Category Archives: Donald Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump is confronting the most dangerous crisis a U.S. leader has faced this century as the coronavirus spreads and a once-vibrant economy falters. As the turmoil deepens, the choices he makes in the critical weeks ahead will shape his reelection prospects, his legacy and the character of the nation.

The early fallout is sobering. In the White Houses best-case scenario, more than 100,000 Americans will die and millions more will be sickened. At least 10 million have already lost their jobs, and some economists warn it could be years before they find work again. The S&P 500 index has plunged more than 20%, and the U.S. surgeon general predicted on Sunday that this week will be our Pearl Harbor moment as the death toll climbs.

Those grim realities are testing Trumps leadership and political survival skills unlike any challenge he has faced in office, including the special counsel investigation and the impeachment probe that imperiled his presidency. Trump appears acutely aware that his political fortunes will be inextricably linked to his handling of the pandemic, alternating between putting himself at the center of the crisis with lengthy daily briefings and distancing himself from the crisis by pinning the blame for inadequate preparedness on the states.

More on the Global Pandemic:

Trump and those around him increasingly argue he is reaching the limits of his power to alter the trajectory of the outbreak and the economic fallout, according to White House officials and allies, many of whom were granted anonymity to discuss the situation candidly. The federal government has issued guidelines that in many areas have resulted in the shutdown of all but essential businesses, throwing the economy into a tailspin. The remaining options, the officials argue, are largely on the margins.

The limits of the presidency are self-imposed to some extent as the Trump administration continues to cede authority to state and local governments, which have adopted a patchwork of inconsistent social distancing policies. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, prickled at the suggestion that the Republican president has limited options, calling it a diminished view of the presidential responsibility.

Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt done with his work 30 days after Pearl Harbor? Heavens, no. Thats ludicrous, Inslee said in an interview. For a person whos struggling to get (personal protective equipment) to my nurses and test kits to my long-term care facilities, that is more than disappointing. Its deeply angering.

White House advisers note that Trump has already pulled vast levers to blunt the impact of the pandemic. He worked with Congress to pass a record $2.2 trillion rescue package; a fourth package is expected in the coming weeks. The Federal Reserve, which is technically independent of the White House, has unleashed another $4 trillion.

The administration extended for another month new social distancing recommendations calling for those who are sick, are elderly or have serious health conditions to stay home. And Trump has used the authority granted to him under the Defense Production Act to try to force private companies to manufacture critical supplies, though some have faulted him for not using the tool early or aggressively enough.

Those who are dying now were likely infected weeks ago, and most highly impacted states across the nation have already taken drastic steps unthinkable just months ago forcing their residents to stay in their homes. And though the federal government has faced widespread criticism to do more to force the production of critical supplies, its already too late for most new production to blunt the oncoming wave.

Coping with the Outbreak:

I really think hes done everything humanly possible. I dont know what else he could do, said Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University and a Trump confidant.

By delegating significant responsibility to state leaders and the business community, Trump can continue to approach his job as he often has: as a spectator pundit-in-chief, watching events unfold on television with the rest of the nation and weighing in with colorful Twitter commentary.

But governors across the nation, including some Republicans, have screamed for additional assistance from the federal government. They warn of dangerous shortages of protective equipment for medical professionals on the front lines of the outbreak and ventilators that can help keep the death toll from exploding. Other critics suggest Trump can take a much more aggressive posture in forcing stricter social distancing rules upon reluctant state officials, while ordering all domestic flights and international arrivals grounded.

There is some debate about how visible the president should be as the crisis escalates. Inside the White House, some fear Trumps continued role as the face of the governments response will be increasingly dangerous politically as things get worse.

Trump is insistent that he remain in front of the public, where he can shower praise on his own performance and make the case for deflecting responsibility. He has also tried to take credit for averting a worst-case scenario in which more than 2 million Americans could die.

The last president to face a crisis of comparable scale and depth was Herbert Hoover, a Republican who held office during the onset of the Great Depression, according to Yale University historian Joanne Freeman. Like Trump in some ways, Hoover resisted sweeping federal government intervention to address the economic crisis of the early 1930s.

Freeman noted that the results were disastrous for the nations economy and Hoovers presidency. As the nation slipped deeper into depression, he suffered a landslide loss in 1932 to Roosevelt.

