How Trump Blew The Coronavirus Response | HuffPost Latest News

Seated at his desk in the Oval Office for a prime-time address on Wednesday, President Donald Trump faced a pivotal moment. The global coronavirus pandemic had claimed thousands of lives and reached U.S. shores as global markets took historic plunges. In a normal world, Trump would look presidential, stick to the teleprompter, and assure Americans that his administration understood the threat facing the country and would take dramatic action to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

That didnt happen. Trump bungled key facts about the administrations response three assertions had to be immediately walked back by White House staff congratulated himself on his supposedly excellent work so far, and blamed other countries for letting the disease spread.

As Trump spoke, global stocks and U.S. futures tumbled further. At almost the same moment, police were shutting down a basketball arena in Oklahoma City after a player on the Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus which immediately sparked a suspension of the entire NBA season. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced they had contracted the virus. By Thursday morning , major sports leagues had suspended operations, New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art and Broadway theaters shut down, and the Democratic presidential debate was relocated from Arizona to a studio in Washington, D.C.

By the morning after Trumps speech, administration officials were grumbling anonymously to reporters about having to clean up the presidents mess. It was emblematic of his administrations entire bumbling, self-serving approach to the pandemic. Trump has shown that his ultimate priority is to evade blame. The president has shown he has no qualms about peddling false information to make himself look good, even when downplaying the threat discourages Americans from taking steps to contain the virus. And when the threat could no longer be ignored, Trump fell back on a familiar strategy: exploit the countrys legitimate fears to justify a racist, nativist response. Meanwhile, his administrations failures to effectively test for the coronavirus and contain its spread was costing lives.

That moment C-SPAN didnt realize they were broadcasting still.... pic.twitter.com/eoO2pgzCQt

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That moment C-SPAN didnt realize they were broadcasting still.... pic.twitter.com/eoO2pgzCQt
Burt Macklin (@knoweyedentity) March 12, 2020

Dont worry, everything is fine

The U.S. confirmed its first case of coronavirus on Jan. 21. Trump, who was in Davos, Switzerland, said there was nothing to worry about. We have it totally under control , he told CNBC the next day. Its one person coming in from China, and we have it under control.

Messaging from the White House over the next week was wildly inconsistent. Were in great shape and I think Chinas in good shape too, by the way, he said Jan. 22, only to reverse himself eight days later as the death toll rose. China is not in great shape right now, he told Fox News on Jan. 30.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency and the White House announced travel restrictions to and from China in late January but the administration provided little information about how to halt the spread of the virus in the U.S.

Several of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions initial test kits, disbursed in early February, provided false positives . The lack of a reliable test made it impossible for people experiencing symptoms to know whether they needed to self-quarantine or just wait out a regular cold or flu. Throughout February, Trump continued to describe the outbreak as a foreign problem primarily Chinas and one that would simply disappear one day.

And by the way, the virus, theyre working hard, Trump said of China at a New Hampshire campaign rally on Feb. 10. Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away, Trump said, a claim that is not supported by experts and that Trump would repeat multiple times over the following days. But were doing great in our country. We only have 11 cases, and theyre all getting better, he continued, the same day the 13th American tested positive for the disease.

After weeks of requests from lawmakers, the Trump administration asked Congress on Feb. 24 to allocate $1.25 billion in emergency funding for the countrys coronavirus response. By the time the request came in, it was too little, too late, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

At the time, only 12 out of more than 100 state or local labs in the U.S. could perform their own coronavirus testing. Still, Trump insisted everything was fine. The virus is very much under control in the USA , Trump tweeted the same day the CDC confirmed 19 new cases.

As CDC officials warned the disease would spread through the U.S. and cause severe disruption to daily life, Trumps top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, claimed the disease was contained in the U.S. I wont say airtight, but pretty close to airtight, Kudlow said. With the market cratering, Kudlow urged Americans to invest in stocks , insisting the financial downturn was nothing like the 2008 crash.

Soon, the president started complaining that he wasnt receiving enough praise for his management of the crisis. The press wont give us credit for it, he said during rambling remarks at a Feb. 27 photo op with Black leaders at the White House, including popular Fox News personalities Diamond and Silk. Trump continued on a lengthy tirade against mostly imagined criticisms from Democrats about his travel restrictions on China.

But, anyway but weve done an incredible job because we closed early. And actually, the Democrats said I was a racist. Not from Black-people standpoint, but from Asian-people standpoint, from Chinese-people standpoint, Trump said. They said I was a racist because I closed our country to people coming in from certain areas. They called me a racist.