” the closing after listing his policies. “I believe that underneath all of the political rhetoric that’s happening on TV that there is a nation ready to be born again.”

The wonky recording is unlikely to give much of a boost to Ryan, who didn’t even register 1% in the latest Washington Post/ABC poll and failed to qualify for the third candidate debate in Houston this week. -- Emma Kinery

Trump Likes Some Polls Better Than Others (11:48 a.m.)

Don’t believe the bad news, but the good stuff checks out, says President Donald Trump.

The president tweeted Tuesday his typical complaint that many of the public polls are rigged to influence public opinion against him.

The post was in response to a new Washington Post-ABC poll released Tuesday showing that his approval rating on the economy had dipped to 46% from 51% in July, and that a majority of Americans fear a recession is “very likely” in the next year.

The economy has long been a bright spot for Trump, and he urged his supporters to ignore “phony polling information” from the mainstream media. Instead, he said, an internal poll “looks great, the best ever!” But he has never released any of the in-house polls and when one such survey showing low numbers was leaked in June, his campaign fired the pollster.

Trump has sometimes relished sharing public polls – but only when they presented results he liked, including a CNN poll in May. -- Emma Kinery

Trump Approval Falls in Poll on Recession Fears (7:09 a.m.)

President Donald Trump’s economic approval rating has dipped to 46% from 51% in July, as the majority of Americans fear a recession in the next year, a new Washington Post-ABC News polll finds.

The survey shows some vulnerability in one of the Trump camp’s main arguments for re-election -- that the U.S. economy is strong -- as respondents expressed widespread concern about how the trade war with China will end up raising prices for American consumers.

Trump’s overall approval ratings among voting-age Americans also dropped to 38% from 44% in the same time frame, according to the survey of 1,003 U.S. adults conducted from Sept. 2 to 5. Poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Six in 10 Americans say they worry a recession is “very likely” or “somewhat likely” in the coming year, though 56% still deem the economy “excellent” or “good.” Last November, 65% of those polled described the U.S. economy in those terms. -- Kathleen Miller

COMING UP

Ten candidates will face off in the third Democratic debate on Sept. 12 in Houston. It’ll be the first time Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren share a debate stage. Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Sanders and Andrew Yang will also participate.

--With assistance from Kathleen Miller and Emma Kinery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Kinery in Washington at ekinery@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley

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