The American public has mixed reviews for Trumps performance, although his polling numbers have been ticking up.

The latest polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found Trumps approval ratings are among the highest of his presidency, with 44% supporting his oversight of the pandemic. State and local leaders have earned much higher marks.

While few are thinking about traditional politics, Election Day is just seven months away.

Republicans have seized on the absence of the leading Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, who has struggled to break through the dire daily news cycle despite frequent appearances on cable television from a newly created television studio in his home basement.

Biden is inconsequential for the next three months, and thats weird, said Democratic pollster Paul Maslin. I mean, this is the Trump show, for better or worse.

Former Trump aide Steve Bannon dismissed traditional politics as an afterthought as the nation enters a critical month to blunt the spread of the virus, yet the man who helped elect Trump four years ago said the political stakes could not be more dire.

Every day for President Trump is now Nov. 3, Bannon said, referencing Election Day.

There is no political playbook for a crisis of this magnitude. For the foreseeable future, there will be no more political rallies, traditional fundraisers or door-to-door canvassing that makes up the lifeblood of modern campaigns.

The Trump campaign 2020 slogan Keep America Great is already painfully disconnected from the reality on the ground in most states now fighting massive unemployment and health concerns.

Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh described the evolution of Trumps messaging in the midst of a pandemic this way: Our argument is that it was President Trumps leadership that built the economy up to such heights in the first place, and hes the one to lead us back up again.

He said the virus has caused dramatic increase in desire by the presidents supporters to get involved in the campaign, even if most have been encouraged not to leave their homes.

And while they believe his ability to implement new policy solutions may be limited, some Trump allies stressed his rhetorical ability to comfort an anxious nation.

In the minds and the hearts of the American people, his ability to carry out the rhetorical functions of the presidency to encourage, to comfort, to rally those are among the most essential elements of leadership in a moment of crisis, said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition and a member of the White House Faith Initiative.

It is critical right now to be a consoler-in-chief, to keep peoples spirits up, to give people optimism and hope, Reed said, and also show empathy and share in the sorrows of the struggling.

___

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire in New York and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

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Trump sees limits of presidency in avoiding blame for virus - The Associated Press

President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2020, in Washington, DC.

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

While the coming days in the nation's coronavirus fight look bleak, President Donald Trump gave Americans some reason to hope. "There's tremendous light at the end of the tunnel," he said at a White House press briefing Monday.

"Currently, ten different therapeutic agents are in active trials and some are looking incredibly successful," he said. "But they have to go through a process and it's going to be a quick process based on what the FDA told me." He said another 15 potential treatments are working toward clinical trials, "so they're advancing rapidly."

Trump echoed comments made earlier Monday by World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said the research to develop vaccines and treatments to fight the coronavirus has "accelerated at incredible speed."

Tedros said more than 70 countries have joined WHO's trial to accelerate research on effective treatments and "about 20 institutions and companies are racing to develop a vaccine."

"The viral genome was mapped in early January and shared globally which enabled tests to be developed and vaccine research to start," Tedros said at a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said last week that the first human trial testing a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19 is "on track" with public distribution still projected in 12 to 18 months, which would be the "ultimate game changer" in the fight against the pandemic.

U.S. health officials have been fast-tracking work with biotech companyModernato develop a vaccine to prevent COVID-19. Theybegan their first human trialson a potential vaccine March 16.

New York state last month began the first large-scale clinical trial looking at hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for the coronavirus after the Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked the approval process.

Chloroquine has gained a lot of attention aftera small studyof 36 COVID-19 patients published March 17 in France found that most patients taking the drug cleared the coronavirus from their system a lot faster than the control group. Adding azithromycin,commonly known as a Z-Pak, to the mix "was significantly more efficient for virus elimination," the researchers said. A small study in China also found that combining chloroquine with azithromycin was "found to be more potent than chloroquine."

"Stay inside and let's win this and let's get our country as soon as we can. I think it's going to be sooner than people think. Things are going really well," Trump said.

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Trump says there's light at the end of the tunnel with coronavirus vaccine and treatment research - CNBC

Decades ago, a soap actor famously said in a popular ad recommending a brand of cough medicine, Im not a doctor, but I play one on TV. The inherent absurdity of it made the spot a punchline, but history has been repeating during President Donald Trumps coronavirus press briefings.

