Layoffs are coming, probably on a very large scale, as travel collapses and people hunker down at home. Any word for those about to lose their jobs? Only the vaguest indication that something might be announced sometime soon.

Its good to hear that there will be no co-pays on the tests nobody seems able to get. What about other health-care coverage? Any word on that? Nothing.

The financial markets have plunged into a 2008-style crash, auguring a recession, perhaps a severe one. The Trump administration has had almost two months to think about this crisis. It has trial-ballooned some ideas. But, of course, fiscal policy would require assent from the House of Representatives. Trump is still pouting at Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Soaside from some preposterously unconvincing happy talk about the economyagain: nothing.

Conor Friedersdorf: You will adjust to the new normal

There was one something in the speech: a ban on travel from Europe, but not the United Kingdom. Its a classic Trump formulation. It seeks to protect America by erecting a wall against the world, without thinking very hard how or whether the wall can work. The disease is already here. The numbers only look low because of our prior failure to provide adequate testing. They will not look low even four days from now. And those infected with the virus can travel from other countries and on other routes. Trump himself has already met some.

The travel ban is an act of panic. Financial futures began crashing even as Trump was talking, perhaps shocked by his lack of an economic plan, perhaps aghast at his latest attack on world trade. (The speech seemed to suggest an embargo on European-sourced cargo as well, but that looks more like a mental lapse of Trumps than a real policy announcement. The ban on cargo was retracted by a post-speech tweet, although the ban remains in the posted transcript of the speech.) Among other things, the ban represents one more refutation by Trump of any idea of collective security against collective threats. While China offers medical assistance to Italy, he wants to sever ties to former friendsisolating America and abandoning the world.

This crisis is not of Trumps making. What he is responsible for is his failure to respond promptly, and then his perverse and counterproductive choice of how to respond when action could be avoided no longer. Trump, in his speech, pleaded for an end to finger-pointing. Its a strange thing for this president of all presidents to say. No American president, and precious few American politicians, have ever pointed so many fingers or hurled so much abuse as Donald Trump. What he means, of course, is: Dont hold me to account for the things I did.

But he did do them, and he owns responsibility for those things. He cannot escape it, and he will not escape it.

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The Worst Outcome - The Atlantic

Coronavirus is the first major crisis Donald Trump has faced that is not of his own making. People who know what it is like to be in charge when disaster strikes have warned us this moment would come eventually and we can now see why they were so terrified.

Trump in a time of coronavirus is a lethal combination. Everything about the president his reliance on his gut instincts in place of expertise, his overwhelming selfishness, and his unfailing tendency to lash out at others when things go wrong make him the worst person imaginable to hold the worlds most powerful job in the face of pandemic.

Confronting the threat requires global cooperation, perhaps more than at any time since the second world war. But Trump and his junior imitators around the world have taken a sledgehammer to the very notion of international solidarity.

Americas closest allies were given no notice of his decision on Wednesday night to suspend flights from Europe. The EU mission in Washington only found out about it when journalists started calling.

The president has dealt with coronavirus the same way he approached every other challenge in his administration, first trying denial and when that failed, blaming outsiders. The disease has slid from a Democratic hoax to the foreign virus. It came as little surprise that his speech had been written by Stephen Miller, the author of the administrations cruellest anti-immigration policies.

The declaration of a European travel ban was only the second time Trump has addressed the nation from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. The first time was to announce the building of a wall on the Mexican border. The administration has made xenophobia its defining ethos.

It can stir up passions and corral votes, but railing against foreigners is useless against a virus that is indifferent to ethnicity and nationality.

Slamming the gates shut is also pointless in the face of a disease that already has taken hold within. Its incidence appears lower in the US than in much of Europe so far but almost certainly because US has barely started testing.

And the US is only shutting some of its gates. The exclusion of the UK and non-Schengen countries like Ireland from the ban makes no sense if stopping the spread of disease is really the aim. Contrary to Trumps claim, the UK is not doing a great job in containing coronavirus compared with most of its European neighbours.

It may or may not be a coincidence that Trump has golf resorts in the UK and Ireland. Given Trumps preoccupation with his investments throughout his time in office, it is as plausible an explanation as any for an otherwise pointless decision.

On the one strategy known to be effective in curbing the pandemic screening for the virus and organised social distancing the US is far behind most of the countries it has now cut off.

The production and distribution of diagnostic tests has been a fiasco. The initial test distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was flawed and had to be recalled. Production of new tests has been held back by a global shortage of a key component, reagents used to extract RNA from samples. Largely because of complacency at the top, the US was last in line putting its order in.

The same complacency has allowed the institutions that the US now most needs to wither and die. Trumps third national security adviser, John Bolton, axed the office in the national security council to coordinate a US response to pandemics, which was established after the Ebola outbreak.

Bolton, like Trump, did not see it as a real national security issue, like China or Iran.

Who would have thought we would even be having the subject? Trump wondered aloud, in explanation of why the administration had been taken by surprise.

With an eye fixed on the money markets, the president has sought to cover up the real lack of resilience in the system, insisting: Were testing everybody that we need to test.

But the truth has quickly become felt around the country, as people with symptoms and risk factors have been denied testing.

The CDC director, Robert Redfield, an evangelical conservative with no previous experience in managing a large state agency, revealed how out of touch the administration was with the reality on the ground on Wednesday.

When asked by the House oversight committee why the US was not providing drive-through tests, as have been introduced elsewhere he replied: Were trying to maintain the relationship between individuals and their healthcare providers.

Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat pointed out to him that most Americans do not have a regular doctor, and certainly do not see a physician often enough to have a relationship. When they get seriously ill, most head for the emergency room of the countrys overstrained hospitals.

The lack of tests means that the country is stumbling blindfolded into the worst health crisis in decades. Despite warnings from his own experts, the president reportedly clings to the relatively low number of confirmed cases as a sign that the US might be spared the worst.

When the country is struck by the inevitable wave of sickness and deaths, sweeping aside Trumps reassurances, it is hard to predict how he will react.

We do know he will see it through the prism of his prospects for re-election, and we can be fairly certain he will look for someone to blame along with a distraction, most likely some form of conflict at home or abroad.

The scale of the debacle will require a major distraction. Awful as the coronavirus pandemic looks now, Trumps backlash could be even worse.

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Donald Trump is the very worst person to handle the coronavirus crisis - The Guardian

President Donald Trump at a press conference in September 2018. (Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com)

EDITORS NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.

Donald Trump filed his paperwork to run for reelection only hours after his inauguration in January 2017, setting a presidential record, the first of his many dubious achievements. For a man who relished the adulation and bombast of campaigning, it should have surprised no one that he charged out of the starting gate so quickly for 2020 as well. After all, hed already spent much of the December before his inauguration on a thank you tour of the swing states that had unexpectedly supported him on Election DayOhio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsinand visited Florida for a rally only a couple of weeks after he took the oath of office. In much the same way that Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once embraced permanent revolution, Donald Trump embarked on a permanent campaign.1

But The Donald was fixated on 2020 even before he pulled off the upset of the century on November 8, 2016. After all, no one seems to have been more surprised by his victory that day than Trump himself.2

According to Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury and his personal attorney Michael Cohen, even on election night 2016, the billionaire tycoon didnt think hed win his first presidential bid. His wife, Melania, assured by her husband that hed lose, reportedly wept as the news came in that she would indeed be heading for the White House. Before his surprise victory, Trump described the election many times as rigged and seemed poised to declare the vote illegitimate as soon as the final returns rolled in. The attacks hed launched on Hillary Clinton during the campaignon her health, her integrity, her email accountwere not only designed to savage an opponent but also to undermine in advance the person that everyone expected to be the next president.3

In other words, Trump was already gearing up to go after her in 2020. And this wasnt even a commitment to run again for president. Although he reveled in all the media attention during the 2016 campaign, he was far more focused on the economic benefits to his cohort, his businesses, his family, and above all himself. He understood that attacking Clinton had real potential to become a post-election profession.4

Before Election Day, for instance, Trump was already exploring the possibility of establishing his own TV network to cater to the anti-Clinton base hed mobilized. The relentless stigmatizing of the Democratic standard bearerthe threats of legal action, the lock her up chants, the hints at dark conspiraciescould easily have morphed into a new birther movement led by Trump himself. With Clinton in the White House, he could have continued in quasi-campaign mode as a kind of shadow president, without all the onerous tasks of an actual commander-in-chief.5

Thanks to 77,744 voters in three key states on November 8, 2016, the Electoral College not only catapulted a bemused Trump into the White House but eliminated his chief electoral rival. Hillary Clintons political career was effectively over and Donald Trump suddenly found himself alone in the boxing ring, his very identity as a boxer at risk.6

