Tag: Trump White House

‘Very difficult and emotional’: Pandemic expert leaves Trump administration

Timothy Ziemer’s departure robs the Trump administration of another expert as it tries to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

A disaster response official who previously led a global health directorate disbanded by the Trump administration is leaving the government.

Timothy Ziemer’s departure robs the Trump administration of another expert as it tries to battle the coronavirus pandemic. The former Navy rear admiral is highly regarded and has decades of government service, although he has been somewhat sidelined during the ongoing crisis.

Ziemer landed at the U.S. Agency for International Development after his directorate at the National Security Council was dismantled by then-national security adviser John Bolton in 2018. He informed colleagues Tuesday of his decision to leave, which he said will take effect June 5. Continue reading.

Trump ready to turn page on COVID-19, despite crisis-level cases

The Hill logoThe White House is preparing to wind down its coronavirus task force, officials said Tuesday, a decision that public health experts warn is short-sighted.

The decision to disband the task force, which includes medical experts, public health officials and leaders from various government agencies, is the clearest indicator yet that the White House is ready to turn the page to focus on the economy, even as doing so could lead to a spike in infections.

Vice President Pence told reporters that the task force may break up around Memorial Day, a timeline he previously cited for when he believes the worst of the pandemic will have passed. Continue reading.

Kushner coronavirus effort said to be hampered by inexperienced volunteers

Washington Post logoThe coronavirus response being spearheaded by President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has relied in part on volunteers from consulting and private equity firms with little expertise in the tasks they were assigned, exacerbating chronic problems in obtaining supplies for hospitals and other needs, according to numerous government officials and a volunteer involved in the effort.

About two dozen employees from Boston Consulting Group, Insight, McKinsey and other firms have volunteered their time — some on paid vacation leave from their jobs and others without pay — to aid the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to administration officials and others familiar with the arrangement.

Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with their assigned jobs, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee. Continue reading.

White House plans to scale back coronavirus task force

The Hill logoThe White House is in the early stages of winding down its coronavirus task force, Vice President Pence’s office confirmed Tuesday.

The surprise decision comes as most states are preparing to loosen restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus, while a number of areas continue to see increases in new COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Pence’s office told reporters at a limited briefing that his plan is to scale back the task force’s role by Memorial Day. Pence has been leading the task force since late February. Continue reading.

Treasury plans to borrow $3 trillion from April through June as enormous coronavirus costs pile up

Washington Post logoLow interest rates make the borrowing cheaper, but the new debt shows how much new spending outpaces falling revenue

The Treasury Department plans to borrow $2.99 trillion from April through June to cover the federal government’s massive response to the coronavirus pandemic, issuing a tremendous level of debt to try to limit the economic impact on U.S. businesses and workers.

Last year, Treasury borrowed $1.28 trillion over 12 months. Its plan to borrow $3 trillion would be done over just three months.

“This is just a recurring experience, which is you look at the numbers, and they’re bigger than you ever imagined could be possible,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “And then you look at the size of the problem and you think that’s perfectly justified.” Continue reading.

The Trump administration projects about 3,000 daily deaths by early June.

New York Times logoAs President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths over the next several weeks. The daily death toll will reach about 3,000 on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double the current number of about 1,750.

The projections, based on government modeling pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases a day currently.

The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, significant risks remain. And reopening the economy will make matters worse. Continue reading.

Pompeo immediately flip-flops on claim ‘experts’ think coronavirus was manmade after ABC host educates him on the true scientific ‘consensus’

AlterNet logoU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is engaging is a campaign of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and gaslighting in efforts to shore up President Donald Trump’s MAGA base while ramping up their attacks on China over the coronavirus that to date has killed more than 66,000 people in America.

On Sunday’s ABC News’ “This Week” (video below) Pompeo said the “best experts” think it was “manmade,” referring to the novel coronavirus, then immediately switched and said he believes and trusts the Intelligence Community which says it was not.

“We’ve said from the beginning this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China,” Pompeo  told ABC’s Martha Radditz.  “We took a lot of grief for that from the outset but I think the whole world can see now.” Continue reading.

Pelosi, McConnell decline White House offer of rapid COVID-19 tests

The Hill logoIn a rare bipartisan joint statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) turned down the White House’s offer of rapid COVID-19 testing kits as the Senate returns to the Capitol this week amid concerns about the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

“Congress is grateful for the Administration’s generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time,” the congressional leaders said. “Our country’s testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly.”

The Senate will reconvene Monday at 5 p.m. on a confirmation vote for Robert Feitel to become inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Continue reading.

White House signals eagerness to get past coronavirus crisis

The Hill logoPresident Trump is trying to return to business as usual amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who has supplanted his daily coronavirus task force briefings for more controlled and structured appearances, is eager to get past the public health crisis that has dominated the news cycle since the end of February and allow businesses and American life to return to normal.

The president will spend the weekend at Camp David, marking his first occasion venturing outside of the White House since the end of March. On Tuesday, he plans to travel to Arizona to visit a Honeywell facility that produces N95 masks. Donald Trump.

Trump uses White House events to project return to normalcy while relying on testing that public lacks

Washington Post logoAt the White House this week, President Trump sat less than six feet from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in the Oval Office. He invited small-business owners to crowd behind the Resolute Desk for a photo shoot. His vice president toured a medical research center without a face mask in defiance of its policy.

The daily images projected a sense of confidence that life, at least for the nation’s most prominent resident, is returning to a semblance of normalcy during the coronavirus pandemic — a visual cue to the public that conditions are improving as Trump pushes to restart sectors of the economy.

Yet even as Trump aides have signaled that he could soon begin regular travel, the reality is that the White House has created a picture of security that is propped up by special access to the kind of wide-scale testing for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, that most of the nation remains without. Continue reading.