The leader of the free world has been playing up the potential benefits of a drug used to treat malaria over the mild protests of White House Coronavirus Task Force honcho Dr. Anthony Fauci. Today, Trump made a rare admission, saying, Im not a doctor. He was quick to add, however: But I have common sense.

While Trevor Noah continues to do Comedy Centrals The Daily Showfrom his home, he posted a clip from tonights show that compares the presidents dubious advice to someone going to a checkup and theres some random dude standing behind your doctor giving his opinion, like, If you ask me, it looks like you got some of that AIDS cancer.'

From there, Noah talked about Tiger King natch for a bit before circling back to the press briefing commandeer-er in chief. He noted the Centers for Disease Controls latest guidelines that all Americans should wear face masks when out in public. Well, notallof them: Trump thus far is sticking with the you-can-I-wont approach to facial protection amid the pandemic.

That made Noah wonder if maybe Trump would sport said mouth-and-nose covering if his aides trick him like hes a child.

No, Mr. President, he says they might say, its not a mask its a border wall for your face.

Heres a clip fromThe Daily Social Distancing Show:

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Trevor Noah Wonders What It Might Take To Gets Donald Trump To Wear A Mask - Deadline

A cardiologist on Monday called for President Donald Trump to cease all in-person contact with Vice President Mike Penceand be placed basically on lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr.Jonathan Reiner, who treatedformer Vice President Dick Cheney, told CNN anchor Erin Burnett that British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons admission to an intensive care unit after his symptoms worsened due to the virus was a terrible cautionary tale.

When I watch our leadership do these daily press conferences, I worry for their safety, Reiner said. This shows anyone can be infected with the virus, and I just dont think that our leadership here is taking this seriously enough for their own safety.I worry about the safety of the president and vice president.

Reiner recalled how former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney were never together in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks because the concern was that the enemy could deliver what would be called a decapitating attack and kill the leadership of this country.

Well, this is an enemy that can do the same thing. So why would you have the president and vice president together frequently when one can infect the other? The president should be basically on lockdown, he said, noting that Trump is 73 and therefore, due to his age, at high risk of dying from this virus.

So I think that for the sake our leadership, there really needs to be very, very limited, physical access to the president of the United States, Reiner added.

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Cardiologist Explains Why Donald Trump And Mike Pence Shouldn't Be Together Right Now - HuffPost

Since the early days of the Trump administration, an impassioned group of mental health professionals have warned the public about the presidents cramped and disordered mind, a darkened attic of fluttering bats. Their assessments have been controversial. The American Psychiatric Associations code of ethics expressly forbids its members from diagnosing a public figure from afar.

Enough is enough. As Ive argued before, an in-person analysis of Donald J. Trump would not reveal any hidden depths his internal sonar could barely fathom the bottom of a sink and these are exceptional, urgent times. Back in October, George T. Conway III, the conservative lawyer and husband of Kellyanne, wrote a long, devastating essay for The Atlantic, noting that Trump has all the hallmarks of narcissistic personality disorder. That disorder was dangerous enough during times of prosperity, jeopardizing the moral and institutional foundations of our country.

But now were in the midst of a global pandemic. The presidents pathology is endangering not just institutions, but lives.

Lets start with the basics. First: Narcissistic personalities like Trump harbor skyscraping delusions about their own capabilities. They exaggerate their accomplishments, focus obsessively on projecting power, and wish desperately to win.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump says weve got plenty of tests available, when we dont. He declares that Google is building a comprehensive drive-thru testing website, when it isnt. He sends a Navy hospital ship to New York and it proves little more than an excuse for a campaign commercial, arriving and sitting almost empty in the Hudson. A New York hospital executive calls it a joke.

Second: The grandiosity of narcissistic personalities belies an extreme fragility, their egos as delicate as foam. They live in terror of being upstaged. Theyre too thin skinned to be told theyre wrong.

What that means, during this pandemic: Narcissistic leaders never have, as Trump likes to say, the best people. They have galleries of sycophants. With the exceptions of Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, Trump has surrounded himself with a Z-team of dangerously inexperienced toadies and flunkies the bargain-bin rejects from Filenes Basement at a time when we require the brightest and most imaginative minds in the country.