As president, however, he soon discovered that a ruthless and amoral executive could wield almost unlimited power in the Oval Office. Ever since, hes used that power to harvest a bumper crop of carrots: windfall profits at his hotels, international contracts for his son-in-law Jared Kushners family business, not to speak of fat consulting gigs and other goodies for his cronies. Trump is a carrot-lover from way back. But ever vengeful, he loves sticks even more. Hes used those sticks to punish his enemies, real or imagined, in the media, in business, and most saliently in politics. His tenuous sense of self requires such enemies.7

Even as president, Trump thrives as an underdog, beset on all sides. Over the last three years, he turned the world of politics into a target-rich environment. Hes attacked one international leader after anotherthough not the autocratsfor failing to show sufficient fealty. At home, hes blasted the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives with a special focus on Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hes lashed out against deep state opponents within the government, particularly those with the temerity to speak honestly during the impeachment hearings. He typically took time at a rally in Mississippi to besmirch the reputation of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court aspirant Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Hes even regularly gone after members of his inner circle, from former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former attorney general Jeff Sessions to former Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, blaming them for his own policy failures.8

Those relentless attacks constitute the ambient noise of the Trump era. But a clear signal has emerged from this background chatter. Since committing to run for a second term, hes mounted one campaign of political assassination after another against any would-be successor to Hillary Clinton. Just as he ran a unique campaign in 2016 and has governed in an unprecedented manner, Donald Trump is launching what will be a one-of-a-kind reelection effort. This is no normal primary season to be followed by run-of-the-mill party conventions and a general election like every other.9

Trump isnt just determined to destroy politics as usual with his incendiary rhetoric, his Twitter end runs around the media, or his authoritarian governing style. He wants to destroy politics itself, full stop.10

Over the course of 40 seasons, the American reality show Survivor has been filmed at many different locations and in a variety of formats. Still, the basic rules have remained the same. Contestants are divided into different tribes that must survive in adverse conditions and face extraordinary challenges. A series of votes in Tribal Councils then determine who can stay on the island. Sometimes, tribes or individuals win temporary immunity from expulsion. As the numbers dwindle, the tribes merge and individuals begin to compete more directly against one another. A Final Tribal Council determines the winner among the two or three remaining contestants.11

What makes Survivor different from typical game showsand arguably explains its enduring successis that contestants dont win simply by besting their adversaries in head-to-head battles as in Jeopardy or American Idol. Instead, they have to avoid getting voted off the island by fellow contestants. You win, in other words, through persuasion, negotiation, and manipulation.12

The first seasons victor, Richard Hatch, was not the most physically able of the contestants, psychologist Vivian Zayas once explained. In fact, out of the twelve individual Challenges, he only won one. Richard was also not the most liked. He was perceived as arrogant and overly confident, and even picked by some to be one of the first to get voted off the island. Ultimately, what made Hatch successful was his ability to form alliances.13

To put it in Trumpian terms, you win Survivor by being best at the art of the deal. At times, this requires ruthlessness, wheedling, and outright lies. It makes perfect sense that Trump would revive his stagnant career by translating Survivor into the business world in his show, The Apprentice. Less predictable perhaps was his application of this strategy to electoral politics.14

The 2020 election resembles nothing less than a political version of the Survivor franchise. Donald Trump fully intends to be the last man standing. To do so, however, he must contrive to get everyone else voted off the island. The first to go was the tribe of Republican rivals he defeated in the 2016 primary and who no longer pose a political threat. Next to exit, in the general election, was the leader of the rival tribe of Democrats, Hillary Clinton.15

In 2020, having won the equivalent of Survivors immunity prize, Trump has earned a pass to the final round in November. He faces no significant challenge within the Republican Party. In fact, nine statesAlaska, Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, South Carolina and Wisconsinhave scrapped their primaries altogether and pledged their delegates to him. In the remaining primaries, hes racking up the kinds of results that only totalitarian leaders typically enjoy like the 97 percent of caucus delegates he captured in Iowa, the 97 percent of primary voters in Arkansas, and his 86 percent margin of victory in New Hampshire.16

As befits a political survivor, Trump has excelled at forging alliances. An irreligious and profane man, he still managed to win over the evangelical community. Despite his previously liberal record on social issues, he successfully courted the anti-abortion vote. A draft dodger, hes effectively pandered to veterans and active-duty soldiers. And though hes a billionaire given to grossly conspicuous consumption, he even managed to woo the disenfranchised in the Rust Belt and elsewhere. After capturing the Republican Party in this way, he then purged it of just about anyone without the requisite level of sycophancy to the commander-in-chief. In 2016, he also fashioned informal alliances with disgruntled Democrats and independent voters. Since then, hes tried to make further inroads in the Democratic Party by persuading a few politicians like New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew to switch parties. His pardon of corrupt Democratic pol Rod Blagojevich might even win him some additional crossover votes in Illinois.17

Trump hopes, of course, that the 2016 alliances he forged among Democratic and independent voters in key swing states will produce the same results in 2020. Indeed, those voters may well pull the lever for him again, even if they supported Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections. Its not just his politically incorrect personality that has won them over. During his presidency, hes used the power of the state to direct significant resources toward such constituencies.18

To compensate, for instance, for losses incurred in his trade war with China, hes provided $28 billion in farm subsidies over the last two years. Even with the first part of a Sino-American trade deal in place, the president has promised critical rural voters yet more handouts in this election year. Although his tax cuts have certainly put plenty of extra money in the pockets of his wealthy supporters and affluent suburbanites, theres evidence that those cuts have also advantaged red states over blue ones, just as job growth has favored such states, in part because of the help his administration has given to specific economic sectors like the oil, coal, and chemical industries.19

All of this, however, could mean little if Donald Trump faces a popular Democrat in November. So the president has gone into overdrive to ensure that those he considers his strongest potential rivals are voted off the island before the ultimate contest begins.20

Joe Biden formally threw his hat into the presidential ring on April 25, 2019. But Donald Trumps anxiety about running against him had begun much earlier. In July 2018, according to campaign advisers, the president was already fretting Biden might win back some white, working-class voters in swing states like Pennsylvania. However, the president promptly began to insist that Biden would be a dream candidate, resorting to his common and often effective strategy of saying the opposite of what he really thought.21

That summer, Trump was well aware that, in election 2020 polls, he was seven points behind his possible future Democratic opponent. So he began to go after sleepy Joe (as he nicknamed him) on Twitter. He insulted Bidens age, intelligence, and political record, but a true hatchet job required a sharper hatchet.22

Trump had long sought a lawyer who could do some of his hatchet work for him, a figure akin to Roy Cohn, the anti-Communist huckster who assisted Senator Joe McCarthy and later served as The Donalds mentor. Several people aspired to play that very role, including Michael Cohen, who became the presidents personal lawyer. But like Jeff Sessions, in the end, he proved insufficiently loyal in the presidents eyes.23

Rudy Giuliani has emerged as the latest in this line of fixers. He endorsed Trump in 2016 and then entered his administration as an adviser on cybersecurity. In April 2018, after the FBI raided Michael Cohens office, Giuliani joined Trumps legal team. He immediately went to work exploiting his past connections in Ukraine as part of an effort to shift blame to that country for Russias interference in the US elections. At some point in the fall of 2018, hooking up with two shady operators, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, he began to investigate Biden, his son Hunter, and the latters links to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. When Volodymyr Zelensky became that countrys president in April 2019, Trump felt emboldened, thanks to Giuliani, to press the new leader to relaunch an investigation into the Biden family even though the previous effort had produced nothing.24

It was an extraordinarily risky move, coming just after Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in his long-awaited report, had described Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Trump administrations attempts to cover up its Kremlin connections. But thats how much Trump worried about the man he then expected to be his foremost political rival in 2020. For reelection, Giuliani and Trump knew that nothing illicit actually had to be nailed down when it came to Hunter Bidens Ukrainian activities. They simply had to damage his fathers reputation through insinuation.25

Trump was furious at the impeachment inquiry that followed his perfect phone call with Zelensky on July 25, 2019. In the end, however, even though the House investigation exonerated Biden and implicated Trump, it was the Democrats reputation that suffered the greater hit.26

As Peter Beinart wrote in The Atlantic:27

By keeping Hunter Bidens business dealings in Ukraine in the news, they have turned them into a rough analogue to Hillary Clintons missing emails in 2016a pseudo-scandal that undermines a leading Democratic candidates reputation for honesty. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee last fall launched a $10 million advertising blitz aimed at convincing Americans that Joe Bidens behavior toward Ukraine was corrupt.28

