Tag: Trump White House

Hope Hicks Is Apparently Behind Trump’s Rambling, Egotistical Press Conferences

NOTE: This article is provided free by Vanity Fair.

The “let Trump be Trump” strategy is flaming out, with the president’s poll numbers dropping amid criticism of his daily grievance fests.

As the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. skyrockets, and the economy plummets, Donald Trump has continued to use the White House’s daily coronavirus press briefings to boast about how well he believes he’s handling the crisis, and take pot shots at his enemies. This “let Trump be Trump” strategy—the administration’s go-to, considering Trump has fired anyone who might preempt it—was applied to the pandemic just as one of the president’s most trusted aides officially returned to the fold. While Hope Hicks now holds a nebulous White House title, the communications strategy she has crafted for Trump’s emergency messaging is perfectly clear: let him address the nation in his own words while taking the briefing room’s centerstage on a near daily basis.

At first, this proved to be effective. Despite the president’s personal role in downplaying the dangers of the coronavirus, and the White House’s severely delayed mitigation efforts, Trump saw a sizable favorability boost in March. Forty-nine percent of Americans voiced their approval of his leadership at the time, which marked just the second time his presidency has enjoyed such ratings in Gallup’s national survey. But as the pandemic and its economic devastation have dragged on, the president has also used his position to brag about the ratings of his pressers beating out ABC’s The Bachelor and riff about his past sexual encounters with “models.” His approval bump has proved to be temporary, as an April 14 Gallup poll found a six-point drop. Continue reading “Hope Hicks Is Apparently Behind Trump’s Rambling, Egotistical Press Conferences”

FEMA Reportedly Took The 5 Million Masks Ordered For Veterans To Send To Stockpile

“I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in,” Veterans Health Administration manager complained to The Washington Post.

Five million face masks ordered by the Veterans Health Administration to protect staff at the department’s hospitals and clinics were taken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Strategic National Stockpile, a top official told The Washington Post.

“I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared,” said Dr. Richard Stone, the executive in charge of managing the nation’s largest health care system with 1,255 facilities that serve more than 9 million veterans. He told the Post that FEMA instructed vendors with protective equipment ordered by the Veterans Administration to send the shipments instead to the stockpile.

“The supply system was responding to FEMA,” Stone, a former Army deputy surgeon general, told the Post. “I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in.” Veterans health care facilities were going through about 200,000 masks a day, according to Stone. Continue reading.

Meadows puts his fingerprints on Trump White House

The Hill logoNew White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has executed a makeover of President Trump’s communications team and shepherded a $484 billion coronavirus relief package through Congress in his first few weeks on the job.

He’s done so while keeping a decidedly low profile, a shift from his cable news-heavy appearances as a conservative leader in the House, all while the White House is battling a global pandemic.

Many see Meadows as a good fit in his role at this time, given Trump’s impending reelection battle and the former congressman’s political instincts and relationships on Capitol Hill.  Continue reading.

Stephen Miller has long-term vision for Trump’s ‘temporary’ immigration order, according to private call with supporters

Washington Post logoTrump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller told White House supporters in a private call this week that the president’s new executive order curbing immigration will usher in the kind of broader long-term changes to American society he has advocated for years, even though the 60-day measures were publicly characterized as a “pause” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Miller, the chief architect of the president’s immigration agenda and one of his longest-serving and most trusted advisers, spoke to a group of Trump surrogates Thursday in an off-the-record call about the new executive order, which had been signed the night before. Although the White House had seen the move as something that would resonate with Trump’s political base, the administration instead was facing criticism from immigration hard-liners who were disappointed that the order does not apply to temporary foreign workers despite Trump pitching it as helping to protect jobs for Americans.

Miller told the group that subsequent measures were under consideration that would restrict guest worker programs, but the “the most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor,” he said, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. Miller indicated that the strategy is part of a long-term vision and not seen only as a stopgap. Continue reading.

Mike Pence says coronavirus pandemic will be ‘largely’ behind us by Memorial Day – as Texas prepares to re-open retailers this week

Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic could be ‘largely’ behind Americans as early as Memorial Day Weekend.

Pence’s remarks come as Texas partially re-opened its economy this week despite the number of COVID-19 infections still rising.

‘Am I going to be on my boat and fishing in early June, Mr. Vice President?’ asked Geraldo Rivera of Fox News on his radio show.   Continue reading.

