Tag: Trump White House

Trump triggers Defense Production Act in coronavirus fight

The Hill logoPresident Trump said Friday he will trigger emergency war powers to accelerate the production of medical supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump told Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a phone call on Friday morning that he would use the Defense Production Act, according to Schumer’s office.  

Trump at a news conference after the Schumer call said he has put the act “into gear,” but it’s not yet clear to what extent the White House is using the law to access more supplies. Continue reading.

There is no new Trump

Washington Post logoIf you think you’ve been hearing a different President Trump this week — more accepting of the reality of the coronavirus pandemic — don’t be fooled. The new Trump is the same as the old Trump. He can’t help it. He’s incapable of taking responsibility for his role in this crisis — and thus incapable of leading us out of it.

After weeks of denial and deflection, a seemingly chastened Trump on Monday conceded that the virus was, in fact, “not under control,” and was, indeed, “a very bad one.” What caused the switch in tone? Who knows? Perhaps it was the largest one-day point drop in the Dow Jones in history on Monday. Perhaps it was a study the White House received saying that 2.2 million Americans could die. Perhaps it was that Trump’s beloved Mar-a-Lago is getting a coronavirus-necessitated deep cleaning.

But the sudden shift can’t conceal the fact that Trump has shown himself to be wholly inept at dealing with the pandemic. It doesn’t change the fact that he puts himself first, always. It doesn’t alter the fact that, as he once told top aides, he thinks of “each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.” It doesn’t dissolve Trump’s compulsion to lie, even when truth would serve him best. It doesn’t diminish his incompetence, ignorance or propensity for administrative chaos. Continue reading.

GOP disaster response expert pans Trump’s actions during crisis: ‘This is a failed approach’

AlterNet logoRory Cooper, a lifelong Republican who worked on disaster response after the 9/11 terrorist attacks under former President George W. Bush, thinks that President Donald Trump is still absolutely blowing the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Writing in The Daily Beast, Cooper slammed Trump for getting into Twitter fights with Democratic governors at a time when the administration needs to have good working relationships with governors regardless of party affiliation.

“This is a failed approach that the White House needs to correct fast,” he writes. “Close coordination and cooperation with state and local officials is absolutely critical in a crisis like this… After 9/11, as a staffer in the White House Homeland Security Council, I was a point of contact for those officials as we coordinated our ongoing response to the threat of global terrorism. The Bush White House team developed very close, cordial, and trusting relationships with state and local partners that transcended politics.” Continue reading.

Trump invokes Defense Production Act as coronavirus response

The Hill logoPresident Trump announced Wednesday that he will invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA), which would allow the administration to force American industry to manufacture medical supplies that are in short supply in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Hospitals, health workers and state and local officials have said they are quickly running out of personal protective equipment (PPE), like masks, gowns and gloves, that are crucial to keeping doctors and nurses on the front lines of the pandemic safe.

“There’s never been an instance like this where no matter what you have it’s not enough,” Trump said at a White House briefing with reporters.  Continue reading.

Trump to propose $850B stimulus for coronavirus response

The Hill logoThe Trump administration will seek approval of a roughly $850 billion emergency stimulus package from Congress in order to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus, a senior administration official confirmed on Tuesday.

The senior administration official stressed that the proposal is a tax proposal, not a spending stimulus as Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is proposing. The development was first reported by The Washington Post, which said that the stimulus package could include a payroll tax cut and is expected to include about $50 billion to help the airline industry specifically.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon, President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said they wanted to send checks to Americans as part of the proposal. Trump indicated the administration was still considering a payroll tax cut, but looking at other measures to more quickly send money to Americans. Continue reading.

Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’

In a tabletop exercise days before an untested new president took power, officials briefed the incoming administration on a scenario remarkably like the one he faces now.

Seven days before Donald Trump took office, his aides faced a major test: the rapid, global spread of a dangerous virus in cities like London and Seoul, one serious enough that some countries were imposing travel bans.

In a sober briefing, Trump’s incoming team learned that the disease was an emerging pandemic — a strain of novel influenza known as H9N2 — and that health systems were crashing in Asia, overwhelmed by the demand.

“Health officials warn that this could become the worst influenza pandemic since 1918,” Trump’s aides were told. Soon, they heard cases were popping up in California and Texas. Continue reading.

The debacle over Trump’s coronavirus test

Washington Post logoUpdate: Trump’s test was negative, according to the White House.

President Trump announced Saturday, after days of questions about whether he should get tested for the novel coronavirus, that he took a test Friday night and is awaiting results.

If the episode says anything at all about the broader handling of the crisis, that would be very disconcerting.

Questions about whether Trump should take the test began after an attendee of the Conservative Political Action Conference last month tested positive. High-ranking Republicans who interacted with the person chose to self-quarantine. Trump interacted with a number of those who self-quarantined, including Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and American Conservative Union head Matt Schlapp. Continue reading.

Coronavirus crisis has set off the ‘slow-motion collapse’ of the Trump presidency: Former New York Times editor

AlterNet logoAppearing on an MSNBC panel on Sunday morning, former New York Times editor Howell Raines said the coronavirus pandemic that is engulfing the country — and the failures of the current administration to deal with it — is leading to the “slow-motion collapse” of Donald Trump’s tenure as president.

Speaking with host Ali Velshi, Raines noted that Trump has never been a particularly popular president and the government’s response to the pandemic will be his undoing.

“Donald Trump has made it a centerpiece of his discussions about this, about the fact that this is media hype, part of a Democratic hoax to undermine his presidency,” host Velshi said of the growing health crisis. “And if you look at it, the idea that lots and lots of people are getting sick and the stock market has been cratering fits his narrative, because those are the two things he doesn’t want to happen. What in your esteemed opinion has the role of the media been in this whole thing? Good or bad?” Continue reading.

Federal vaccine development sites ill-suited to counter covid-19 epidemic

Washington Post logoFacilities funded years ago to rapidly develop vaccines and life-saving medicines

Nearly a decade ago, the U.S. government invested heavily in four sprawling facilities that officials said could rapidly make vaccines and other lifesaving medicines if America were struck by an outbreak of infectious disease or a biological attack.

But as the nation confronts the coronavirus pandemic, none of the sites — in Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas — have developed or are close to delivering medicines to counter the outbreak, according to records, government officials and others familiar with the facilities.

Instead of leading the rush to find and mass manufacture a vaccine or lifesaving treatment, two of the sites are taking no role, while the other two expect to conduct small-scale testing of potential coronavirus vaccines. Continue reading.

Pence says European travel ban will extend to U.K. and Ireland

Axios logoVice President Mike Pence announced Saturday that all travel from Ireland and the United Kingdom to the U.S. will be suspended, effective midnight EST on Monday. He said Americans and legal residents abroad in those countries can return home.

Why it matters: The administration initially left the two off its restricted travel list, but that case has been weakened due to an uptick in cases in the UK.

Details: The travel restrictions do not apply to cargo or economic shipping, officials with the coronavirus task force said. Continue reading.