Bidens national poll numbers didnt actually suffer much during the impeachment investigation, but his leads in the early state primaries did. Beginning with an ad campaign in Iowa, the president seemed determined to kneecap Biden in those very primaries. True, the Democratic candidate did himself no favors with lackluster debate performances and his usual verbal gaffes. Trumps strategy, however, helped ensure that the residents of Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada nearly voted the competing tribes leading candidate off the island before the big Tribal Council on Super Tuesday. Only a resounding victory in South Carolina kept Biden in the race, propelling him to a surprising comeback on Super Tuesday.29

Trump deployed his traditional strategy of attack to minimize the other Democratic candidates for 2020 as well. He ridiculed Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas, made fun of Mike Bloombergs height, and intentionally garbled Pete Buttigiegs last name. But the candidate Trump seemed most worried about replacing Biden as the partys nominee was Bernie Sanders.30

After all, Sanders has some of the very strengths that made Trump such an attractive candidate in 2016. The Vermont independent is a political outsider who can credibly distance himself from the failings of both major parties. He has an authentically populist agenda that targets the very corporate fat cats who are Trumps closest friends, allies, and supporters. He can potentially appeal to voters who didnt go to the polls in 2016, those who voted for Trump but havent been able to stomach his performance in the White House, and young people who otherwise might not bother to turn out at all.31

This profile has, for instance, attracted the endorsement of popular libertarian podcaster Joe Rogan. Former Republican representative Joe Walsh, who voted for Trump in 2016 before challenging the president for the partys nomination this year, has already pledged to vote for Sanders if he becomes the nominee. Even far-right pundit Ann Coulter, once an ardent Trump supporter, declared last year that shed consider voting for Sanders if he took a harder stance on immigration. I dont care about the rest of the socialist stuff, she told PBS. Just: can we do something for ordinary Americans?32

Trump himself has expressed concerns about taking on Sanders. Frankly, I would rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders, Trump told reporters last month. Because Sanders has real followers, whether you like them or not, whether you agree with them or notI happen to think its terrible what he saysbut he has followers.33

A significant number of those followers in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania switched parties to vote for Trump in 2016. If they were to go back to Sanders in 2020and if the Democrats who voted for Clinton generally maintained their party loyaltythe Vermont independent could win those three states and probably the election in November.34

Of course, in his worrying about Sanders, Trump could well be using his simplistic version of reverse psychology. The president could be pretending to be scared of Sanders when he really wants to run against a self-proclaimed democratic socialist next fall. Citing Republican Party sources, for instance, The New York Times concluded in January that President Trumps advisers see Senator Bernie Sanders as their ideal Democratic opponent in November and have been doing what they can to elevate his profile and bolster his chances of winning the Iowa caucuses. These advisers are well aware that, according to a November poll by NPR/PBS and an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll last March, only 2025 percent of Americans are enthusiastic about a socialist candidate. For these reasons, Trump urged South Carolina Republicans to cross the aisle to back Sanders in the Democratic primary in order to shut down Biden once and for all.35

To play it safe, however, the president has also begun to focus a portion of his considerable ire on Sanders. Hes already mounted vigorous attacks on his approach to health care reform, his opposition to the assassination of the head of Irans Revolutionary Guards, his supposed hypocrisy as a wealthy, fossil fuel-guzzling millionaire, and above all that socialism of his. Its just a taste of whats to come. According to someone who saw the opposition research the Republicans compiled on Sanders in 2016, it was so massive it had to be transported on a cart.36

And thats before Trump blows all this material out of proportion through outright lies and misrepresentation.37

At the end of August, Donald Trump heads into the Republican Partys nominating convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, with some advantages he didnt have four years ago.38

In 2016, Hillary Clinton had raised nearly twice as much money as he did. This time, the president has already collected more than $100 million. (Barack Obama had $82 million at this point in 2012.) A war chest like that supports a large ground operation eager to flip some blue states like Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, and even New Mexico. Trump has the authority of incumbency, plus a reputation for invincibility thats been enhanced by his surviving both the Mueller investigation and impeachment by the House. As long as a coronavirus pandemic doesnt truly shut down the global economy, he will continue to claim, misleadingly, that low unemployment figures and modest growth are his personal achievements.39

In a normal political contest, Trump would have to deal with a raft of negatives, including his relative unpopularity, his many policy failures, his embarrassments on the global stage, and of course, the cuts his administration has made in funds to prepare for a possible pandemic. Election 2020, however, is anything but a normal political contest. Trump has been busy gaming the system, focusing virtually all his efforts on Electoral College swing states, while Republicans do their damnedest to purge voter rolls, suppress turnout, and ignore warnings from the US intelligence community of coming Russian election interference.40

Donald Trump has also been hard at work stripping politics of its content, a longer-term trend for which hes anything but the sole culprit. Still, more than any other candidate in memory, hes boiled elections down to pissing contests and personality clashes. In addition, his nonstop barrage of lies has thoroughly confused voters about what his administration has and hasnt done. In the process, hes delegitimized the mainstream media, placed himself above the law, and reduced American politics to a litmus test of loyalty.41

Its not yet possible to predict the winner of the 2020 election, but the loser is already clear: the American public. Trump has sabotaged in a significant way the normal give-and-take, compromise, and negotiation once at the heart of everyday politics. He believes only in power, the more naked the better. He long ago gave up on elite opinion. Now, he doesnt want to take any chances on the vagaries of popular choice either.42

Trump believes that he already owns the island, that hes now the survivor in chief. To maintain that illusion, hell do anything in his power to ensure that hes never voted off the island, certainly not by something beyond his control like actual democracy.43

See the original post here:

Donald Trump's Latest Reality Show: The 2020 Election - The Nation

The past is past, but with Donald Trump tweeting this morning on good practices to hold down the spread of coronavirus, its important to remember how dismissive he was of the crisis for weeks, time when the government could have been acting. An excellent rundown by the New York Times David Leonhardt.

And get a load of Sen. Tom Cotton, worrying more about working folks than monetary policy.

Some of his devoted admirers are continuing Trumps early messaging that virus alarm was a hoax generated by Democrats and media to harm Trump politically. The facts never supported that view and Trumps actions in the intervening weeks placed his political wellbeing over public health. (A problem with U.S. policy in general.)

As Leonhardt recounts, Jan. 22 Trump said everything was under control.

In the weeks that followed, Trump faced a series of choices. He could have taken aggressive measures to slow the spread of the virus. He could have insisted that the United States ramp up efforts to produce test kits. He could have emphasized the risks that the virus presented and urged Americans to take precautions if they had reason to believe they were sick. He could have used the powers of the presidency to reduce the number of people who would ultimately get sick.

He did none of those things.

Ive reviewed all of his public statements and actions on coronavirus over the last two months, and they show a president who put almost no priority on public health. Trumps priorities were different: Making the virus sound like a minor nuisance. Exaggerating his administrations response. Blaming foreigners and, anachronistically, the Obama administration. Claiming incorrectly that the situation was improving. Trying to cheer up stock market investors. (It was fitting that his first public comments were from Davos and on CNBC.)

Now that the severity of the virus is undeniable, Trump is already trying to present an alternate history of the last two months.

Never forget.

Speaking of tune changes, check Sen. Tom Cottons Twitter feed. Yes, he continues his not-so-subtle practice of injecting race into the issue by repeatedly defining the global epidemic as Chinese. But I credit him for common sense rather than his normal hysterical fear-mongering. For example:

Hes even said this morning that the House aid bill crafted by Democrats doesnt go far enough. And he also tweeted:

OK then. Empathy from Tom Cotton. And he even acknowledged a Federal Reserve interest rate cut isnt much of a virus fighter or even an economic boon in such times.

Read more here:

Coronavirus: The delayed reaction by Donald Trump and Tom Cotton's change of tone - Arkansas Times

U.S. President Donald Trumps inability to effectively combat the coronavirus could ultimately doom his bid for reelection.

Meanwhile, a new round of constitutional changes implemented in Russia could see President Vladimir Putin remain at the helm for almost two more decades.

And Japan and South Korea are reeling due to the effects of the coronavirus, but they still find time to point fingers at each other.

Here are Foreign Policys top weekend reads.

As the coronavirus takes hold in the United States and the economy faces recession, Trumps credibility is further eroded, Foreign Policys Michael Hirsh writes.

As the coronavirus spreads, a dangerous trend has followed: Government leaders and other officials are intentionally obfuscating data, suppressing information, and misinforming citizens about the outbreak, Suzanne Nossel writes.

Russias political future became a little bit clearer when a series of choreographed moves in the countrys parliament set the stage for Putin to stay in his role for another 16 years, Foreign Policys Reid Standish writes.

Japan and South Korea have both been hit hard by the coronavirus, but they have shown that when times get tough, they will still prioritize the most important thing: blaming each other, William Sposato writes.

The ideas and practices that guided Christians through countless plagues across millennia still have relevance today, Lyman Stone writes.

