Changing the narrative is the hardest change of all

The point is: Trump could have been in a vastly stronger political position, even with COVID/economy just as bad.
At this point, improvement would involve a change in either conditions or his conduct. At the moment, I don't see good signs for him on either front. 4 months to go.

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) July 10, 2020

As Maggie Haberman points out, actually about 6 weeks to go:

Important point of this @adamnagourney story - Trump thinks he has the final few wks of Oct, because that's what happened in 2016. Early voting starts in September in some places and barring events that shift the race, Trump realistically has about 6 weeks left to make his case. https://t.co/HE6vA2EJvg

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 10, 2020

This reminds me of a car wreck I had several years ago now.  The other guy called his lawyer, who was much younger than me, and she challenged me not to let the tow truck move my car out of traffic.  But that was the rule (cops showed up, took detailed notes, wrote a detailed report, so it could be determined who was at fault) before "no-fault" car insurance became the law.  Which had happened in Texas about 30 years earlier, or roughly the time (if not before) this lawyer was born.

When the cop arrived (so we had a record for insurance purposes), he didn't say a thing about my car being in a parking lot rather than in traffic.

Takes a long, long time for reality to change the narrative.  I know early voting has been available in Texas for the entirety of this century.  It may even date back to the end of the last century.  And most states have it by now.