Tag: Trump willing to risk American lives for re-election

Trump wants to reopen schools. Hint: It’s not just about education.

Trump has ramped up a push to return children to the classroom as he tries to restore the economy for his reelection campaign.

President Donald Trump’s push to reopen America’s schools is about more than children’s education. It’s about the economy. And it’s about his reelection.

Because for Trump and his team, the issues are interlinked.

With children out of the house, they argue, parents can more easily return to work and juice the economy — something even the president’s allies consider a necessity for Trump to win reelection. And with Trump’s sagging poll numbers against presumptive 2020 rival Joe Biden, aides also hope the campaign for in-person schooling will play well with the female and suburban voters the president needs to remain in office. Continue reading.

Harvard, MIT sue to block Trump administration from stripping student visas amid pandemic

The Hill logoHarvard and MIT filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that seeks to prevent the Trump administration from stripping foreign students of visas if their universities move exclusively to online classes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit comes after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Monday that international students whose courses move entirely online would be required to depart the country, rescinding a previous plan to grant exemptions to student visa holders.

The universities asked a federal court in Boston for a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction against the administration’s new policy. Continue reading.

Trump says White House will pressure governors to open schools

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Tuesday said the White House would put pressure on governors to get schools opened in the fall amid rising coronavirus cases in the United States.

At a White House summit, Trump signaled the full-court press, saying it would not be good politically to keep schools closed.

“We don’t want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. They think it’s going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed. No way,” Trump said during a White House event with government officials and school administrators. Continue reading.

Public health officials push back on May opening

The Hill logoPublic health experts are pushing back against suggestions the Trump administration could relax social distancing measures and open much of the country by May 1, warning that acting too soon will risk a resurgence of the virus.

The number of cases of COVID-19 nationally is starting to show signs of slowing, due in large part to the closure of thousands of business as people stay in their homes.

Yet this has also led to an economic catastrophe, with 16 million people filing unemployment claims over the past three weeks. And that has increased the pressure from some quarters to open the economy. Continue reading.

Trump’s horrendous last-ditch gambit to win re-election is scary as hell

AlterNet logoThursday night, the access journalism team at the Washington Post published a piece declaring that Donald Trump intends to “reopen much of the U.S.” in May.

“The Trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month,” Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, Jose A. Del Real and William Wan report, noting that Trump, behind “closed doors,” has “sought a strategy for resuming business activity by May 1.”

This is, needless to say, scary as hell. We’re nowhere near conquering the coronavirus epidemic and, thanks to Trump’s deliberate negligence — born from his desire to conceal the spread of the virus — we have nothing close to the testing capacity necessary to start letting people congregate safely again. Unsurprisingly, the article caused a lot of panic and anger, and reasonably so: There is nothing but downside to “reopening” the economy without a plan to control the spread of the virus. Continue reading.