Category Archives: Donald Trump

In the last day, your administration has talked of winding down the coronavirus task force and now you've said it will continue indefinitely. Will you be at the meetings and briefings? Or will you speak separately, and undercut or contradict your experts?

So many of my military colleagues have tried to help, and all understand that you don't take criticism, and even suggestions are poorly received. But the United States needs real leadership now, and others around the world are also looking to us. So, as someone who has spent most of my life leading, studying or teaching leadership, may I respectfully offer some observations that may be helpful? And may I speak frankly? This might be your last chance to get it right.

First point, leaders have to gain trust. It doesn't come automatically with the office. You have to earn it by your performance. The public must see and believe that your public duties come first, before every other interest -- business, friends, or even family. And in the case of this medical emergency, before your re-election, too! When you worry about polls and rallies, you're undercutting the public's trust and faith in your leadership.

Another thing about trust: be careful what you say. Any statements later proven false will hurt your reputation. Don't blurt out observations and possibilities -- we know you were just thinking out loud about the bleach and disinfectants -- but every statement you make is going to be judged. That is the burden of leadership. You can't be flip-flopping on what you say -- and, honestly, you would be the first to point that out in an opponent. You cannot lead if people cannot trust you.

Second, leaders have to have a strategy and a plan to get there. You're absolutely right to recognize that ultimately, we have to be able to reopen the economy. And you gave us a pretty good strategy for reopening the country while we wait for the vaccine -- but you seem to be undercutting your own strategy by encouraging protesters to demonstrate for an earlier opening. Why undercut your own strategy? Unless you're slyly pushing to open the economy earlier in order to have good "numbers" for your reelection. Of course, this goes back to the trust issue.

Mr. President, if you deal successfully with Covid-19, you will likely be reelected. If you prematurely push opening of the economy, and the US lurches into repetitive spikes of Covid-19, you will likely not be re-elected, so, first things first.

Third, leaders accept their responsibilities. You are America's highest elected official: the whole executive branch works for you, and anything they do or say is ultimately your responsibility. No one expects you to be perfect, but as the sign on Harry Truman's desk famously pointed out, "the buck stops here." Admit some mistakes, or acknowledge that your projections or views have changed, and explain why. If you dodge responsibilities now, you won't be able to claim credit when we win this struggle. And by the way, stop blaming your predecessors -- that makes you look small, and you sure don't want that.

Fourth, top level leaders aren't expected to know everything -- but they are expected to bring in the right experts and use their expertise. Your experts are constantly dodging and weaving around your public statements. It's obvious you have them on a razor's edge of intimidation and fear. You have all the power -- you don't need to lead that way. When they give you inaccurate information or disproven projections, replace them, and hold them accountable, but otherwise, put them out front to discuss the technicalities, and don't dispute, correct, or go beyond them in public.

Fifth, leaders show empathy in times of trouble. Already American losses are staggering in personal terms, and many of these losses are among your blue-collar supporters. These people have families, loved ones, friends, and colleagues who expect your empathy, and if they have a sense that these losses are nothing but a "number standing in the way of your reelection," they will hold you personally accountable. Show empathy everyday, visit the families, talk to the doctors and nurses on the front lines, console, console, console -- this is what leadership demands.

Sixth, good leaders pull their teams together. To some extent, you have carved out a new political model for modern America, built on supercharging your base, at the expense of others in the electorate, as well as delivering the "goods" in terms of judgeships, deregulation and tax cuts. It worked well enough to get you elected, and to keep money coming into your election campaign. But in this crisis, as we say in my part of the country, "that dog won't hunt." You now have to lead a country, not win an election, and you know it. The United States, every one of us, is your "team," whether it is in maintaining social distance, pushing forward innovative solutions, or helping to work the logistics of meatpacking or supplying face masks -- and whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

Please, don't seek out more enemies -- it only hurts everyone. While the federal government rightly relies on the states for an assessment and response to local conditions, this is your opportunity to go beyond partisanship and pull the country together. Please stop the silly competition with those Democratic governors -- it totally undercuts you and your Administration. You could be so much more effective if you brought them onto your team and built mutual respect.

Seventh, good leaders lead by example. So, if you want people to wear face masks, wear a face mask. The Honeywell visit Tuesday was good, but you vitiated its success by not publicly wearing a mask. And of course, the press made a big deal of it, because they believe you're one of those "do as I say, not as I do" leaders -- and that goes back to the trust issue again.

Eighth, good leaders have a thick skin, at least in public. They don't allow their fears, resentments, or unscripted anger to show -- it's about control. In private, sure, they get mad, they nurse their wounded pride, and they try to learn from every event and comment, and move on. As we used to say in the military, "don't wear your heart on your sleeve," where it gets bruised and bumped constantly. So please, stop swatting back at every comment that hurts you -- that may work to get a Twitter following, as entertainment, but it is not an effective way to lead.