See original here:

Trump Is Dooming His Presidency and Other Weekend Reads - Foreign Policy

Two days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, President Donald Trump brought in leaders of some of the country's biggest companies to showcase a plan to tackle the outbreak.

Trump spoke Friday flanked by the CEOs of Target, Walmart, Walgreens and others as he updated the country on the government's response to the virus. As he handed the mike and podium over to them the message was clear: we're in good hands.

The market reacted well to the message, with theDow Jones Industrial Averageclosing1,985 points higherFriday.

Trump lauded the CEOs as "celebrities in their own right" and praised their companies as the greatest in the world. The executives, like Walmart chief Doug McMillon, said they will help America ramp up its testing by offering space in their parking lots.

The administration's ability to quickly roll out tests has been marred by missteps and an underfunded system. In recent days, though, it has approved new tests, such as one fromSwiss diagnostics-maker Roche, giving the government the capacity to make more.

"Today I trust that people in America are looking on at this extraordinary public and private partnership to address the issue of testing with particular inspiration," said White House Vice President Mike Pence.

"After you tapped me to lead the White House coronavirus task force, Mr. President, you said, 'this is all hands on deck'. You directed us to immediately reach out to the American business sector ... to meet what we knew then would be the need [for] testing across the spectrum."

"And today with this historic private-public partnership we have laid the foundation to meet that need."

The Friday press conference topped two weeks of meetings with business leaders in banking, technology, pharmaceutical and other industries.

Some have been described as "brainstorming sessions," as was Trump's meeting with technology leaders earlier this week. Others offered words of reassurance. Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat said during the banks' meeting with the White House "this is not a financial crisis."

Announcements have followed suit. Trump also announced Friday that Google will launch a website to help people out to determine whether they should get a test for coronavirus.

Still, many of the details around these private-public partnerships remain scarce, including those announced Friday.

Google's communications team said the tool Trump referred to, which is being developed by Verily, the life sciences sister company to Google, remains in its early stages.Both Google and Verily areAlphabetcompanies.

"We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing," it said in a statement. "Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time," the statement said.

The retailers, meantime, had limited details to share around which locations will be rolling out tests, and how many of them they will have.

For the retailers, the move is a natural expansion of efforts to utilize their vast footprint to provide medical care. CVS Health bought insurer Aetna for roughly $69 billion two years ago, and has since expanded health-care services in its stores.

Walmart has long been a pioneer in health care, including with its own employees.Ninety percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart, giving it unique reach to Americans, particularly those in rural areas. The retailer has explored other partnerships with the government, like an experiment in telehealth with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The retailer has also taken an increasing interest in dipping its toe into public policy. The retailer's decision to dramatically step back from ammunition sales after "horrific" shootings let other major retailers to follow suit.

CEO Doug McMillon leads the Business Roundtable, a group representing the CEOs of nearly 200 companies. The Business Roundtable last year made a splash as it embraced stakeholder capitalismas its new purpose. With that statement, the companies said their focus is on serving not only its shareholders but all stakeholders, including customers and communities.

None of the companies disclosed what financial impact, if any, the moves would have on their financials.

"These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures," saidRichard Ashworth, Walgreens president.

"Collaboration with health officials, the government, and across our industry and other sectors is critical at this time. Walgreens has a long history of being there when our customers and communities needs us most."

CNBC's Melissa Repko contributed to this story.

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Trump asks Walmart, Target and other retail giants to help tackle the coronavirus crisis - CNBC

President Donald Trump eating with members of the military in a dining facility during a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019, at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.Photo: Alex Brandon (Associated Press)

The Meglomaniac-In-Chief s continuous war on the poor has hit a snag.

In his quest to Make American Hate Again, President Donald Trump and his administration were planning to make life even worse for food-insecure families when the sought to proceed with measures to remove nearly three-quarters of a million people from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits program.

But a judge appointed by Forever President Barack Hussein Obama pumped the brakes.

One of the good things to come out of the Coronavirus pandemic was Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruling that the planned strict work requirements were unlawful and blocked the administration from proceeding with them.

Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is essential, Howell wrote in her 84-page ruling.

The decision resulted from a lawsuit brought by 19 states, including Washington D.C. and The Big Apple on Friday, NPR reported.

In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was adopting the rule change requiring able-bodied adults without children to work at least 20 hours a week in order to qualify for SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, past three months.

To go one step further with their skullduggery, it wouldve also limited individual states usual ability to waive those requirements depending on economic conditions.

Her honors preliminary injunction will preserve that flexibility.

Howell is the top judge on the Washington, D.C. federal district court and she seems not to mind setting the record straight.

Just last month, the 63-year-old Fort Benning, Georgia native said that the courts sentencing of Trump consigliere Roger Stone would not be swayed by public criticism or pressure.

On Feb. 20, the GOP operative was sentenced to more than three years in prison after a jury found guilty on seven felony counts including lying to authorities, obstructing a congressional investigation and witness intimidation, Politico reported.

Trump has called Stones treatment a miscarriage of justice, raising questions about whether he will grant clemency to his longtime political confidant.

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Obama-Appointed Judge Blocks Donald Trump's Plan to Kick Nearly One Million Americans Off of Food Stamps - The Root

And theyre watching a flood of announcements from multinational U.S. companies signaling trouble that could strangle the American economy for months to come.

The frenzied push to boost the economy is colliding with Republican orthodoxy opposing short-term stimulus during the last recession. But its a reflection of what some Republicans recognize as an existential threat to Trumps reelection: a potential downturn in the economy and financial markets in the run-up to a close and heated presidential election.

I dont think its good policy, one senior administration official said. The whole litany of temporary measures to stimulate the economy ... I dont think it works.

During a meeting with lawmakers last week, Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana suggested to Trump the idea of a temporary payroll tax cut to give employed consumers additional cash an idea that Daines said Trump liked enough to then champion on Twitter.

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is pushing the idea of a one-time tax credit for companies that bring manufacturing back to the U.S. from China.

And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his agency would talk to independent bank regulators about easing rules for lenders. Mnuchin also said Treasury had set up a subtask force to examine how coronavirus is hitting small businesses.

The flurry of discussion comes as the White House struggles to settle on the best public health and economic response to the fast-traveling coronavirus of which there are now 77 cases in the U.S. throughout 14 states and cities and nine deaths.

The spread of the virus inside Italy, Iran, South Korea and the U.S. last week spooked investors and triggered the stock markets worst weekly decline since 2008. Now it threatens to disrupt a wide range of U.S. businesses such as manufacturers, airlines, automakers and the hospitality industry that either rely on China for materials or labor, or that are dependent on consumer confidence to maintain a robust bottom line.

The White House plans to meet with airline executives on Wednesday amid growing concerns about international air travel.

The widening worries across the U.S. are already spurring flight cancellations, school closures and unusual moves to corporate headquarters to encourage employees to work from home.

If we have rational behavior, we dont need a stimulus, said one Republican close to the administration. If you cant leave your house, or if kids cant go to school and the parents cant go to work, what good is a payroll tax cut? Its not like you can go out and buy stuff.

Trump himself told reporters on Tuesday that he would go along with a payroll tax cut as well as middle-class tax cuts, if Democrats would approve them. I think it would be a good time, he said.

Amid the frenzied backdrop, the Fed voted Tuesday to slash interest rates by half a percentage point, an emergency move intended to protect the U.S. economy from damage. The rate cut marked the first time the central bank has lowered interest rates outside of a regularly scheduled meeting since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett, is advising the White House on economic stimulus measures, said a second Republican close to the administration, while the National Economic Council held a meeting on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the coronavirus.

A second senior administration official stressed the White House has not made any decisions yet on a potential package, saying aides were still looking over the data to see if they needed to act.

When asked about a potential stimulus package on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Mnuchin said, I dont really think thats the right question. This is an evolving situation where were meeting daily on this. Were looking at things.

If the coronavirus keeps up its path throughout the U.S., sectors like airlines, cruise ships and large conferences and events are likely to see business plunge and seek federal bailouts, similar to the billions of dollars farmers received last year to offset the aftermath of the trade war, Bruce Mehlman, a longtime Republican lobbyist said in his quarterly analysis on Washington politics.

Additional billions for emergency response and recovery costs are likely, if needed (as with natural disasters, regional costs are often borne by federal taxpayers), Mehlman wrote, calling a $7 billion to $8 billion emergency package imminent.

Some people are saying we should treat this like any other disaster, like after Hurricane Katrina. That will depend on how much it spreads and what it does to the economy, said former Republican Sen. Trent Lott, who now represents automakers and airlines as part of his practice at the firm Squire Patton Boggs. I dont think we are there yet. Congress is just trying to pass emergency funding now to benefit the CDC.

