Tag: Trump putting re-election over American lives

Under Trump, coronavirus scientists can speak — as long as they mostly toe the line

Washington Post logoRobert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a candid warning Tuesday in a Washington Post interview: A simultaneous flu and coronavirus outbreak next fall and winter “will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” adding that calls and protests to “liberate” states from stay-at-home orders — as President Trump has tweeted — were “not helpful.”

The next morning, Trump cracked down with a Twitter edict: Redfield had been totally misquoted in a cable news story summarizing the interview, he claimed, and would be putting out a statement shortly.

By Wednesday evening, Redfield appeared at the daily White House briefing — saying he had been accurately quoted after all, while also trying to soften his words as the president glowered next to him. Continue reading.

Anti-racist author: Trump is ‘willing to kill his own base of supporters in order to try to win re-election in 2020’

AlterNet logoSeveral weeks ago, Donald Trump threatened to blockade New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, ostensibly to protect the rest of the country from the coronavirus pandemic. Trump soon pivoted away from that position.

Most mainstream observers and other members of the American news media mocked Trump for his threats and took them (again) as evidence of his ignorance about the Constitution and the rule of law. But Trump was testing norms and boundaries, with the goal of shattering them later.

Last week, Donald Trump took the next step in his escalating war against democracy and the rule of law, commanding his cult members to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia from the “stay-at-home” public health measures that have been enacted in an effort to slow down the rate of infection and death from the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading.

Trump shows a total inability to have empathy or remorse when confronted with the consequences of his actions

AlterNet logoWhen President Donald Trump was confronted with the direct and dangerous consequences of his own actions of Monday, he immediately began boasting about his fan base and refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing.

It was a disturbing moment, and it seemed deeply revealing of his character.

The exchange came during Monday’s coronavirus press briefing when PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor pressed Trump on a family she had come across in her reporting. Continue reading.

Trump wants to lift lockdowns. Other countries’ attempts show why the U.S. isn’t ready.

Washington Post logoHere’s the already iconic image of a divided America in the middle of a pandemic. In one of a smattering of protests over the weekend against coronavirus lockdowns, a supporter of President Trump in Denver jeered at a counterprotesting medical worker from a silver Ram truck. “This is a free country,” she said, before telling the medical worker to “go back to China.”

Trump later defended these scenes, arguing that the protesters — some of whom were mobilized by far-right, pro-gun groups on Facebook and assembled near city halls or other public buildings in mostly small numbers over the past few days — were agitating against governors who “have gone too far” in their imposition of restrictions on daily life. A recent poll found that a majority of Americans fear that the government is moving too quickly to lift restrictions. But Trump may pull at this seam in the coming weeks, hoping to focus his base’s ire on domestic opponents even as he finds it impossible to dispel the scrutiny of his own missteps in the early stages of the crisis.

Still, the economic anxiety in the United States, as is the case elsewhere in the world, is all too real. New projections from Columbia University researchers suggest that a coronavirus-provoked recession could spike U.S. job losses — and poverty — to five-decade highs. Far from U.S. state capitals, protests are building against lockdowns in poorer countries. About 2 billion people around the world depend on day work and live in countries whose governments are mostly unable to compensate for their loss of wages. Continue reading.

Some may have to die to save the economy? How about offering testing and basic protections?

Washington Post logoThe sentiment has been mouthed by every fool from Dr. Oz to the Cheetos-dusted flimflam man in the Oval Office: Rather than damage the economy further, we must accept a certain number of novel coronavirus casualties so the rest of us can go back to restaurants and football games. It’s a false moral equation and a false choice. And the people putting it forward smack of panic.

How about we wait to have the discussion of how many deaths are acceptable among which sorts of people — elders? asthmatics? — until after we have taken common-sense measures to prevent the preventable. Such as, a ramped-up national testing and tracing system that would allow Americans to make legitimate personal-risk assessments and reduce the chance of new outbreaks as they return to work and to their amusements. People need to work — but they also need to know they won’t carry the virus home.

It’s called informed consent. And right now, we don’t have it. None of us. Only about 1 percent of Americans have been tested as we approach reopening. Continue reading.

‘Who takes a victory lap on piles of corpses?’: Trump blasted as ‘sociopathic monster’ for bragging about 65,000 deaths

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump is being blasted for his apparent bragging about and celebrating “only” 60,000 to 65,000 coronavirus deaths. The actual number of Americans who have died so far is currently 37,095, but Trump is projecting a little less than twice that number will lose their lives to the virus he spent months ignoring until it was too late.

Friday evening Trump spent several minutes rattling off a long litany of numbers, comparing his projected coronavirus deaths to other possible horrific death projections, in a clear attempt to frame his disastrous mismanagement of the pandemic. As he did, many took to social media to slam the President’s callous lack of empathy.

“We’ve already built sufficient capacity nationwide so states can begin their re-openings. And I think you’ll be hearing a lot about re-openings in the coming weeks and months,” Trump told reporters during Friday’s coronavirus briefing. Continue reading.

Trump claims U.S. coronavirus cases have peaked. Not so fast, doctors say.

Trump, eager to restart the economy, has suggested that the worst has passed. But there’s no way to know without mass testing, one expert said.

President Donald Trump, seizing on recent signs of progress in hard-hit areas like Seattle and New York City, has said coronavirus cases in the U.S. have peaked, suggesting that the worst of the pandemic is over as he encourages states to ease up on restrictions and revive an economy in tailspin.

“The battle continues, but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases. Hopefully that will continue and we will continue to make great progress,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House.

In the same news conference, he added, “It looks like we’re plateauing and maybe even, in many cases, coming down.” Continue reading.

Trump goes on a dangerous Twitter rampage to fuel right-wing fury

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump on Friday went on a lengthy Twitter rampage that included calls to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia, an open show of support for right-wing demonstrators who are disregarding stay-at-home orders in those states to protest coronavirus social distancing guidelines.

The tweets, fired off in rapid succession late Friday morning, drew condemnation from advocacy groups and other critics who said the president should be focusing his attention on the lagging federal response to the deadly virus outbreak, not urging people to revolt against state guidelines.

“Why is this your priority?” asked Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Stop tweeting. People are dying.” Continue reading.

Violating His Own Social Distancing Guidelines, Trump Hosts Photo-Ops

Donald Trump on Thursday violated the guidelines his own administration put forward about avoiding close contact with others and eschewing in-person social gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic — to hold a photo-op honoring truck drivers.

The event was intended to celebrate “America’s truckers who are answering the call to action to transport supplies across the country,” according to a description from the White House.

Trump violated the rules to stand six feet apart from others, instead choosing to get close to truck drivers from companies such as UPS, FedEX, and DHL. He handed the drivers — as well as Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao and Chris Spear, CEO of American Trucking Associations — golden keys for their service, sidling up close to pose for photos. Continue reading.

Eager to return to normal, Trump and Pence offer questionable coronavirus data

Washington Post logoA career filled with tricky sales pitches has reached its apex for President Trump. With Americans dubious of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and nervous about trying to return to normal too quickly, Trump hopes to convince the country that some places or some states can begin to scale back social distancing measures that have helped contain the virus’s spread.

To do so, he and Vice President Pence on Thursday unveiled data they hoped would bolster their case that the United States is on the mend. Unfortunately, those data were, not for the first time, misleading and incomplete.

Trump began the day’s coronavirus news conference by articulating the steps that had been taken to combat the virus and the positive results that had followed. Part of his defense of rolling back containment measures has consistently been that some places in the country have only been affected by the virus to a limited degree. On Thursday, he offered a statistic aimed in the same direction. Continue reading.