So, Mr. President, I know this advice sounds harsh, and it's painful, but you are a wily strategist, a fact that your opponents often misunderstand. You are also an able negotiator, as you most recently proved by making the deal for the 10 million barrels per day cut in oil output. And you are very tough and resilient. Those are all good qualities. But you cannot be an effective leader without relentless and painful self-examination. Take it in or reject it, after due consideration.

My aim in writing this is to help you, because today, the United States and indeed, the whole world, needs leadership -- and though some may not like it, you're the man. We ALL need you at your best!

Sincerely,

Wesley Clark

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President Trump, here's how to take charge of this crisis - CNN

Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump attend a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017.

Fred Dufour | AFP | Getty Images

The coronavirus pandemic will fuel the already-bad rivalry between the U.S. and China, and could even tilt the balance of global power in Beijing's favor, analysts say.

Tensions have already flared on a few fronts since the pandemic started.Washington and Beijing are sniping at one another about the true extent and origin of the coronavirus outbreak.U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs again. The two countries have even squabbled about the South China Sea issue.

The pandemic will "increase US-China strategic rivalry," says global politicalrisk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

"The coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly fuelling anincrease in geopolitical tensions between the US and China," Hugo Brennan, principal Asia analyst atVerisk Maplecroft wrote in a Wednesday note, predicting that the virus will remain a key source of friction for the next 12 months.

"In times of crisis, global rivalries tend to intensify rather than abate. The coronavirus crisis has led to a further deterioration in the already chronically bad relations between China and the US," The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) added in a note on Wednesday."The coronavirus epidemic is not the cause of the difficulties in US-China relations, however; it is merely exacerbating trends that have existed for years as both countries compete for economic dominance."

The pandemic is therefore likely to accelerate the rebalancing of global economic power from the West to the East in coming years.

The Economist Intelligence Unit

Both economic giants have been embroiled in a trade war for the past couple of years which has spilled over into disputes on intellectual property rights, and evolved into larger issues such as technology dominance. In January, both countries reached a phase one deal before the virus hit. But the future of that deal is now in question last week, Trump said it was now "secondary" to the pandemic and threatened new tariffs on Beijing in retaliation for its virus response.

Trump is likely to build his presidential campaign around a "Blame China" rallying call, Brennan said, and if he gets re-elected, it would lead to another four years of "fractious relations" with Beijing.

Crucially though, despite the anti-China rhetoric, analysts say that the pandemic would likely speed up the shift in global power from the West to the East.

China has been blamed by not just the U.S., but also the U.K. and Australia for its initial response to the outbreak, which was criticized as slow and non-transparent.

But that won't stop the Asian giant from extending itself globally.China could even use the crisis as an opportunity to raise its profile and expand its influence, particularly over countries hard-hit by the pandemic by providing much needed support, analysts say. Beijing has already embarked on so-called mask diplomacy, sending medical supplies to affected countries.

In particular, China could further cement its presence in parts of Africa, eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, said the EIU.

Kaho Yu, senior Asia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, pointed to three factors: Beijing's "aggressive global propaganda campaign promoting China's role in suppressing the virus," a looming global recession that will sap the appetite of many leaders to blame their biggest trade partner for how it handled the outbreak; and the pandemic "underscoring the absence of American leadership on the global stage."

Cases in the U.S. have shot up, making itthe worst-hit country, while Chinese government data showed the outbreak has subsided to a few cases a day in the mainland.

Those three factors, the firm said, may result in "China's power and influence increasing," although it stressed it is still too early to tell.

Furthermore, the economic fallout from the global pandemic will have a "long-lasting" impact on the developed U.S. and European economies, the EIU said. That's because the fiscal and monetary measures that those countries have to take to deal with the crisis will result in greater dependence on easy money and debt, causing years of slower growth.

On the other hand, China, simply by virtue of being the first to emerge from the crisis, will also be first to recover economically, said the EIU.

"The pandemic is therefore likely to accelerate the rebalancing of global economic power from the West to the East in coming years," the EIU said. "Unless the developed nations change course and pursue a radically different economic path after the crisis, the gap between a slow-growing West and an economically dynamic East is likely to widen."

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As US-China rivalry heightens, the pandemic could tilt global power in Beijing's favor - CNBC

In March, after months of ignoring the looming threat of the novel coronavirus, Donald Trump decided to recast himself in a new role, declaring he was now a "wartime president,"clearly imagining himself in the mold of FDR or, more likely, as Bill Pullman's presidential character in the 1996 film "Independence Day."

This was a total joke from the beginning, as Trump's behavior wasn't hard to predict. As a sociopath andnarcissist, Trump would enjoya stint play-acting as president while doing nothing. Butwhen it began to dawn onhim that waging war is like, hardwork, he would just drift away, letting the "war" effort fail.