Claudia Sahm, director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, said the administration should first target stimulus measures toward individuals who are most economically vulnerable to the virus.

The individuals who become ill, who are quarantined, who are not able to go to work theres a nontrivial number of workers that if they do not show up to work for two weeks, they lose their job, said Sahm, a former Fed economist. She pointed out that a payroll tax cut wouldnt benefit those people.

Ideally, she said, the government would target discrete areas where the outbreak is concentrated, as the government does in a disaster declaration, and direct money toward those households, for example, to help them make their mortgage and auto payments.

It could get much worse for the economy as a whole, she added. Then, only then, do I think the conversation should shift to broad-based fiscal stimulus, like sending out checks.

The White House faces the unenviable challenge now of appearing calm in the face of a spreading virus, while also seeming responsive to volatile markets and an economy under pressure.

Several White House officials have expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of short-term stimulus measures even as outside allies and lawmakers push their own specific ideas.

I would say this is no different than any other severe situation. This is going to have an impact in the short term on the economy, Mnuchin told the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.

Its very different than the financial crisis, he added. The good news here is there will be an end in sight. This will have an impact on the economy, but I have confidence in our health professionals that they will develop both viral medical treatments and vaccines, so this will have a time period."

Sarah Ferris, Marianne Levine, Theo Meyer, Zachary Warmbrodt and Caitlin Oprysko contributed to this report.

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Trump launches an urgent fight to save his ticket to reelection - POLITICO

Mar 7th 2020

WASHINGTON, DC

AMERICAS GOVERNMENT, as all its citizens learn at school, comprises three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. At the top of the executive branch sits the actual executivethe president. But the branch also includes an array of agencies, both the departments represented in the cabinet, and othersincluding the National Security Council and the Council of Economic Advisersthat make up the Executive Office of the President (EOP). These agencies advise on and implement presidential policy. Most of the EOP gets repopulated with a change in administration, as it should: new presidents have new policy agendas, which require new personnel.

The exception to that rule is the EOPs biggest office: the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Most of its 500-odd employees are career civil servants who take pride in providing nonpartisan advice to presidents of both parties. In 1921 Charles Dawes, the first head of the OMBs predecessor agency, the Bureau of the Budget, explained that if Congress passed a law that garbage should be put on the White House steps, it would be our regrettable duty, as a bureau, in an impartial, nonpolitical and nonpartisan way, to advise the executive and Congress as to how the largest amount of garbage could be spread in the most expeditious and economical manner. Russell Vought, the OMBs acting director, calls his office the presidents Swiss army knife. It has been central to Donald Trumps efforts to loosen environmental regulations and to cut budgets. It also played a role in the Ukraine scandal.

When Congress refused to appropriate adequate funds for Mr Trumps border wall, OMB found it. When the government shut down in 2018-19, the OMB found ways for the Internal Revenue Service to send out tax refunds, and for the Department of Agriculture to provide food stamps. The OMBs job is to understand the mechanics of federal-government operations, and explain to the president and his staff how to get things done. Its titular head is Mick Mulvaney, who is also the presidents chief of staff, but Mr Vought, a former Hill staffer and vice-president of Heritage Action, a conservative policy-advocacy group, has operational control.

The OMB staff often have backgrounds in law or public policy, and tend to like their work: for the past five years, the OMB has ranked in the top quartile of small federal agencies in the Partnership for Public Services Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey. (It had dipped early in the Obama administration; Peter Orszag, Mr Obamas first OMB director, was widely disliked.) One senior official in a previous administration praised the offices civil servants: I thought they were just so good, so knowledgeable. They were stubbornish about making clear what they thought, but they also did a lot of, Well, if you want to do that stupid thing, heres how you do it.

As the B in the offices name suggests, one of OMBs chief duties is to write the presidents annual budget, in consultation with agencies from across the federal government. Because Congress, not the executive, appropriates funds, the presidents budget is an expression of wishes, not an allocation of funds. To translate the presidents policy priorities into budgetary terms, the OMBs Resource Management Offices (RMOs), organised by broad oversight areas, weigh competing interests from different parts of government. For the Trump administration, that meant proposing a 27% cut in the funding of the Environmental Protection Agency and a 21% cut in the State Department this year.

Another duty, as the M suggests, is managerial. Once a budget passesor, as has grown increasingly common, there is a continuing resolution, that merely keeps current funding levels constantthe OMB advises and evaluates agency performance. The OMB also oversees a range of federal functions, including procurement, IT, personnel and financial management.

Within the OMB sits the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). OIRA reviews agencies proposed regulatory changes, ensuring that benefits outweigh costs, and, for new regulations, that agencies have fully considered non-regulatory alternatives to achieve their stated goals.

OIRA has been central to Mr Trumps deregulatory effort. Just days after his inauguration, the president issued an executive order requiring two regulations to be repealed for every new one introduced. In October his administration estimated that it had actually cut eight and a half regulations for every new one. Some take issue with how Mr Trumps OIRA conducts cost-benefit analysis of these regulations. Richard Revesz of NYU Law School argues that in its deregulatory zeal, the Trump administration has made a mockery of cost-benefit analysis [by] weighing broader indirect costs [of regulation], and insisting on ignoring any indirect benefits. In delaying Obama-era environmental regulations, for instance, he argues that the administration has ignored or downplayed unquantified benefits, such as long-term improvements to air and water quality, while overstating the costs of compliance to industry.

In its keenness to deregulate, OIRA has sometimes got in its own way. According to the Institute for Policy Integrity, a think-tank, the administration has won just five of the 71 court challenges it has faced over deregulation and other agency policy.

Although Mr Vought says morale at the OMB remains healthy, one recently retired veteran demurs. Career staff were asked [] give us options to do X. They would lay out a range of options, including ones they thought would be extreme enough to be a non-starter, and usually they chose the non-starter. The department has also become unusually high-profile for the wrong reasons: it was the OMBs associate director for national security programmes, Michael Duffey, who told the Pentagon that there was clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold military aid to Ukraine.

In January the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a non-partisan auditor, found that this action violated federal law. Mr Vought disputes that: he believes that the OMB had the right to delay funding, and that the GAOs analysis stems partly from partisan animus (the GAO answers to Congress rather than the president). He also notes that the White House has delayed other tranches of foreign aid, such as to Pakistan and Gaza, over policy concerns.

When not getting rid of regulations and holding up military aid to allies, the OMB has been doing the sort of good-government things it might have done under any administration, streamlining the federal grantmaking process or implementing a law which encourages government to use data better when drafting policy. Another ex-employee says he is impressed with peoples ability to continue to do their job even when the interest in a fair process isnt being respected by the leadership of the administration. Which is about as pejorative as a retired civil servant can be.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "The toolkit"

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Donald Trumps toolkit - The Economist

President Trump granted clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old woman sentenced to life in prison. The move comes a week after Trump met with Kim Kardashian West, who became involved in Johnsons case after viewing a viral video last year.

WASHINGTON PresidentDonald Trump will host Kim Kardashian Westat the White House on Wednesday to draw attention to criminal justice reform through star power and to meet three women whose prison sentences he recently commuted.

West has become an advocate for criminal justice issues and has worked closely with the White House on the issue. West's visit was confirmed by two officials who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity because the meeting has not yet been made public.

West will be accompanied by newly freed ex-prisoners Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz, and Judith Negron.

West is a friend of Ivanka Trump, who introduced her to her husband and presidential senior adviser Jared Kushner.Together, they worked on obtaining a commutation for Alice Johnson, who in turn brought other cases to the White Houses attention. Johnson will also attendWednesdays meeting with Trump, Kardashian, and the three former inmates.

Kardashian,a businesswoman and reality television star, spoke at a White House event in June. She pushed for the commutation of Johnsons prison sentence that Trump granted in 2018. At that time, Johnson was a 63-year-old great-grandmother serving a life sentence for a first drug offense.

Trump announced a wave of commutations and pardons last month, including for former Illinois Gov. RodBlagojevich and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Trump has also often touted the "First Step Act," developed by Kushner anda bipartisan group of lawmakers, to improve rehabilitation programs for former prisoners.

Trump signed that law in late 2018.

More: Who got pardoned, who got shorter prison sentences under Trump's clemency?

Hall of Texas served nearly 14 years of an 18-year sentence for allowing her apartment to be used to distribute drugs.Munoz, of Odessa, Texas, spent the past 12 years in prison after she was convicted for her role in a marijuana smuggling ring.Negron, the owner of a Miami-area mental health company, was sentenced in 2011 to 35 years in prison for orchestrating a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Contributing: John Fritze

President Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian(Photo: AP)

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Exclusive: Trump to host Kim Kardashian West at the White House to discuss criminal justice reform - USA TODAY

Bravo, Donald Trump.

