Tag: Trump ego

Trump faces the risk of a coronavirus cliff

Unemployed Americans will lose a federal safety net long before the economy fully recovers — potentially creating a messy Election Day for the GOP.

Republicans are trying to pull off a high-wire act over the next three months: Reopen the economy enough to get most jobless Americans back to work and off the public dole, while resisting another giant stimulus package.

If they fail, they’ll face a coronavirus cliff — an even deeper collapse in spending and sky-high unemployment in the months before Election Day. That could both damage President Donald Trump’s reelection prospects and put the party’s Senate majority at serious risk.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has suggested that states be allowed to seek bankruptcy protection and questioned the need for a big new stimulus, said Monday that the Senate would return next Monday along with the House. He indicated he would consider additional coronavirus relief funding, but that any aid to states would continue to come with strings attached. And he told POLITICO last week that he was leery of adding much more to the deficit, joining other conservatives who are growing concerned about the GOP record of racking up a mountain of debt after railing against it for a decade before Trump. Continue reading.

‘Like a junkie needs a fix’: Trump mocked after White House cancels coronavirus briefing then quickly adds it back

President Donald Trump hasn’t held a coronavirus task force briefing since Friday, when he abruptly ended it after 21 minutes and took no questions – clearly not wanting to have to answer for his dangerous disinfectant “injection” remarks.

The President’s daily schedule for Monday, released Sunday, included a coronavirus task force briefing which the White House subsequently canceled Monday morning.

It’s back on. Continue reading.

Trump Turns Shared American Experiences Into Us vs. Them

New York Times logoNostalgia for a time when Democratic leaders could embrace Republican leaders in a moment of crisis — and when a bipartisan group would gather for an annual roasting in Washington.

WASHINGTON — Last weekend, an anniversary of the kind that would have once united the country in reflection — the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, 25 years ago — passed without much in the way of comment. As the days inside pile up, our usual approach to a national moment of remembrance appeared lost to the fog of time, germs and Trump era news cycles.

The lack of attention was cast in relief by one person who did speak up: Former President Bill Clinton, who for a variety of reasons seems to have receded from public view since his wife was defeated by Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016. Mr. Clinton, the embattled first-term president of early 1995, would become the dominant presence in the brittle aftermath of Oklahoma City. The various psychodramas of his two terms can obscure the significance of the incident as a political marker of that era; now, it is a global pandemic that is seizing attention from Washington traditions like civic remembrance and bipartisan affirmation.

“In many ways, this is the perfect time to remember Oklahoma City and to repeat the promise we made to them in 1995 to all Americans today,” Mr. Clinton said in an op-ed that ran last Sunday in The Oklahoman. Continue reading.

13 hours of Trump: The president fills briefings with attacks and boasts, but little empathy

Washington Post logoPresident Trump strode to the lectern in the White House briefing room Thursday and, for just over an hour, attacked his rivals, dismissing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a “sleepy guy in a basement of a house” and lambasting the media as “fake news” and “lamestream.”

He showered praise on himself and his team, repeatedly touting the “great job” they were doing as he spoke of the “tremendous progress” being made toward a vaccine and how “phenomenally” the nation was faring in terms of mortality.

What he did not do was offer any sympathy for the 2,081 Americans who were reported dead from the coronavirus on that day alone — among more than 54,000 Americans who have perished since the pandemic began. Continue reading.

The Memo: Bully pulpit may be backfiring for Trump

The Hill logoA mock ad for former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign has gone viral on social media in recent days.

“Biden: He won’t inject you with bleach,” it reads.

The joke gets at a serious point: whether President Trump’s ardor for provocative and sometimes bizarre statements, as well as his general love of the spotlight, is backfiring as the coronavirus crisis deepens. Continue reading.

Trump finally shows signs of shame as he flees a press briefing without answering questions after disinfectant fiasco

AlterNet logoHas President Donald Trump finally been chastened?

After a brutal day of criticism over his Thursday remarks suggesting an injection of disinfectant could potentially help treat COVID-19 — a frankly ludicrous and dangerous suggestion that experts roundly warned against — the president cut Friday’s coronavirus press briefing short without taking questions.

Has President Donald Trump finally been chastened?

After a brutal day of criticism over his Thursday remarks suggesting an injection of disinfectant could potentially help treat COVID-19 — a frankly ludicrous and dangerous suggestion that experts roundly warned against — the president cut Friday’s coronavirus press briefing short without taking questions. Continue reading.

Trump coronavirus briefings put health officials in bind

The Hill logoHealth experts on the White House coronavirus task force increasingly are being put in a tough spot by the president’s daily press briefings.

President Trump frequently uses the briefings to settle scores with the media, and his efforts to put a positive spin on the news and his administration’s actions has led him to embrace ideas that lack scientific backing.

He then sometimes asks the scientists and doctors around him to weigh in or offer support, putting them in an impossible spot. Continue reading.

‘It’s very sad’: Nancy Pelosi blasts Trump’s mix of arrogance and scientific ignorance

AlterNet logoSpeaking on MSNBC this morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed President Trump’s advocacy for unproven coronavirus treatments, specifically drugs like Hydroxychloroquine, adding that not only is Trump pushing for these drugs, he’s also pushing for the agencies in charge of approving medical treatments to approve “what the administration wants rather than what science demands.”

“But nonetheless … let’s just go forward,” Pelosi said. “Let’s say that what we’re doing legislatively that we will provide the resources for our health services and the rest to meet the needs of the American people, for our scientists to quickly, as soon as possible, find a vaccine, hopefully a cure even sooner than that, and that we will make sure there is integrity in how it is developed and integrity in how it’s distributed. That doesn’t exist right now according to what we’re seeing from the White House.”

Host Andrea Mitchell then mentioned how a high profile vaccine researcher was allegedly removed from his government post for questioning the wisdom of Trump’s push for unproven treatments. Continue reading.

Trump Speech to Bring 1,000 West Point Cadets Back to Campus

New York Times logoThe president’s off-again, on-again speech in June will bring back cadets who had scattered across the country to help counter the coronavirus.

WASHINGTON — For President Trump, who adores the pomp and precision of military ceremonies, this was the year he would finally get one of the special perks of being president — delivering the commencement address at West Point, the only service academy where he has not spoken.

But the graduation was postponed because of the coronavirus, the cadets were sent home and officials at the school were not sure when it would be held or even whether it was a good idea to hold it.

The Naval Academy, for its part, decided it was too risky to recall its nearly 1,000 graduating midshipmen to Annapolis, Md., for a commencement. Those graduates will have a virtual event. But the Air Force Academy, in contrast to the other schools, sent home its underclassmen, locked down its seniors on campus, moved up graduation, mandated social distancing — and went ahead with plans for Vice President Mike Pence to be its speaker. Continue reading.

Trump’s Remarks Prompt Warnings on Disinfectants

Warnings of the dangers of ingesting disinfectants follow Trump’s remarks.

In Maryland, so many callers flooded a health hotline with questions that the state’s Emergency Management Agency had to issue a warning that “under no circumstances” should any disinfectant be taken to treat the coronavirus. In Washington State, officials urged people not to consume laundry detergent capsules. Across the country on Friday, health professionals sounded the alarm.

Injecting bleach or highly concentrated rubbing alcohol “causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst,” Dr. Diane P. Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, said in an interview. “It can definitely be a fatal event.”

Even the makers of Clorox and Lysol pleaded with Americans not to inject or ingest their products. Continue reading.