Unsurprisingly, that is what exactly happened. As Heather Digby Partonexplainsin her Wednesday column for Salon, what has "become clear in the last few days is that the Trump administration hasmade a decision" to give up any semblance of trying to flatten the curve, stop the spreador do anything meaningful to defeat the coronavirus.

Instead, Parton writes, Trump and his advisers "have apparently decided to let the virus 'wash over the country'as Trumpwanted to do from the beginning."

The ostensible reason for pressuring states to "reopen" and for maybe-kinda-sorta winding downthe federal coronavirus task force which, despite the presence of incompetent Trump flunkies, still had some value thanks to actual medical experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx is that the coronavirus is behind us and the focus needs to be on restartingthe economy. (At least for now, Trump has apparently backed away from his threat to ditch the task force permanently.)

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Trump made that clear in his press conference Tuesday, tellingreporters,"We can't keep our country closed for the next fiveyears" (which exactly no one was proposing).

When asked about all the people whowill die as part of this "reopening,"Trump implied that Americans will be happy to die for his cause, because they're "warriors."

Trump has clearly talked himself into the beliefthat the economy will come roaring back to life as soon as lockdown restrictionsare lifted, which is utterly ludicrous.Between the certain further spread of the virus itself and the existing damage to the economy, things aren't getting better anytime soon.

The timing of this decision is distinctly odd, because while the curve of new cases is finally going down in blue states that took aggressive measures, like New York and California, the virus is startingto explode across the rest of country which is to say areas that Trump needs to win if he wants to be re-elected (which is clearly the only thing he cares about). This graph from the New York Times gives a sobering glimpse ofhow the confidence and security felt by many denizens of TrumpLandiais about to go up in smoke.

As Greg Sargent laid out inthe Washington Post on Monday, some of the swing states and districts that Trump needs to win in 2020 have seen the sharpest incline of cases. Trump's "reopening" strategy dependsheavily on the assumption that the virus would remainconcentrated in heavily Democratic cities and stateshe was never going to winanyway. So it seems like political suicide to abandon thefight right when the voters he most needs will see their regions hit hard.

It's tempting to imagine that Trump is motivated by some clever political strategy or by any strategy at all in making this move now. Butit's probably just that he's gettingbored withthis whole coronavirus crisis and, now that things are getting really hard, he's ready to abandon it and move on. That's exactly what he did during his entire career in the real estatebusiness and in his marriages abandoning one failed venture after another the second things turned rocky. Now he's doing it to the entire country.

The turning point was almost certainly April 23, the fateful day whenTrump, in one of his endless propaganda dumps disguised as"press briefings,"mused aloud about curing COVID-19 by injecting household disinfectants into the human body, framing this as a brilliant possibility that somehow had never occurred to medical science. Unless you've been in total seclusion as well as lockdown, you probably experienced the explosion of embarrassingcoverage, complete with late night jokes about bleach-drinking and press releases from companies like Lysol advising Americans not to inject their products, because they will kill you.

No matter how desperatelyTrump and his allies tried to spin it, there was no way to pretending that Trump hadn't madewhat may have been the stupidest public utterance of any American president in history or anyone else, really. Which is saying something in a TV landscape full of real housewives, people who agree to marry someone they've never met in personand the first host of "The Apprentice."(Oh, wait.)

Humiliated, Trump announced he was curtailing the daily briefings, whining on Twitter that they weren't "worth the time & effort" even though as he so frequently likes to say he got"record ratings."

Many folks, including me, predicted that this tantrum wouldn't last, because Trump is a terminal narcissist who lives for attention. Indeed, as the New York Times reported on the same day as Lysolgate, the daily briefings which featured Trump talking for hours, spending most of his time in combative exchanges with journalists, whichhe clearly felt he was "winning" were pretty much the only thing Trump was actuallydoing. The rest of his time was largely spent watching TV to hear people talking about him, tweetingand ranting on the phone to whoever would listen about how he wants more flattering coverage.

Sure enough, Trump's media boycott was abandoned as swiftly as it was begun, and he's been giving near-daily press conferences, although he has largely abandoned the pretense and trappings of an official White Housebriefing. It's clear that his humiliation at being exposed as an epicdumbass is still bothering him.He whined, somewhat mysteriously, that female reporterswho asking him questions about his coronavirus response aren't "Donna Reed, I can tell you that."

It's clearthe only value Trump has ever seenin the coronavirus task force was about using it as a pretext to hijack thedaily briefings for a spectacle of self-aggrandizement. In psychological terms, the briefings, formerly a source of gratifying narcissistic supply for Trump, are now associated in his mind with narcissistic injury. Trump doesn't value American lives, only his own ego. Now that the task force no longer serves his ego, he's lost interest.