I never imagined I would ever write these three words. It pains me, in fact, to see them on the page.

But credit where credit is due. Over the weekend, at the Sheraton hotel in Doha, Qatar, the Trump administration was able to achieve in its first term what the Bush and Obama administrations were either unable or unwilling to do over two terms each: Sign a peace deal with the Taliban.

Officially entitled Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan, this three-part, four-page document guarantees a timeline of 14 months for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan; a Taliban pledge that Afghan soil will not be used against the security of the United States and its allies; the launch of intra-Afghan negotiations by March 10; and a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.

No peace deal is perfect, and the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan is no exception to that rule. But it is the beginning of a much-delayed diplomatic process to bring an end to Americas longest and most unpopular war. Trump tried and failed to do it in 2019. In 2020, he may have succeeded.

Dont get me wrong: I have no doubt that if Barack Obama had signed such a deal with the Taliban, he would have been pilloried by the same Republican politicians and Fox News pundits now cheering Trumps agreement. Obama, for example, was scorned and slammed for releasing five Taliban detainees in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, in 2014; Trump, on the other hand, has agreed to the release of an astonishing 5,000 Taliban prisoners.

I am also aware that Trump has never been consistent on Afghanistan, nor does he give a damn about ordinary Afghans. He has cut U.S. aid to the country; bragged about dropping the mother of all bombs on it; pardoned two U.S. army officers accused of committing war crimes in Afghanistan; and casually and repeatedly discussed killing millions of Afghans, including in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday. Last year, according to the U.N., there were more than 10,000 civilian casualties in Afghanistan, with around a quarter of them killed or wounded by the U.S. military and its allies. Their blood is on Trumps hands in the same way that the blood of thousands of Afghan civilians killed and injured between January 2009 and January 2017 is on Obamas.

For far too long, Iraq was the bad war and Afghanistan the good war. Yet there was nothing good about the decision to invade and occupy Afghanistan. None of the 19 hijackers were Afghans. The 9/11 plot was hatched in Hamburg, Germany, not Kabul or Kandahar. Yes, there were Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan but the Taliban, lest we forget, had agreed to hand over Osama bin Laden to a third country, on the condition that the United States provided some evidence of his guilt. The Bush administration refused.

Nevertheless, in September 2001, there was massive support across the political spectrum for attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan. The vast majority of Americans backed Bushs decision to invade and believed it would end in victory. So did the New York Times editorial board. The only member of Congress to oppose the conflict was the indomitable Rep. Barbara Lee, who warned of the danger of embarking on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target.

Nearly two decades later, it is difficult to overstate what a catastrophic disaster this particular open-ended war has been both for the American and Afghan peoples. Where to begin? Some 2,400 American soldiers killed and more than 20,000 wounded. More than 58,000 Afghan security forces killed. More than 100,000 Afghan civilian casualties. More than half the population below the poverty line. More than $2 trillion spent. A quadrupling in opium production. Endemic corruption. War crimes. The cover-up of child sexual abuse. The rise of ISIS in Afghanistan. The list goes on.

Today, the Taliban control or contest nearly half the countrys districts which, according to data from the Pentagon, is more territory than at any point since 2001. Meanwhile, five months after the Afghan presidential election, the official winner Ashraf Ghani is still trying to form a government while his main rival Abdullah Abdullah has declared himself the victor, crying fraud and treason in the process.

It wasnt only the Iraq invasion that was defined by official deceit and dishonesty. As a damning investigation by the Washington Post, based on leaked government documents, revealed in December 2019, senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.

Those who now line up to criticize or condemn Trump for trying to end this unwinnable war have yet to grapple with the shocking revelations contained in these Afghanistan Papers. Trump, of course, isnt interested in peace or the truth. The U.S. president craves a photo op with Taliban leaders and knows that he also needs a diplomatic win. Above all else, he hopes to use a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan to bolster his prospects for reelection in November.

But guess what? Sometimes bad people do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Yes, Trump is an awful president and an even more awful person. But just as only Nixon could go to China, perhaps only Trump could do this historic deal with the Taliban.

As political scientist Barnett Rubin, who has advised both the U.S. State Department and the United Nations on Afghanistan, told me, no rational, conventional, predictable U.S. politician would take the political risks needed to negotiate seriously with the Taliban.

Will a deal between the two sides hold? Can either Trump or the Taliban be trusted to stick to the terms of the agreement? Does it give away too much to the insurgents, in return for too little? Maybe. The bigger question, according to International Crisis Group President Robert Malley, is:Whats the alternative?

The fact that the Taliban got so much out of the deal is not, primarily, a result of anything the Trump administration did, Malley told me. It is because, after two decades, the U.S. has failed to win an unwinnable war.

For Malley, who was a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama, it would have been far preferable if a deal had been reached years ago, when the Taliban were in a weaker position but it would be far worse if a deal were not reached now, based on the illusory belief that, somehow, the Taliban will be in a weaker position tomorrow.

As with Iran and the nuclear agreement, though, there are plenty of hawks in Washington, D.C., who still want to hold out for a better deal in Afghanistan.

Theyre deluded.

For a deal to work, it requires agreement on all sides. A better deal that one side rejects is not a deal at all, but a dream of a better world, said Rubin. We all have such dreams, but eventually we have to wake up.

Unless, he added, we are dead.

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On Afghanistan, I Have to Say This: Bravo, Donald Trump - The Intercept

Donald Trump just fired a warning shot at the fake news media hes long criticized. Trump is suing both the New York Times and the Washington Post for allegedly printing untrue information about his impeachment proceedings.

By bringing these lawsuits, Trump has surprisingly left himself vulnerable to prosecution for other legal matters.

Two women have filed defamation lawsuits against Donald Trump. Jean E. Carroll and Summer Zervos have accused the President of making forceful sexual advances toward them well before he ran for office. The women both say when they later told their stories, Trump lied and defamed them publicly.

Summer Zervos case against the President has been delayed after Trump argued that the U.S. Constitution says that state cases of this nature cant proceed while hes in office. But if he can proceed with his own case against the New York Times, he might open the door for his accusers to proceed against him.

Trump and his legal team are using the same argument to delay the Carroll case. But this week, Jean E. Carrolls legal team prepared for battle, armed with the fact that Trump himself is suing for defamation. That hypocrisy could make it difficult for Donald Trumps lawyers to prove that Carrolls case should be delayed.

As Carrolls lawyer Roberta Kaplan put it,

The president shouldnt be able to pick and choose which cases he wants to do while president and which cases he doesnt want to do.

There are likely many reasons that Trump doesnt want to see these defamation cases against him to move forward. If he did sexually assault Carroll or Zervos and it can be proven, Trump could find himself in another impeachment mess.

Back in the 90s President Bill Clinton was in a similar situation when he denied having a sexual encounter with Monica Lewinski. After the affair had been proven, Clinton was impeached for perjury.

If guilty, Trump faces a similar dilemma. Donald Trumps testimony in the Carroll case is likely to match what hes been saying all along that he doesnt know her. But that could be difficult to prove if the dress that Carroll wore on the day of their encounter contains Donald Trumps DNA.

Last year, Carroll dropped a bombshell saying she still had the dress she was wearing when Trump allegedly assaulted her. She also claims it hasnt been washed. The dress was processed as evidence and male DNA discovered. Her legal team requested a sample of Trumps DNA for comparison but Trump moved to delay the case until hes out of office.

To be sure, theres a long road ahead for Carroll even if the New York Times lawsuit paves the way for the case to move forward. But Donald Trumps pride could be his undoing if his own defamation cases set a precedent for his accusers.

Theres some question as to whether Trumps NYT suit could also impact the delayed Summer Zervos case. Both Zervos and Trump will need to submit their arguments to the court by May 11.

If Carroll is successful in using Trumps current suits to push her own case forward, Zervos may be able to rely on the same logic. Either way, Trump may not be able to escape unscathed.

This article was edited by Aaron Weaver.

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Donald Trump Just Shot Himself in the Foot With His New York Times Lawsuit - CCN.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would withhold money from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions after a U.S. court ruled that his administration could block federal law enforcement funds to states and cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Association of Counties' 2020 Legislative Conference in Washington, U.S., March 3, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

The Republican president, who is seeking re-election in the Nov. 3 election, has taken a hardline stance toward legal and illegal immigration. His battle against Democratic-led sanctuary jurisdictions focuses on laws and policies that limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

Cities and states that oppose such cooperation say it can discourage immigrants from coming forward to report crimes to law enforcement because of fears about their immigration status.

Since the beginning of his administration Trump has tried to slash specific law enforcement grants to places that dont comply with ICE requests for information, but his efforts have been challenged in court.