Watchdog Group: Top Pence Aide Has ‘Conflicting Financial Interests’

As Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short — according to analysis by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) — appears to be playing a prominent role in the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. And CREW reports that Short might be doing so “while holding significant conflicting financial interests.”

In an article posted on CREW’s website on Thursday, Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics), and researcher Meredith Lerner explain: “The financial disclosure report [Short] filed when he entered government in March 2019 shows he may own stocks in companies directly affected by the pandemic response that the vice president’s office is leading. The companies whose stocks he listed in his disclosure include manufacturers of drugs, medical tests, medical devices, medical instruments, personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies, antiseptics, airplanes and airplane parts. They also include a major consumer goods retailer, the parent company of Google, and for-profit managed healthcare companies.”

As Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short — according to analysis by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) — appears to be playing a prominent role in the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. And CREW reports that Short might be doing so “while holding significant conflicting financial interests.”

In an article posted on CREW’s website on Thursday, Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics), and researcher Meredith Lerner explain: “The financial disclosure report [Short] filed when he entered government in March 2019 shows he may own stocks in companies directly affected by the pandemic response that the vice president’s office is leading. The companies whose stocks he listed in his disclosure include manufacturers of drugs, medical tests, medical devices, medical instruments, personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies, antiseptics, airplanes and airplane parts. They also include a major consumer goods retailer, the parent company of Google, and for-profit managed healthcare companies.” Continue reading.

Home Alone at the White House: A Sour President, With TV His Constant Companion

New York Times logoAs his administration grapples with reopening the economy and responding to the coronavirus crisis, President Trump worries about his re-election and how the news media is portraying him.

WASHINGTON — President Trump arrives in the Oval Office these days as late as noon, when he is usually in a sour mood after his morning marathon of television.

He has been up in the White House master bedroom as early as 5 a.m. watching Fox News, then CNN, with a dollop of MSNBC thrown in for rage viewing. He makes calls with the TV on in the background, his routine since he first arrived at the White House.

But now there are differences. Continue reading.

Kushner’s Coronavirus ‘Task Force’ Awash In Potential Conflicts

areWhite House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner has been operating a “shadow” White House coronavirus task force which, journalist Pema Levy examines this week in Mother Jones.

The “shadow task force,” Levy notes, has been “convened by Jared Kushner to help run the Trump Administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.” And being an expert on public health is not a requirement.

“When Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, assembled the group, he did not turn to experts in crisis management or public health,” Levy explains. “Instead, he enlisted people with experience in the business of health care — not necessarily medical experts, but particularly, those who worked on (the) finance side and were adept at making money off the health care industry.” Continue reading.

In front of White House, nurses read names of colleagues killed by coronavirus

Washington Post logoRegistered nurses gathered Tuesday in front of the White House to read the names of health-care workers who have died fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Wearing masks and standing six feet apart, the nurses held up photographs of the deceased as Melody Jones, a member of the National Nurses United union, addressed the news media in an otherwise empty Lafayette Square.

The names came from all over the country — New York and Alabama, Puerto Rico and Nevada, California and Michigan, Florida and Maryland, New Jersey and the District. Continue reading.

White House sidelines Surgeon General Adams after he spoke about COVID-19’s devastating impact on communities of color: report

AlterNet logoSurgeon General Jerome Adams, who is African-American, has recently spoken out about racial health disparities and the threat that people of color face in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic. And now, Politico’s Dan Diamond reports, Adam is being sidelined by the Trump Administration.

Diamond observes, “The Trump Administration took Surgeon General Jerome Adams off television last week after his controversial remarks on COVID-19’s threat to minorities, silencing the White House’s loudest voice on racial disparities even as concerns mount about risks to communities of color. Adams made just one TV appearance last week, a steep decline from the ten-plus TV appearances he made the prior week on programs like ABC’s ‘Good Morning America,’ CBS’ ‘This Morning’ and NBC’s ‘Today Show.’”

After Adams spoke at a press briefing on April 10, Diamond notes, some liberals and progressives criticized him for — as Diamond puts it — “shifting responsibility to minorities.” But Diamond observes that “health officials also fear that minimizing Adams means the White House is retreating from questions about its work on behalf of minority communities — a perennially sensitive issue for President Donald Trump and his administration.” Continue reading.