Trump has apparently decided that he can now simply declare victory over the virus andwill that into reality through sheerstrength of personality. On Sunday, in his typical style that is as ridiculous as it is grandiose, he tweetedout this pseudo-biblical nonsense:

The notion that America "rose,"in the past tense, from the "great and powerful Plague" is silly. With lockdown restrictions ending and cases continuing to rise, it's morelike the plague is just getting started.

But Trump doesn't care. The illusion that he's a wartime leader shepherding a scared nation through this crisis was pretty well shattered when everyone startedmaking fun of him for suggesting that pumping ultraviolet light or household cleaning productsinto the lungs just mightbe a miracle cure. He misses his rallies and longsto get backto what he really enjoys, which is bashing Democrats and racist trolling.

People are dying, hospitals in many parts of the country are about to face what New York City just went through, and unemployment is soaring. But Donald Trump is bored and unhappy. This coronavirus TV show isn't any fun for him anymore, and he wants to move on. So he's abandoning even the pretense that he ever cared about American lives.

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Donald Trump is bored: He wants to move on from this pandemic just as it hits swing states - Salon

The offensive marks a new and more urgent stage in the campaign. Concerned about appearing overly political in the middle of a public health crisis, the reelection effort had resisted going on the air during the coronavirus. The change of course comes amid growing worry among top Republicans about the president's political prospects this fall.

Republicans for weeks have been grappling with how to position Trump for November as the coronavirus consumes his reelection campaign. While the Republican National Committee has waged a massive effort aimed at highlighting Trumps leadership, reelection aides have embraced a tougher approach. In the coming weeks, the campaign is expected to launch a swing state barrage aimed at portraying Biden as cozy with China, where the virus originated.

With attention focused squarely on the White Houses response to the virus and Biden holed up at home in Delaware and largely outside the spotlight Trump aides worry the election is turning into a referendum on the incumbent. Attacking Biden could help change the dynamic, they argue.

Further magnifying the sense of alarm has been a concerted, multimillion-dollar Democratic ad blitz portraying Trump as ineffective in his handling of the pandemic. The liberal super PAC Priorities USA started airing a commercial this week declaring that Trump was "failing America."

The internal debate over how to improve the president's standing has intensified in recent weeks. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Trump's 2016 campaign manager, has advocated for airing positive commercials highlighting Trump's leadership rather than China-themed attack ads against Biden.

The president decided recently to delay an anti-Biden broadside. He has wondered aloud whether he risks damaging Biden too early by hitting him now instead of waiting until closer to the election.

The deliberations underscore the degree of unpredictability the pandemic has injected into the race. Trump planned to run on a booming economy. Instead, coronavirus has triggered staggering job losses and sowed deep uncertainty about when a rebound might come.

Senior Republicans have been watching Trumps daily briefings with growing alarm, and many winced last week when he suggested that injecting people with disinfectant and sunlight might help ward off the virus.

During a phone session with Trump to update him on his poll numbers last week, Parscale and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel urged the president to scale back his daily briefings. Trump has seemed to take the advice, holding fewer sessions with the media and being more disciplined when he does.

Trump aides say public opinion of his handling of the pandemic has stabilized in recent days.

The reelection campaign has a massive war chest nearly $100 million as of the end of March, about four times as much as Biden. In addition to airing TV commercials, the campaign will be running online ads and launching a phone-banking effort echoing a similar positive message.

Parscale, who directed the digital effort on Trump's 2016 campaign, has told people he is particularly focused on TV, saying it will have a bigger impact on the election than online advertising. With Americans at home, Parscale has privately said he views television as an ideal medium to reach voters and make the case for Trump's presidency.

Americans can see that President Trump has been in command and leading the nation through the coronavirus crisis, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said of the forthcoming positive advertising campaign. This ad reinforces that.

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Trump to launch first 2020 ad blitz after erupting over reelection woes - POLITICO

U.S. President Donald Trump knows one thing for sure: Even if the U.S. opens for business as usual, the economy will not likely bounce back fully in time for the November elections. And, with 30 million people on the list for government dole-out payments, no sitting president could hope to make it back from the ballot box.

Perhaps this very fear is what is propelling the recent bout of nervous jokes conjuring up sorcerous solutions to the COVID-19 nightmare, not to mention the whole Bleachgate affair. As with any panicky politician, Trump has a tendency for two things: Blaming others for his problems and giving the impression of being fully in control of a situation over which he has little. He claims to have seen evidence giving him a high degree of confidence that the Chinese manufactured the new type of the coronavirus in a laboratory in Wuhan, subsequently releasing it either accidentally or on purpose. Even his latest press secretary the fourth in four years couldnt help but blurt out that the intelligence report was nothing but an estimate. So, Kayleigh McEnany keep your resume handy.