On Feb. 26, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled in favor of the administration and said the funding cuts were valid. But three other federal appeals courts have ruled against blocking such funds, setting up a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump in a tweet said it would move forward with the cuts.

As per recent Federal Court ruling, the Federal Government will be withholding funds from Sanctuary Cities. They should change their status and go non-Sanctuary. Do not protect criminals! Trump tweeted on Thursday, although he gave no other details.

One such sanctuary policy opposed by the administration is a refusal by local jails to hold immigrants in the country illegally in detention beyond their scheduled release times so ICE officials can pick them up and process them for deportation.

Some officials in non-cooperative jurisdictions argue the requests are voluntary and honoring such detainer requests means holding people without a constitutionally valid reason.

The 2nd Circuit overturned a lower court ruling directing the release of federal funds to New York City and the states of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.

Three federal appeals courts in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco have upheld injunctions barring enforcement of at least some of the administrations conditions on the funds.

In addition to the funding threats, the administration is now opening up new fronts in the battle against the cities, filing lawsuits and issuing subpoenas in what Attorney General William Barr called part of a significant escalation in the fight against uncooperative jurisdictions.

Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington D.C. and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Chizu Nomiyama

Originally posted here:

Trump says he will block U.S. funds to 'sanctuary' jurisdictions - Reuters

In a life filled with uncertainty, there are a few things we can always count on. One, that death spares no one. Two, that Jared and Ivanka will find a way to profit off of their government positions while maintaining they sacrificed everything to join the administration. And three, that when backed into a corner thanks to his own incompetence, greed, or history of undiagnosed traumatic brain injuries, Donald Trump will find a way to pin the blame on Barack Obama, even if the issue is, like, the DVR not recording Hannity or orange streaks on the White House bath towels because he was too impatient to let the self-tanner dry. (Previous, real-life examples have included blaming Obama for: the temperature in the Oval Office; his decision to rehire Mike Flynn, who Obama fired and warned him about; anti-Trump protests; and building a non-existent wall.)

Not surprisingly, today Trump managed to finger the 44th president of the United States for...the botched coronavirus response. Speaking to reporters alongside Mike Jesus will sort this out Pence one week after his big press conference on the matter, Trump claimed that the insane lack of testing of Americans presenting symptoms of the deadly disease is actually the fault of a guy who left office more than three years ago. The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what were doing, and we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place at a much more accurate and rapid fashion, Trump said, before giving himself kudos for supposedly righting the supposed wrong. That was a decision we disagreed with. I dont think we would have made it, but for some reason it was made. But weve undone that decision.

Only, as critics were quick to point out, it was the Trump administration that wiped out the National Security Councils global health security unit created to counter pandemics, as well as its counterpart within the Department of Homeland Security. And appointed a paranoid pharma executive to run the Department of Health and Human Services, who reportedly failed to coordinate an effective response due to distrust of his own aides and a desire not to offend the president. And told officials not to do or say anything re: the virus that would spook the markets, including, apparently, telling the truth or devising a plan of action that doesnt sound like it was drawn up by Don Jr. and Eric from their super secret clubhouse with the NO GIRLS ALLOWED sign.

To be fair, when he wasnt blaming everything on Obama. Trump spent Wednesdaya day in which the U.S. coronavirus death count reached 11 people with at least 149 known cases nationallytotally focused on protecting Americans and taking the situation unusually seriously, by which I mean he devoted the morning and early afternoon to attacking Mike Bloomberg.

Clearly theres nothing to be concerned about with this guy on the case.

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Trump Waited a Whole Week Before Blaming the Coronavirus on Obama - Vanity Fair

Pence, meanwhile, took time out from overseeing the administrations response to the coronavirus outbreak to address the conference Thursday afternoon.

It is no accident that CPAC has become a stomping ground for those with presidential ambitions: Many believe the confab helped to catapult Trump to the White House. The New York businessman first started attending the event in 2011, long before he was taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Trump became a regular, bringing a large entourage and a celebrity aura that over time helped turn him into a conservative favorite.

Trump was just the latest in a long line of Republican figures who made presidential forays at CPAC. Then-California Governor Ronald Reagan made his first appearance at the conference in 1974, and as president more than a decade later, he would remark that returning to the conference was an opportunity to dance with the one that brung ya.

Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist who worked on Trumps 2016 campaign, said the conference gives potential future candidates a rare opportunity to make a lasting impression on the GOP base.

Just ask President Donald Trump, Surabian added.

When Trump first started showing up at the conference, it seemed like a novelty act," said Seat, the former George W. Bush aide. But here we are. Hes not Mr. Trump. Hes President Donald J. Trump and it started here at CPAC.

The early 2024 activity hasnt been limited to CPAC. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is set to headline a New Hampshire political dinner in May. Pence has made several trips to South Carolina over the past year, even though the state has scrapped its 2020 Republican presidential primary and wont have another one until 2024.

And before last months Iowa caucuses, Florida Sen. Rick Scott raised eyebrows when he ran an unusual face-to-camera TV ad in the state in which he savaged Joe Biden and defended Trump.

Matt Mowers, a Republican congressional candidate from New Hampshire making the rounds at CPAC, said hes been in touch with some potential 2024 contenders. He said he wouldnt be surprised if early-state activity ramps up soon after the 2020 election.

Mowers, a longtime operative in the state who for a time served in the Trump administration, said his advice to would-be candidates is to focus on the presidents reelection first.

But he added: Its never too early to make friends.

Former Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a conservative radio show host who waged a short-lived 2012 White House bid, offered a word of caution for those making the 2024 rounds. You dont want to look too eager while a sitting president is still running for reelection, he said.

The former congressman recalled some advice he once heard from a friend.

If youre gonna campaign, he said, dont look like youre campaigning.

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GOP scramble is on to succeed Donald Trump in 2024 - POLITICO

In this country, President Donald Trump has been criticized for tapping Vice President Mike Pence to lead the Coronavirus Task Force, but the designation and his involvement in the response to the outbreak have earned him praise from the World Health Organization (WHO).

"These are the approaches we are saying are the right ones, and these are the approaches we are saying are going to mobilize the whole government," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.

America has started to see community transmission of the virus in Washington state's King County, and cases in the U.S. rose to 148 on Thursday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The virus has killed at least 11 people in the U.S., contributed to stock market plunges and made some people skeptical of traveling or attending social gatherings.

Under pressure to appoint a coronavirus czar, Trump in January created the Coronavirus Task Force, an advisory panel made up of various government officials, to manage America's response to the virus. He later put Pence at the task force's helm, a move that drew ire from those who question the vice president's past decisions and his ability to handle the current outbreak.

Ghebreyesus, however, said every country needs to escalate a coordinated response's leadership to the highest level of government, because the virus is going to "touch everything" in the country. If it's affecting politics, social fabrics and the economy, "no sector is immune," he said, and a quality response requires every aspect of government to be involved.

"Take it to a higher level. This is not just up to the ministry of health only," Ghebreyesus said. "That can be done by any country on earth."

Through the work of the entire government, members of society can be mobilized to take responsibility for their actions and help prevent the virus from spreading, according to Ghebreyesus. If individuals join the response effort, "we can push back on the virus, we can be successful in the containment strategy."

During a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she expressed concerns to Pence about his position, citing his response to the 2015 HIV/AIDS outbreak when he was governor of Indiana. Critics said Pence's delay in authorizing a needle exchange program allowed the virus to spread.

The vice president addressed that criticism during a briefing on Saturday, telling reporters that he permitted the needle exchange once the CDC made the recommendation. Seemingly trying to ease concerns, Pence named Debbie Birx, an internationally recognized HIV/AIDS expert, as the coronavirus response coordinator. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS praised the decision as a "wise one."

Pence has since announced the addition of eight members to the task force: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Commissioner of Food and Drugs Stephen Hahn, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Kelvin Droegemeier, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie and Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma. This brings the total number of members, including Pence, to 22.

Besides applauding the U.S., Ghebreyesus praised Chilean President Sebastin Piera, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lfven and Chinese President Xi Jinping for taking leadership roles in responding to the outbreak.

"No government, no country has an excuse, because each and every country has a government," Ghebreyesus said.

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Head of World Health Organization Praises Donald Trump For Tapping Pence to Lead Coronavirus Response - Newsweek

The president said former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not have wisdom or courage hours after voters determined Sessions will likely compete in a runoff for his old Senate seat.

Sessions will likely have to compete against former Auburn University head football coach Tommy Tuberville for the seat. With 96.93% of precincts counted, Tuberville narrowly led with 32.24% percent of the vote, compared to Sessions 31.15%. Neither man was near the 50% needed to avoid a runoff.

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne was in third place, with 26.76% of the vote. Former Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, the Republican nominee during the 2017 special Senate election, held onto just 6.98%.