Debatable: Agree to disagree, or disagree better? Broaden your perspective with sharp arguments on the most pressing issues of the week.

Faced with a historic public health crisis, Trump could have assembled a first-rate company of disaster preparedness experts. Instead he gave the job to his son-in-law, a man-child of breathtaking vapidity. Faced with a historic economic crisis, Trump could have assembled a team of Nobel-prize winning economists or previous treasury secretaries. Instead he talks to Larry Kudlow, a former CNBC host.

Meanwhile, Fauci and Birx measure every word they say like old-time apothecaries, hoping not to humiliate the narcissist never humiliate a narcissist while discreetly correcting his false hopes and falsehoods. They are desperately attempting to create a safe space for our president, when the president should be creating a safer nation for all of us.

Third: Narcissistic personalities love nothing more than engineering conflict and sowing division. It destabilizes everyone, keeps them in control.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is pitting state against state for precious resources, rather than coordinating a national response. (Its like being on eBay, complained Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York last week.) His White House is a petty palace of competing power centers. He picks fights with Democratic officials and members of the press, when all the public craves is comfort.

Narcissistic personalities dont do comfort. They cannot fathom the needs of other hearts.

Fourth: Narcissistic personalities are vindictive. On a clear day, you can see their grudges forever.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is playing favorites with governors who praise him and punishing those who fail to give him the respect he believes he deserves. If they dont treat you right, dont call, he told Vice President Mike Pence.

His grudge match with New York is now especially lethal. When asked on Friday whether New York will have enough ventilators, Trump bluntly answered No, and then blamed the state.

And most relevant, as far as history is concerned: Narcissistic personalities are weak.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is genuinely afraid to lead. He cant bring himself to make robust use of the Defense Production Act, because the buck would stop with him. (To this day, he insists states should be acquiring their own ventilators.) When asked about delays in testing, he said, I dont take responsibility at all. During Fridays news conference, he added the tests we inherited were broken, were obsolete, when this form of coronavirus didnt even exist under his predecessor.

This sounds an awful lot like one of the three sentences that Homer Simpson swears will get you through life: It was like that when I got here.

Most people, even the most hotheaded and difficult ones, have enough space in their souls to set aside their anger in times of crisis. Think of Rudolph Giuliani during Sept. 11. Think of Andrew Cuomo now.

But every aspect of Trumps crisis management has been annexed by his psychopathology. As Americans die, he boasts about his television ratings. As Americans die, he crows that hes No. 1 on Facebook, which isnt close to true.

But it is true that all eyes are on him. Hes got a captive audience, an attention-addicts dream come to life. Its just that he, like all narcissistic personalities, has no clue how disgracefully how shamefully, how deplorably hell be enshrined in memory.

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Donald Trump the Narcissist Is Running the Coronavirus Crisis - The New York Times

President Donald Trump is looking to the stars even though much of the country is currently grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, Trump signed off on an executive order called Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources, which establishes U.S. policy on possessing and utilizing off-Earth resources.

As America prepares to return humans to the moon and journey on to Mars, this executive order establishes U.S. policy toward the recovery and use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, in order to encourage the commercial development of space, Scott Pace, deputy assistant to the president and executive secretary of the U.S. National Space Council, said in a statement.

The order, which has been in the works for about a year, reflects the United States long-held pro-business approach when dealing with space resources. In 1979, the U.S. refused to sign the Moon Treaty that would stipulate non-scientific use of space resources to be governed by an international regulatory framework.

More explicitly, in 2015, Congress passed a law that allowed U.S. companies and citizens to use freely lunar and asteroid resources.

With Trumps executive order, the U.S. now possesses a clearer vision for future off-Earth mining, without the requirement for further international treaty-like agreements.

The order coincides with NASAs push for a crewed lunar exploration. In March 2019, in response to Trumps directive, NASA unveiled the Artemis program's mission to send astronauts to the moon by 2024. A part of the operation would entail establishing a sustainable lunar outpost by 2028, fueled by tapping into lunar resources like water ice that is thought to be plentiful on the polar craters.

The moon, however, is not the final destination for NASAs grand ambitions, as Mars is next in line. In reaching that goal, the Artemis program will help NASA and its partners learn how to support astronauts in deep space with limited resources for long periods of time.