The claim that the Chinese are manufacturing viruses for which there is no known cure in a lab that was founded and co-operated by a French institute is so outrageous that the director of national intelligence, head of the U.S.' top spy agency, made a rare public statement invalidating the claims and backing the international scientific community's consensus that COVID-19 had natural origins. Trump should have asked the U.S. own biological warfare labs whether they would produce infectious agents before developing a vaccine against them.

But Trump strongly believes that China wants him to lose his reelection bid in November. Four years ago, it was Russia. Previously, he has accused Chinese officials of covering up the fact of the virus early on, claiming they could have stopped the disease from spreading.

Believing yourself to be a perfect being whose only shortcomings can be blamed on others is another psychological flaw Trump displays strongly, according to various psychiatrists and mental health experts who assessed him three years ago. In the end, he was deemed to be dangerous by the end of the 360-page report. Perhaps, in his mind, had the Chinese warned him in time, even before the outbreak, he would not have wasted one good month golfing around.

It used to be hard to imagine a U.S. president going around blasting the media with a barrage of insults, coining the terms Lamestream Media" and "fake news. He gets into acrimonious rows with reporters who, displaying mutual feelings in turn, interrupt him unceremoniously and rudely. As Conrad Clack wrote in the National Review Online: He detests most of them, and most of them detest him.

A lack of leadership at the White House has led to a lack of consensus on state reopenings in the U.S., as well as a number of missteps worldwide. The second and strongest comebacks of the virus namely, in Hokkaido, Japan's second-largest island, and in Germany are the result of the atmosphere created by the untimely rush to reopen the U.S. economy.

Trump seems to be imprudently rushing people to go back to work as soon as possible, filling metros and trains, restaurants and cafes to the brim. Americans may not be as naturally prone to bending rules as those in the Mediterranean and Middle East region but they are not exactly Swiss, either. Over the last couple of weeks, they have proven that social distancing is not their strongest point when fighting contagious diseases ignoring both the risk posed by the virus and logic itself.

With much at stake, the grown-ups in the room minus the vice president should do their best to allow the largest economy in the world to resume its role as a global leader.

What the U.S. needs is to assign as many health workers as possible to the task of tracing all individuals who have been in contact with those infected over the past two weeks and isolate those who test positive in hospitals. Many EU countries are not doing this because they do not have the resources. But for the U.S., this is feasible.

Now more than ever it is clear: When America sneezes, the world catches a cold.

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The incurious case of Donald Trump | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

President Donald Trump said Tuesday therell be more death related to the coronavirus pandemic as a growing number of states move to slowly relax their stay-at-home mandates in the coming months.

"It's possible there will be some because you won't be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is," Trump told ABC News in an exclusive interview while visiting a mask-making factory in Arizona. "But at the same time, we're going to practice social distancing, we're going to be washing hands, we're going to be doing a lot of the things that we've learned to do over the last period of time.

The president did not wear a mask during his tour of the factory. Honeywell spokeswoman Nina Krauss said that people who were interacting with Trump tested negative for COVID-19 before the event.

"Following White House recommended protocol, a small number of individuals directly interfacing with the President on Tuesday were tested for COVID-19 immediately prior to the event, received negative test results, and were permitted to not wear masks during portions of the visit based on that medical screening," she said. "All others present were wearing masks and social distancing in accordance with Honeywells site policy.

Trump has faced mounting criticism, largely from Democrats, about hastily moving to reopen the country as new coronavirus cases emerge in some areas and states, such as Georgia and Texas, move to reopen as cases appear to stabilize. Public health experts have also warned that reopening too soon could lead to more death and economic damage.

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The number of confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases is nearing 1.2 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of Tuesday afternoon. There have been over 70,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

The president and the administrations coronavirus task force, which is slated to disband within the next month, laid out a blueprint in late April to reopen the country in phases. The plan includes provisions to expand state testing capacity and establish widespread monitoring systems.

Many of the nations governors and public health officials have said that without access to widespread testing it will make the scope of the disease harder to track until there is a vaccine.

However, in the ABC News interview, Trump claimed that the virus is going to pass without a vaccine.

There'll be more death, that the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine, Trump said. And I think we're doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it's going to pass, and we're going to be back to normal.

Trump's administration is already working to fast-track a vaccine to be available by January 2021. The project, called "Operation Warp Speed," has 14 potential coronavirus vaccines under development.

That number was whittled down several weeks ago from 93 vaccines in development that were studied as part of the program, known as Operation Warp Speed, officials said.

Trump also claimed in the interview that anyone in the country who wants a test would be able to get one right now if they are afraid to return to work.

"They should have no problem," Trump said.

When pressed why he is urging a reopening even as government health experts, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that doing so too soon would be balancing death with the economy, Trump compared a rising coronavirus death toll to the nations suicide and drug overdose rate.