President Donald Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning about the race. "This is what happens to someone who loyally gets appointed Attorney General of the United States & then doesnt have the wisdom or courage to stare down & end the phony Russia Witch Hunt," he tweeted. "Recuses himself on FIRST DAY in office, and the Mueller Scam begins!"

Trump attached a tweet from Politico about the likely runoff.

Tuesday night, Trump retweeted the results of the race.

Sessions served as Alabamas junior senator for 20 years before resigning in 2017 to become the countrys 84th Attorney General under Trump. Tuberville, who coached the Tigers from 1999 to 2008, spoke during his election night speech about Sessions strained relationship with Trump.

And I know somebody that knows how to win in overtime, the former coach said. Were going to finish what President Trump started when he looked at Jeff Sessions from across the table and said, Youre fired."

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Donald Trump tweets about Jeff Sessions runoff: This is what happens - AL.com

How are historians going to frame this era in United States history? If the president is limited to one term this November, perhaps they will just regard it as an aberration. If the president is successful in securing another term, perhaps they will interpret it as America losing her way, and see this administration as the sine qua non of the downhill slide of a country that was once the leader of the free world.

One of the few times the president has spoken truthfully was during the 2016 campaign when he declared, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters." If the president followed through on this outrageous claim, his sycophants in todays Republican Party would be falling all over themselves to defend his actions. How did President Trump garner such support that he could make this incredibly outrageous claim, and sadly, there would be an element of truth to it?

Republican politicians are willing to sell their political souls in defending their partys president to secure political power. Senators Perdue and Loeffler, and Rep. Ferguson, all in their first terms and for the first time experiencing the gravitational pull of political power, are going to be dutiful party members and regurgitate party talking points, no matter how outrageous the claims.

What might historians looking back 50 years from now conclude? I would suspect that they might zero in on the mantra of the president and his supporters to, Make America Great Again. That declaration assumes that there was a period when America was greater than it is today, and they long for a return to it. When exactly was this period when America was much greater than it is today?

I have been to Europe three times in the past 18 months. Before each trip I remember hoping that nobody would ask me about this current presidential administration. When I went to Ireland, the birthplace of my grandparents, it happened. But it happened in such a way that the experience was very profound. A cab driver in Dublin brought it up. His voice inflection was truly anguished. He wondered how we could elect such a person. You are America. You are the great beacon of hope and democracy in the world. What has happened to your great country? He was truly concerned about us.

I did my best to explain the Electoral College to him. I explained that President Trump was actually the fifth of our presidents to lose the popular vote, but win the presidency. It satisfied him on an intellectual level, but I could tell it did not assuage his genuine sorrow at the state of affairs in our country.

So, how did we get to this point where our beloved America is so fractured that it could elect a president such as this, and continually justify his behavior, no matter how outrageous? It will be future historians that will dissect these troubling times for us and hopefully provide us with answers.

Lawrence Burns

Newnan

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The Apotheosis of Donald Trump - Newnan Times-Herald

Ricky L. Jones, Opinion contributor Published 6:49 a.m. ET March 4, 2020

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During the commemoration of the 55th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the ailing Prince of Troy (Alabama), John Lewis, returned to Selma and encouraged those present to keep (their)eyes on the prize.

Of course, at this historical moment, it is perfectly legitimate to ask, what exactly is the prize for black people? Is it simply voting? Is it perennially and unquestioningly joining with Democrats in their ongoing war with the Republicans for political seats? Or is something more at stake?

Undoubtedly, Democrats would argue the prize is defeating Donald Trump. While this would be a desirable outcome for many, truly conscious black people, as were their ancestors, are not singularly obsessed with defeating Donald Trump, but with destroying white supremacy in its myriad manifestations. Any candidate not sharing in this goal should be unacceptable.

To be sure, this struggle is muddied by the deceptive narratives and tired clichs mainstream media, politiciansand their supporters nauseatingly proffer. For example, a current one concerns electability. We hear endless variations of, Democrats must expand the electorate to beat Donald Trump.

Ironically, this argument actually confirms the presence and power of white supremacy in America. Translation: Democrats need to convince as many black and brown people as possible, along with a minority of whites, to support them in stopping the majority of whites from reelecting Donald Trump.

For subscribers: When it comes to guns, McGrath walks tightrope as McConnell works to fend off advocates

Scott Jennings: Democrats like Biden and Bloomberg are lying about Trump and the coronavirus

Remember, about 52% of white women and 63% of white men voted for Trump in 2016. In 2020, they are saying, No matter how malfeasant, mendacious, viciousand racist Donald Trump has proven himself to be, the majority of white Americans still prefer him.

All the obstacles to dismantling white supremacy do not lie outside the race. As Carter G. Woodson warned, a good percentage of the black masses remain miseducated, misled and easily politically exploited. For the most part, the petit black bourgeoisie is not interested in helping, either.

Robert Allen accurately observed inBlack Awakening in Capitalist America, that what many in the black privileged class seek is not an end to oppression, but the transfer of the oppressive apparatus into their own hands in order to advance their own interests.

Suffering people need political revolutions real structural change. But, in the midst of political sleight of hand from both parties, black choices become obfuscated and limited. For instance, while simultaneously begging black voters in South Carolina to save him, gaffe-prone Joe Biden commented, Americans dont want a revolution, they want progress.

It was reminiscent of the accommodationist Booker T. Washingtons 1895 claim to an all-white, segregationist audience in Atlanta, In all things that are purely social, we (blacks and whites) can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

Like Washington, who had a nasty tendency to personally advance at the expense of his people, Bidens idea of progress isnt very clear.

Biden isnt alone in his confusing moderation. Inarguably, on the Democratic side, only two candidates are transformative Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Though she is a superior political athlete, Warren has failed to gain traction for whatever reason. This leaves Sanders as the only remaining viable political revolutionary, and the moderates (Translation: politicians who, for all intents and purposes, are supportive of the structural status quo) launched an all-out assault against him prior to Super Tuesday.

More opinion: We need a calming voice on the coronavirus, not Trump's political rants

Racially challenged moderates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar both dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. Klobuchar did so after she was forced to cancel a rally in her home state of Minnesota because black voters vociferously protested her.

Klobuchar wasnt the only target of black resistance. On the same weekend John Lewis returned to Selma, former Republican and black antagonist Mike Bloomberg was there as well lobbying for votes at historic Brown Chapel AME Church. It did not go well. A small group of black parishioners silently rose and turned their backs on him.

Be clear! This should not be read as an endorsement of Republicans. It is not! Most black people know the GOP is cold-heartedly hostile towardthem. That said, we need to ask hard questions of the Democrats. Because candidates need the votes of the partys most loyal constituency, theres a lot of talk about black people right now, but how much of it addresses systemic suffering rooted in race? How long will their attention last? Seriously, how much do they talk to, or about, black people BETWEEN elections?

Also understand this is not a call for black people not to vote. It is, however, a plea to demand a political environment in which choices are not limited to witchy Republicans or devilish Democrats neither of which will seriously challenge a status quo rooted in white supremacy.

Indeed, referencing Americas demonization of Bernie Sanders, Princeton professor Eddie Glaude lamented, I wish some people were as unsettled by white nationalists as they are by democratic socialists. But alas, they arent even though most cant define democratic socialism.

Ricky L. Jones is chair of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville. His column appears bi-weekly in The Courier Journal. Follow him on Twitter @DrRickyLJones.

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Opinion: For black people, the real 'prize' is not defeating Donald Trump - Courier Journal

The international health information conference in Orlando that was to feature President Donald Trump as a speaker has been canceled due to concerns over the new coronavirus.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society announced Thursday it is canceling its entire conference, set for March 9-13 in Orlando, out of an abundance of caution because of the risk of COVID-19 Coronavirus.

Trump was to speak at the conference March 9, on a trip that also includes a fundraising stop.

There has been no official word from the White House or Trumps reelection campaign about his trip.

HIMSS is an international organization supporting information management and transfer in the health care industry. Its annual conference typically draws thousands from a worldwide membership. In 2015 Hillary Clinton was a keynote speaker before she ran for president.

The 2020 conference was set for the Orange County Convention Center.

The organization announced on its website that its leadership has been meeting with an external advisory panel of medical professionals to decide what to do.

The advisory panel recognized that industry understanding of the potential reach of the virus has changed significantly in the last 24 hours, which has made it impossible to accurately assess risk, the group stated on its website.

It is now clear that cancellation is unavoidable in order to meet HIMSS obligation to protect the health and safety of the global HIMSS community, employees and local residents, as well as for the healthcare providers tasked with keeping our U.S. and global communities healthy, the group adds.

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Health conference in Orlando with Donald Trump canceled due to virus - Florida Politics