NASA, though, will have strong competition from Elon Musks SpaceX, which has its eyes set on the eventual establishment of a sustainable settlement on the Red Planet and making humanity a multi-planetary species.

Mars, then, would likely be a stepping-stone for future missions to Saturns moons Enceladus and Titan and Jupiters moons Io and Europa. Scientists believe that these particular moons of the gas giants have the best chance to harbor alien life in our solar system.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV.

Image: Reuters.

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Does Donald Trump Want to Start Mining the Moon? - The National Interest

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters.

A virus can adapt quickly, and so can Donald Trump.

Through the course of the coronavirus crisis, Trump has demonstrated the adaptability that has so often helped his career in business and politics, as he shifted from predator developer to scammy brand-marketer to reality-TV celebrity. And one element of that flexibility is Trumps unparalleled capacity to say whatever he needs at a given moment to gain an advantage or serve a personal interest.

This skill, if it can be called that, was on display at a recent Trump campaign rally, which these days are held daily in the White House, where Trump and members of his coronavirus task force brief reporters and the rest of the world. (Trump has been bragging about the ratings for these briefings, cheering his audience numbers, as Americans perish.) When Trump at this particular session on Sunday wasnt bashing the media, belittling his perceived foes, or praising himself, he made a startling remark: So youre talking about 2.2 million deaths, 2.2 million people from this. And so if we could hold that down, as were saying, to 100,000. Its a horrible number, maybe even less but to 100,000. So we have between 100 and 200,000, and we altogether have done a very good job.

At this briefing, Trump 16 times pointed to the 2.2 million estimate. That number comes from a new British study that Trumps health care advisers had shown him that projects this level of death in the (unlikely) absence of any control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behaviour. That is, without social distancing, testing, and the like. (Trumps experts had put this report in front of him so he would see that his idiotic idea to ease social restrictions by Easter would cause hundreds of thousands of deaths.) Trump, who on February 26, when there were 15 reported coronavirus cases in the United States, said the number would soon be down to close to zero, was now tossing out a horrendous number. It was quite the turnaroundand very purposeful.

It appeared Trump had finally realized that the amount of coronavirus death in this country on his watch is going to be astronomical. His weeks of denial, inaction, and dangerous happy-talkdownplaying the threat, claiming the virus would disappear in better weather, saying it was no worse than the flu, hinting social restraints could soon be liftedhad done nothing to stop the lethal threat spreading across the country. (A virus cant be stopped by BS.) Trump, who originally worried that bad coronavirus numbers would spook the markets and undercut his the-economy-is-great! reelection argument, needed to pivot. To adapt.

Now that Trump could no longer pitch himself as the beautiful-economy president, he recast himself as the great lifesaver of America. And he initiated a cynical and loathsome expectations game. If the coronavirus might kill 2.2. million, then what a hero he would be if it only claims the lives of 200,000 Americans. Should this come to pass, Trump will claim that 2 million Americans owe him their lives.

Trump the coronavirus saviorthats his new role. At this particular briefing, he claimed that some advisersno names, of coursehad urged him to ride out the crisis and do nothing: Just ride it. Ride it like a cowboy. Ride that sucker right through. And Trump proudly took credit for not following the dumbest advice imaginable. In fact, Trump portrayed his (eventual) unwillingness to do nothing as a courageous act that will prevent the death of 2.2 million. He repeated this line at the Tuesday press briefing, repeating the nutty notion that a lot of people were saying just ride it out. He added, Think what would happen if we didnt do anything. Imagine a firefighter boasting of not standing by and watching a building burn to the ground.

Of course, Trump had not rushed to the fire. He completely botched and bungled the first weeks of the crisis, with a stretch of neglect and screwups that will likely lead to the deaths of thousands of Americans, if not more. But as a reality-TV president more focused on PR than policy, he believes he can rewrite the script as the first act plays. Like a virus, he can change with no regard of past actions. At that Tuesday briefing, Trump appeared more somber than usual and deferred to the experts to discuss the projected death tollsthough he did suggest he deserved praise for the job thats been done. (Trump is well skilled in goal-post-shifting. He did this repeatedly through the Russia and Ukraine scandals. For instance, he defined wrongdoing in the Russia controversy as only direct collusion between his circle and Moscows attack on the 2016 election; this drew attention from his actions and those of his campaign that aided and abetted the Russian assault.)

