First daughter and senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump offered a suggestion for bored Americans to do during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
She suggested people, “try making shadow puppets from Henry Bursill’s recently unearthed 1860’s book of engraving.”
At least two Twitter users offered photos of a shadow made by a hand, but they were not shaped as an animal. Continue reading.
U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars’ worth of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. The move underscores the Trump administration’s failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat.
In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year — from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million, according to a Post analysis of customs categories which, according to research by Public Citizen, contain key personal protective equipment (PPE). Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits.
“Instead of taking steps to prepare, they ignored the advice of one expert after another,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.). “People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE.” Continue reading.
Thousands of U.S. hotels have volunteered to help local authorities house doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at reduced rates — or even free — during the covid-19 pandemic.
President Trump’s White House has praised these efforts. But so far, none of Trump’s own hotels are known to be participating.
In five U.S. cities where President Trump’s company operates large hotels — New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington and Honolulu — local authorities said the Trump hotel was not involved in their efforts to provide low-cost or no-cost rooms to those fighting the novel coronavirus. Continue reading.
The economic pundit repeatedly made the shocking comparison as right-wing protesters railed against social distancing measures meant to save lives.The largely white protesters who oppose social distancing measures to protect the public from COVID-19 are like Rosa Parks, who waged a historic battle for racial equality, right-wing economic commentator and White House adviser Stephen Moore repeatedly insisted Friday.
“I call these people modern-day Rosa Parks. They are protesting against injustice and a loss of liberties,” Moore told The Washington Post, in one of at least three instances of this astonishing comparison.
He also told CBS News: “It’s interesting to me that the right has become more the Rosa Parks of the world than the left is.” He said in a YouTube video quoted by The New York Times: “We need to be the Rosa Parks here, and protest against these government injustices.” Continue reading.
The White House on Friday said that states have enough coronavirus tests to be able to enter the first phase of its plan for reopening the economy.White House counselor Kellyanne Conway lashed out at CBS News correspondent Paula Reid after she was pressed to explain the evident lack of diversity on President Donald Trump’s recently announced “Opening Our Country Council.”
“Paula, I actually don’t know what’s happened to you,” Conway said in the tense exchange, which was captured by C-SPAN.
Referencing the long list of names rattled off by Trump at a Tuesday briefing, Reid first asked Conway to explain how the council would function. Continue reading.
The White House wants to expand its rapid response team tasked with monitoring and attacking critics of the president’s efforts to quell the coronavirus outbreak.Kayleigh McEnany was brought on as White House press secretary to add a counterpunch, campaign-style energy to President Donald Trump’s communications team.
She’s starting to show how that will be done.
On Wednesday, McEnany began blasting tweets from the official White House press secretary account, hitting Speaker Nancy Pelosi in at least five tweets. On Thursday, she made her first “Fox & Friends” appearance in her new role, reiterating her Pelosi attacks and chiding the media. And she’s working in parallel with the Trump campaign as both the White House and campaign expand their communications and rapid response teams tasked with monitoring and attacking any critics of the president’s efforts to quell the coronavirus outbreak. Continue reading.
Weeks into the job, Mr. Meadows has confronted the same problems that frustrated his three predecessors. It hasn’t helped him with his new White House colleagues that he’s emotional and sometimes cries.Mark Meadows has officially been President Trump’s fourth White House chief of staff for less than three weeks.
In that time, he has shaken up the communications office, angering supporters of the press secretary he chose to replace. He has tried to put in place other speedy changes, hoping to succeed where his three predecessors failed. He has hunted aggressively for leaks.
But administration officials say he has been overwhelmed at times by a permanent culture at the White House that revolves around the president’s moods, his desire to present a veneer of strength and his need for a sense of control. It is why, no matter who serves as chief of staff, the lack of formal processes and the constant infighting are unavoidable facts of life for those working for Mr. Trump. Continue reading.
Group includes members of leadership in both chambersA bipartisan group of lawmakers has joined a task force to provide counsel to President Donald Trump and the White House on when to loosen public health restrictions and how to get the economy moving after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump and some of his allies have pushed for a faster lifting of restrictions, stressing that the economic ramifications of job losses and business closures could be worse than the loss of lives from the coronavirus. Public health officials have urged a more gradual approach to loosening social distancing guidelines and sending people back to work, school and daily life. They see a dramatic expansion of testing for the virus as a prerequisite to reopening businesses.
“My highest priority on this task force will be to ensure the federal government’s efforts to reopen our economy are bipartisan, data-driven, and based on the expertise of public health professionals,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said in a statement. Continue reading.
While attention was on coronavirus, the White House quietly changed leaders in the office at the center of the family separation firestorm.After the Trump administration abruptly installed a new hard-line leader last month, the health department’s refugee office is pushing to implement immigration policies favored by White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, according to four health department officials and internal documents reviewed by POLITICO.
The office — which takes custody of thousands of migrant children — is now seeking to delay placing migrant children in shelters operated by the health department, which would instead leave those children in the custody of the Border Patrol for an extended length of time, according to an internal email sent last week and reviewed by POLITICO.
Refugee office leaders are reviewing the policy of allowing undocumented immigrant adults to take custody of refugee children — a long-standing practice that dates back to the George W. Bush administration but has been opposed by Miller and other anti-immigration hard-liners, who think it rewards adults who are in the country illegally, officials said. Continue reading.