We have to get our country back, you know, people are dying the other way too when you look at what's happened with drugs, it goes up, when you look at suicides, Trump said. I mean take a look at what's going on. People are losing their jobs. We have to bring it back and that's what we're doing.

According to an April study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate in the U.S. from 1999 to 2018 steadily increased from 10.5 per 100,000 residents to 14.2. or 35 percent. The CDC also found that deaths from drug overdose decreased by nearly 5 percent from 2017 to 2018.

Dartunorro Clark is a political reporter for NBC News.

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'There'll be more death': Trump says it's time to reopen country despite fears of coronavirus rebound - NBC News

Teenagers in the United States are informed about their political world and capable of effectively evaluating political leaders, including President Donald Trump.

This statement runs counter to stereotypes that adults tend to hold about teens. Ask most adults to describe the political abilities of the typical American adolescent and you may hear words like apathetic, uninformed and immature.

But a study I conducted in 2017 with Laura-Wray Lake of UCLA, Amy Syvertsen of the Search Institute and two of my graduate students, Lauren Alvis and Katelyn Romm, indicates that high school students are much more knowledgeable and have stronger feelings about their political world than they are usually given credit for.

We asked more than 1,400 high school students in grades 9 to 12 to evaluate President Trump and provide reasons for their approval or disapproval of the president. The teenagers came from Southern California near Los Angeles, suburban Minnesota and rural West Virginia. They were diverse 43% identified as Latino, 34% as white, 13% as African American and 6% as Asian American and lived in communities that support and oppose Trump.

Several key themes emerged from the responses.

One was enthusiasm. Teens had a lot to say about Trump. Both youth who approved of Trump and those who did not provided thoughtful reasons for their views of the president. Many youth wrote sophisticated responses that counter stereotypes of adolescents as indifferent to their political world.

Another theme was knowledge. Teens supported their views by pointing to specific policies or statements by the president. Many of them justified their opinions by mentioning Trumps policies on social and political issues such as economic policy, abortion and relationships with foreign countries.

A large percentage of teens mentioned immigration, pointing to specific Trump statements or policy proposals, like the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico.

An 18-year-old female, for example, expressed her approval of Trumps immigration policies: Regarding issues with immigrants and stuff, I am not completely against it. I think we should be more aware of who and what kind of people we are allowing into our country, to keep everyone safe.

A 15-year-old white female had this to say about Trumps border policies: I just dont understand how that would make us great again. Because America is made up of immigrants, so it wouldnt be America if he didnt allow immigrants.

Teenagers also demonstrated knowledge of the presidents leadership style and background. Many of them mentioned Trumps business portfolio or his extensive Twitter use as a communication tool.

I feel that [Trump] will bring more jobs to the economy since he is a businessman, said a 17-year-old Latina.

On the other hand, youth who disapproved of Trump pointed to his lack of political experience.

Political beliefs varied greatly among adolescents, with many teens expressing strong approval or disapproval of the president in a way that echoed the range of views we see among adult voters.

Trump is going to do many things such as lower taxes, repeal Obamacare and try to institute the travel ban, wrote an 18-year-old white male. He also is not going to be a gun control freak.

A 17-year-old African American female said: I give [Trump] some credit because he is against abortion and gay marriage.

By contrast, a 15-year-old white female from Minnesota wrote: President Trump is a climate change denier. He also is in support of defending the Second Amendment, which I also believe in. However, I also understand that gun violence is rampant in the United States and needs to be regulated more heavily.

The responses we gathered help counter another stereotype about American adolescents: that they are overwhelmingly liberal and likely to vote for Democratic candidates.

Yes, younger generations lean more liberal on some social and political issues compared to older generations. But our study indicates that its inaccurate to generalize about teens political inclinations, because they hold a full range of views.

Teen views of Trump, like those of adults, were strongly related to where they live. Overwhelming majorities of adolescents in Southern California (85%) and Minnesota (84%) disapproved of Trump, but a majority of youth in West Virginia held positive views (66%). Adolescents with more conservative parents were more likely to approve of Trump, while youth from more liberal homes more strongly disapproved of the president. White youth generally held more favorable views of Trump, while females and black and Latino youth tended to reject him.

Our study also helps counter the notion that adolescents are not directly affected by political activity, that they have no skin in the game.

Adolescents in rural West Virginia underlined how Trumps energy policies could directly affect family members employed by power plants or coal mines. This is how one 14-year-old white female put it: I am happy Donald Trump is our president because my dad works for a power company, and that is how we made the majority of our money. Without his job we would have a hard time buying medicines and taking care of everyone in my family.

Many teen Trump skeptics from Southern California noted how his proposed immigration policies could threaten their families or neighborhoods. A 15-year-old Latina, for instance, noted: I am very scared [Trump] will harm my family. My parents are not from this country, but they do the best they can to be here with us and have us live the American dream.