There is a limit on Trumps mutability: his deeply rooted pathologies. As Trump has tried in recent days to demonstrate (intermittently) that he comprehends the gravity of the crisis and is heeding the recommendations of the experts, he has been unable to restrain his never-ending flow of dark impulses. He spent days attacking Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and threatening other governors. (If they dont treat you right, I dont call.) Here he was yielding to his obsession with revenge and his fixation on petty grievanceseven though it possibly could cause Michigan voters to view him negatively. Trump won Michigan in 2016 and will need a victory there in 2020 to keep his hold on the White House. The smart political move would be to avoid alienating Michigan voters. Yet Trump could not stop his warped psyche from winning the day.

Trump is now attempting to set the stage for a grand finale in which he can claim victory and demand reelection while standing on the corpses of 200,000 or so dead Americans. This will be an absurd argument but the nation has already seen a flood of absurdity from Trump and an overflow of credulity from his cultlike followers. Still, meeting his own 200,000-dead mark of success could (unfortunately for the nation) be an arduous task for Trump. On Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for Trumps coronavirus task force, appeared on NBCs Today show and said, If we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities. And she added, Were not sure all of America is responding in a uniform waymeaning we are not doing things almost perfectly.

If Birx is correct, Trump might have outsmarted himself by establishing 200,000 as his ghoulish I-win benchmark, for her grim prediction reaches higher in the real world where the response is not almost perfect. (Where are the tests? Where are the ventilators? Where is the PPE? Where are the lockdown orders in areas about to be hit by coronavirus?). But Trump, the onetime owner of bankrupt casinos, appears to be betting on this 200,000 estimate. That horrific level of death will still be a tremendous tragedy for which Trump will bear partial responsibility. And the number of fatalities is likely to be higher. Should that be the case, Trump will, no doubt, adapt once more and concoct a new strain. A virus has no conscience. It only exists to survive and spread.

Image credits: Oliver Contreras/CNP/ZUMA; Kevin Dietsch/CNP/ZUMA; Yuri Gripas/CNP/ZUMA

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How Donald Trump Plans on Spinning 200,000 Coronavirus Deaths as a Win - Mother Jones

Political fact-checkers have flourished under Donald Trump, a president who according to one count uttered more than 16,000 misleading or false claims during his first three years in the White House.

The coronavirus outbreak has seen Trump add to that total. Here are some of his most misleading and most often repeated claims about Covid-19, his administrations response to the outbreak and what might lie ahead.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his surprise at the scale of the coronavirus as it spread around the world and raced across the US.

I would view it as something that just surprised the whole world, he said in a press conference earlier this month. Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion.

In a separate briefing, Trump said: I just think this is something that you can never really think is going to happen.

There is evidence, however, that not only was the Trump administration warned about the potential of a pandemic and its dangers to Americans, it was given a plan on how to deal with it, which it promptly shelved.

During the Obama administration, the national security council drew up a 69-page playbook on fighting pandemics, Politico has reported. The document, crafted in the wake of the 2016 Ebola outbreak, contained advice on tracking the spread of a new virus, how to ensure testing was conducted effectively and the need to stockpile emergency resources.

The incoming Trump administration was briefed on the playbook but it was was thrown on to a shelf, according to an anonymous official quoted by Politico.

This wasnt the administrations only insight into the threat posed by a pandemic. In October, an internal federal government report warned how underprepared and underfunded the US would be in terms of tackling a virus without a cure.

Trumps reaction to coronavirus has spanned disbelief, a severe understating of the problem and an optimism that appears unmoored from reality.

In February, Trump said the virus could maybe go away. Well see what happens. Nobody really knows. He predicted it is going to disappear. One day its like a miracle it will disappear.

This position has been repeatedly contradicted by public health experts who predicted the sharp increase in Covid-19 infections, blunted only by social distancing measures and the shut down of large gatherings.

Even in China, which instituted the most severe crackdown on the movement of people, it has taken several months for cases to start tapering off.

Youve got to be realistic, and youve got to understand that you dont make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently.

Without basis, Trump has claimed the US has done an excellent job in testing people for the coronavirus. As early as January, the president said the situation was totally under control. Just six weeks later the US had emerged as the new global center of the pandemic.

In reality, healthcare providers faced a severe shortage of testing kits as coronavirus hit the US, with the situation exacerbated by faults in the testing system and restrictions on who could actually take a test. A big disparity opened up whereby rich or famous people were able to get tests while others struggled to do so.

Mike Pence, the vice-president, has admitted we dont have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand. Dr Fauci told a congressional hearing the US system was not really geared to what we need right now regarding the test kits. He added: That is a failing. Lets admit it.

As is the case with many of Trumps statements, his claim he has always taken the pandemic seriously deviates wildly from his previous comments. Perhaps most infamously, Trump said I dont take responsibility at all when asked about the faltering US response.

The president has repeatedly downplayed the threat posed by Covid-19, criticising concern over the crisis as a hoax, fretting that letting infected Americans off a cruise ship would increase the number of confirmed cases and claiming that only a couple of Americans had it as cases began to soar across the country.

He has compounded this by suggesting social distancing restrictions be lifted around Easter a timeline wildly out of kilter with public health experts who warn this would cause hospitals to overflow with sick and dying patients.

In a White House meeting with pharmaceutical company bosses and public health officials, Trump suggested a vaccine for Covid-19 will be available over the next few months.

He was contradicted by Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, who pointed out: You wont have a vaccine. Youll have a vaccine to go into testing.

Dr Fauci and others at the meeting confirmed that clinical trials standard for any new vaccine would have to take place first. A vaccine is more likely to be a year or 18 months away.

Despite being told this, Trump told a rally in North Carolina on 2 March that there will be a vaccine relatively soon.

On more than one occasion in recent weeks, Trump has questioned states sudden surge in demand for equipment such as masks and ventilators essential tools in doctors battle against coronavirus.

During his daily White House briefing, the president has said states are stocked up with medical equipment, adding: Theres a question as to hoarding of ventilators, some hospitals and independent hospitals and some hospital chains, as we call them they are holding ventilators, they dont want to let em up.

Trump also questioned why hospitals in New York City suddenly needed 300,000 masks when they previously needed 10,000 masks. So I think people should check that, because theres something going on, whether I dont think its hoarding, I think its maybe worse than hoarding. But check it out.

Trumps re-election campaign has since claimed the president was merely echoing Andrew Cuomo, New Yorks governor, who has said that he has asked the state police to investigate the theft of masks. But no evidence has been forthcoming on Trumps seemingly baseless assertion of hoarding or worse than hoarding by hospitals.

Governors from several states have said they have received just a small fraction of the medical equipment they need to deal with the pandemic. New York, for example, has said it needs tens of thousands of ventilators but has only received a few thousand. The reason for the sudden surge in demand for these items is obvious there is a pandemic of a new virus that is putting a huge and sudden strain on healthcare systems.

On 27 March, Trump made the above claim despite warnings from public health experts that coronavirus should not be conflated with seasonal flu. Fauci, for example, has said that Covid-19 is transferred between people far more easily than the flu and has a mortality rate around 10 times higher.

While there was initial confusion over coronavirus when Chinese authorities described it as an unusual form of pneumonia, the world has been well aware of the dimensions of the virus since January, when China acknowledged the severity of the condition and released the genetic information of Covid-19.

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Seven of Donald Trump's most misleading coronavirus claims - The Guardian

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President John F. Kennedy famously observed during a gathering of Nobel Prize winners: I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

And so it is again with President Trumps daily assemblies at the White House featuring some of the worlds leading public health experts, epidemiologists, business leaders and economists.

Clearly, Mr. Trump listens carefully to his panels of experts. And clearly these experts often clash.

One of the funniest and most ridiculous displays of media idiocy during this whole Wuhan pandemic came over the weekend when one Beltway-revered blog breathlessly reported that there was a major disagreement in the Situation Room down in the bowels of the White House between government doctor Anthony Fauci and Trump economist Peter Navarro over the effectiveness of the anti-malarial drughydroxychloroquine in combating COVID-19.

You mean the very same disagreement over hydroxychloroquine that plays out in plain view every single day among Mr. Trumps team out in the Rose Garden and in the press briefing room and in the press?