One final theme present in our study highlights issues that will weigh on younger voters in the 2020 election and beyond. A large percentage of responses were framed around issues of racism, sexism and homophobia. Over half of the youth who dismiss Trump viewed his policies as potentially biased or loaded with discriminatory rhetoric, which is consistent with data indicating that younger generations are more attuned to issues of equity.

These concerns were not limited to any one group of teens. For example, an 18-year-old white male from West Virginia said, [Trump] is misogynistic and sexually offensive as audio clips of Donald Trump would prove more than once going as far to make fun of a disabled man in front of national television.

As this response shows, teenagers are more politically informed and opinionated than is usually assumed. This should encourage parents and teachers to engage teens in political discussion and anticipate that they will be able to effectively share informed views.

Additionally, our findings may be interesting to several U.S. districts mulling whether to lower the voting age from 18 to 16.

At very least, this study may help to counter concerns that youth dont care or will arrive at polls uninformed.

[Youre too busy to read everything. We get it. Thats why weve got a weekly newsletter. Sign up for good Sunday reading. ]

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Teenagers reveal what they really think of Donald Trump - The Conversation US

President Donald Trump thinks all the states that need Congress to provide emergency relief funding are "run by Democrats in every case" and he charged it's because they have been fiscally mismanaged.

That's not the case. Numerous Republican-led states are facing coronavirus-caused financial crises, just like the Democrats.

Less than 24 hours after conducting an interview with The New York Post in which Trump made those remarks, the president took off to visit a mask-making plant in Arizona a Republican-led state that by its own projections could face a shortfall ranging from $600 million to $1.6 billion by the end of the next fiscal year.

Arizona is not alone.

COVID-19 has led to dramatic decreases in revenue for state governments across the country regardless of which party has its hand on the wheel. While many states are still crunching their numbers ahead of the next fiscal year, which begins in the summer for most, a handful of GOP-led states already have made clear the budget woes that face them.

The latest came on Tuesday afternoon when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, announced that the past two months have led his state to miss its budget estimates by $776.9 million and that he is cutting $775 million in spending as a response. Those cuts, which include $210 million to Medicaid and $465 million in education spending, must be made within the next two months, he said.

"While we do not know what the coming months will hold, we do know that COVID-19 is here with us and will be here for quite some time," DeWine said. "Nevertheless, it does not exempt us from balancing our budget, which we are legally obligated to do."

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Ohio has a rainy day fund, but DeWine decided against drawing from it.

With the COVID-19 outbreak shutting down large swathes of the economy, all sorts of revenue sources for the states have dwindled significantly, including sales, income and other taxes.

In Maryland, state budget officials outlined a nearly $3 billion shortfall they're projecting in the final quarter of this fiscal year. As chairman of the National Governors Association, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, has called for $500 billion in federal funding to state governments to account for budget shortfalls.

Hogan said in a recent statement that if Congress doesn't fulfill that request, "states will have to confront the prospect of significant reductions to critically important services all across this country."

Other GOP-helmed states are feeling the effects, too.

Exacerbated by the oil market collapse, Oklahoma budget officials told NBC News they're projecting a shortfall of $1.3 billion. In Alaska, similar economic conditions, coupled with prior woes, have led budget officials to project total state revenue this year will be slashed nearly in half from $11.2 billion to $6.6 billion. The amount of revenue won't recover to 2019 levels for at least the next decade, that projection shows.

In Arkansas, revenue forecasts now project a shortfall of more than $530 million, while in Wyoming, revenue shortfall projections range from $555 million to $2.8 billion through the end of fiscal year 2022. And in West Virginia, state revenue officials forecast a possible $500 million deficit as a result of the pandemic. A Moodys Analytics report concluded the state's financial picture could be worse, with a shortfall of up to $1.9 billion.

"I truly believe were going to have a backfill from the federal government," West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, said at a press conference last month.

In Texas, state Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who provides revenue projections to state leaders, told The Austin American-Statesman that the Lone Star State will need to tap its rainy day funds to keep up with a shortfall amounting to billions, adding that although the state is well-positioned to do so through the end of this fiscal year, there is still great uncertainty surrounding the virus' impact on his state's bottom line.

Trump's New York Post comments come as the next major legislative battle in Congress appears to be centered on whether emergency relief for state and local governments will be passed.

"It's not fair to the Republicans because all the states that need help they're run by Democrats in every case," Trump told the outlet. "Florida is doing phenomenal, Texas is doing phenomenal, the Midwest is, you know, fantastic very little debt."

Tuesday afternoon, Trump tweeted: "Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse!"

"The elimination of Sanctuary Cities, Payroll Taxes, and perhaps Capital Gains Taxes, must be put on the table," he said. "Also lawsuit indemnification & business deductions for restaurants & ent."