News flash! Breaking News! Hold the presses! Situation Room! Anonymous sources! Administration official! Background!

Never in the history of the world has such a serious global threat been met by such a ridiculously unserious press. I guess we should just be glad that it wasnt yet another breathless breaking newsflash about how some racist Trump administration official anonymously told reporters that the Wuhan virus originated in China.

Luckily, Mr. Trump has the great wisdom to float above the nonsense except when he impishly delves into the media fracas to tune up some idiot reporter just for the giggles. Strictly speaking, these displays are rarely constructive. But, boy, they sure are entertaining.

Instead, Mr. Trump mostly sticks to his assembly of experts.

But he should do so with extreme caution.

Because while his assembly of expert advisers may be the most extraordinary collection of talent and human knowledge since Thomas Jefferson dined alone in the White House, none of them Jefferson included has the finely honed political instincts of Mr. Trump alone.

Despite all the caterwauling and hysteria, Mr. Trump is absolutely right to be questioning his medical experts on the wisdom of shutting down the American economy to fight this pandemic.

It doesnt make Mr. Trump or anyone else a Nazi or evil for weighing the costs and benefits of every federal action and edict during these unprecedented times.

In fact, the very instincts that got Mr. Trump elected in the first place are precisely the instincts he should fall back on for dealing with this crisis.

First, there is an Evil Empire in this world. And, just as Mr. Trump identified during his campaign, it is China.

The communist country lies about everything, disappears political opponents and has a long-term strategy for destroying America. Every decision Mr. Trump makes going forward should be about curtailing Chinas influence in the world and delivering America from reliance on the country.

Second, free trade in the world is great and all. But there are limits. Selling Americas soul for cheapest goods possible from China is one thing when we are talking crappy plastic trinkets.

It is an entirely different matter when we are talking about American security, such as the manufacture of drugs, face masks and medical gear. President Trump should immediately establish long-term contracts with American companies to manufacture anything deemed vital to national security.

Finally, borders matter. They always have mattered. But, unbelievably, both U.S. political parties have been in competition to see who can abandon Americas borders the fastest. If we have learned nothing from the Wuhan virus, it is that our borders must be enforced.

Exactly as Mr. Trump promised when he got elected.

Charles Hurt can be reached at [emailprotected] or @charleshurt on Twitter.

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Donald Trump should stick to his assembly of experts -- with extreme caution - Washington Times

President Trump said Monday he is going to get involved in settling a heated dispute between Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly and former USS Theodore Roosevelt Capt. Brett Crozier, who was fired last week after writing a letter about a worsening coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship that was later published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

During a press conference at the White House, the president praised both men and said he doesnt want Capt. Croziers career to be ruined because of a bad day.

Ive heard very good things about the gentleman, both gentlemen, Mr. Trump said. I may just get involved you have two good people and theyre arguing. And Im good, believe it or not, at settling arguments.

Capt. Croziers career prior to that was very good, the president continued, so Im going to get involved and see exactly whats going on there. Because I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

Mr. Trump did not specify exactly how hell get involved or what steps hell take to settle the controversy.

The presidents comments came on the heels of Mr. Modly addressing the 4,000 crew members of the Roosevelt which is now docked in Guam after more than 150 sailors tested positive for COVID-19 and blasting Capt. Crozier.

If he didnt think, in my opinion, that this information wasnt going to get out into the public in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A too naive or too stupid to be commanding officer of a ship like this. The alternative is that he did this on purpose, Mr. Modly said, according to a transcript and recording of his message over the ships public address system.

Democratic lawmakers and other critics blasted Mr. Modly for his remarks. The president cast it as a very strong statement but stressed that the letter shouldnt have been sent.

Military officials have argued that in writing a letter that ultimately found its way to the press rather than speaking in private to his superiors, Capt. Crozier sent a signal to adversaries that the U.S. military had been compromised.

Mr. Trump offered a similar assessment.

Its unfair to the families on the ship because they get nervous and it shows weakness, he said. And theres nothing weak about us now.

After departing the Roosevelt last week, Capt. Crozier tested positive for COVID-19, according to media reports.

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Donald Trump 'to get involved' in Thomas Modly-Capt. Brett Crozier dispute - Washington Times