On Capitol Hill Tuesday, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, held a chart reading, "Blue states arent the only ones getting screwed," which showed a number of Republican-led states facing budget crunches.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., initially said he'd prefer for states and localities to be able to declare bankruptcy rather than receive emergency funding. He later said any such legislation approving emergency funding to states and municipalities must also include a provision removing legal liability for companies that bring workers back amid the coronavirus outbreak something House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats would "not be inclined to" support.

States received $150 billion in emergency funding in earlier COVID-19 legislation, but the Treasury Department has said that money can only be used to cover costs directly associated with the pandemic, not on filling budget gaps.

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Trump says only blue states have budget woes. He couldn't be more wrong. - NBC News

By Mike Murphy

Published: May 5, 2020 7:45 pm ET

President Donald Trump tours a Honeywell plant that manufactures personal protective equipment in Phoenix on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday admitted its possible that reopening the country for business will result in additional coronavirus deaths, but said that the economy has to get going again.

President Donald Trump

Its possible there will be some [deaths] because you wont be locked into an apartment or house or whatever it is, Trump told anchor David Muir in an ABC News interview aired Tuesday night. But at the same time, were going to practice social distancing, were going to be washing hands, were going to be doing a lot of the things that weve learned to do over the last period of time.

Trump suggested stay-at-home orders and the economic shutdown were causing deaths anyway, in the form of overdoses and suicides.

We have to get our country back, you know, people are dying the other way, too, Trump continued. When you look at whats happened with drugs, it goes up. When you look at suicides, I mean, take a look at whats going on. People are losing their jobs. We have to bring it back and thats what were doing.

While some researchers have said the number of overdose deaths and suicides is likely to increase, there is no indication that those numbers are anywhere near the death toll from the coronavirus.

There are about 1.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins data, with more than 70,000 Americans already dead. On Monday, the New York Times reported that a new White House projection shows a likely steady rise in the number of cases in May, and up to 3,000 deaths a day by June 1, about twice the current level.

More than 30 million people have lost their jobs, at least temporarily, and economic output has ground to a halt due to shutdowns to prevent the spread of the disease. But states are starting to reopen, despite the risks of a second wave of infections.

Therell be more death, that the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine, the president told ABC News. And I think were doing very well on the vaccines, but with or without a vaccine, its going to pass, and were going to be back to normal. But its been a rough process. There is no question about it.

Speaking Monday night on CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top expert in infections disease, said the bottom line when it comes to reopening is: How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be some form of normality sooner rather than later?

Trumps interview remarks echoed comments he made earlier in the day, speaking to reporters in Arizona.

The people of our country are warriors, Trump said. Im not saying anything is perfect. Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country opened and we have to get it open soon.

Trump toured a Honeywell HON-0.24% face-mask factory in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon, where he wore goggles but not a face mask. White House officials told the press that face masks were not required, although signs were spotted inside the factory indicating face masks were mandatory.

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Trump says reopening may result in more deaths, but we cant sit in the house for the next three years - MarketWatch

Just like the rest of Louisiana and LSU fans, President Donald Trump had a couple of "great" things to say about football coach Ed Orgeron while being interviewed by a Lafayette-based conservative radio host last Thursday.

Trump joined the Moon Griffon Show a day after his visit with Gov. John Bel Edwards to discuss the coronavirus response, the return of sports and his total admiration for Coach O.

"I've become very friendly with him," Trump said to Griffon. "He's just a great coach. He's a great guy and a great coach."

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday discussed the states coronavirus response with President Donald Trump, calling a recent commitme

Trump told Griffon that he and Edwards called Orgeron during the president and governor's meeting on coronavirus in Louisiana. During last Wednesday's meeting, Edwards praised Trump for making 200,000 COVID-19 test kits a month available to the state, which the governor said sets up a possibility for Louisiana to reopen in mid-May.

The President followed his gushing over LSU's coach with recollections of the crowded Alabama-LSU game in Tuscaloosa, when the Tigers came out victorious against the Crimson Tide 46-41, a feat that hadn't been observed since 2011. In the packed stadium among hundreds of thousands of college football fans was none other than Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

He told Griffon that's the size of an audience he wants to see when sports return post-coronavirus.

"I want it to be like what it used to be, and it will be there," Trump said. "It may take a little time, but it's going to be there sooner rather than later. We're going to make sure."

As a group, college athletic directors are not first responders or COVID-19 healthcare workers or grocery store employees bravely facing a con

He did not specify what that timeline would look like. Some leaders have said that in order for sports fans to enjoy the activity from an arena in 2020, it may require testing every person at the door and requiring social distancing when seating people.

Others have suggested audience-less arenas may be the best idea until next year.

You can listen to the full interview with Trump and Griffon here.

Ed Orgeron says he's "done with the television."

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What does Donald Trump think of LSU Coach Ed Orgeron? Nothing but great things. - The Advocate