<\/a>
\nAcknowledging the risks to the young \u2014 but cheering for packed churches<\/p>\nLater in March, Trump acknowledged to Woodward that the coronavirus could affect not just old people but young people, too. But he added that he prefers to downplay the threat.<\/p>\n
March 19, to Woodward: \u201cNow it\u2019s turning out it\u2019s not just old people, Bob. Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It\u2019s not just old, older. Young people too \u2014 plenty of young people. \u2026 I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don\u2019t want to create a panic.\u201d<\/p>\n
In public, Trump soon started suggesting the economy should take priority over dealing with Covid-19, continuing to suggest that the virus wasn\u2019t a major threat to the US. He even said that the recently initiated lockdowns and stay-at-home orders could end by Easter (on April 12).<\/p>\n
March 22, on Twitter: \u201cWE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!\u201d<\/p>\n
March 24, on Fox News: \u201cEaster\u2019s a very special day for me. \u2026 You\u2019ll have packed churches all over our country. \u2026 I think it\u2019ll be a beautiful time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis thing is a killer\u201d vs. \u201cLIBERATE MINNESOTA!\u201d<\/p>\n
In April, Trump described the coronavirus in terrifying terms to Woodward.<\/p>\n
April 13, to Woodward: \u201cThis thing is a killer if it gets you. If you\u2019re the wrong person, you don\u2019t have a chance. \u2026 So this rips you apart. \u2026 It is the plague.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was quite different from what Trump was saying in public at the time, indicating that the virus was already well on its way to defeat in the US. He soon after sent his \u201cLIBERATE\u201d tweets, demanding that states reopen their economies.<\/p>\n
April 10, on Twitter: \u201cThe Invisible Enemy will soon be in full retreat!\u201d<\/p>\n
April 17, on Twitter: \u201cLIBERATE MINNESOTA! \u2026 LIBERATE MICHIGAN! \u2026 LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd amendment. It is under siege!\u201d<\/p>\n
The one consistency: Avoiding the blame<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one thing Trump was consistent about: Whether in public comments or his interviews with Woodward, he never took responsibility for the virus spreading out of control in the US.<\/p>\n
July 21, to Woodward: \u201cThe virus has nothing to do with me. It\u2019s not my fault. \u2026 China let the damn virus out.\u201d<\/p>\n
August 14, to Woodward: \u201cNothing more could have been done. Nothing more could have been done. I acted early. I acted early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump took a similar stance when asked, in press conferences and interviews, about the US\u2019s failures to build up testing and prevent the deaths of more than 1,000 Americans a day to Covid-19.<\/p>\n
March 13, at a press conference, when asked about tests: \u201cI don\u2019t take responsibility at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
July 28, in a televised interview, referring to 1,000 deaths a day: \u201cIt is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump failed, and more people have died as a result<\/p>\n
This is not just something that makes Trump look bad or exposes the bullshitter that he is. During a major crisis, particularly a pandemic, clear and transparent communication is one of the most important things leaders can do to keep the public and other officials not only informed but also ready to act. By consistently downplaying the threat of the virus, Trump worked to disarm one of the country\u2019s biggest weapons \u2014 public action \u2014 against a major disease.<\/p>\n
As C\u00e9line Gounder, an epidemiologist at New York University, told me in the early days of the pandemic, \u201cYou really need very strong leadership from the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s downplaying of the virus extended not just to his public comments, but the actions taken by him and his administration, too. He\u2019s called for less testing, arguing that more tests make the US look bad by revealing more cases \u2014 and his task force successfully pushed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to, in effect, recommend less testing. His staff has simultaneously pushed the CDC to change scientific reports and studies because they might make Trump look bad by contradicting his evidence-less claims about Covid-19. He pushed the CDC out of a public leadership role after an official there made grim \u2014 but correct \u2014 comments about what to expect under the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
Trump has even contradicted his own administration\u2019s recommendations to push a rosy image of the country\u2019s fight against Covid-19, demanding that states reopen quickly, before they met his administration\u2019s recommendations, and getting parts of the public to think (wrongly) that masking is unhelpful or unnecessary, as his administration recommends public use of masks.<\/p>\n
Now America is doing quite badly in its fight against Covid-19. The US hasn\u2019t seen the most coronavirus deaths of all wealthy nations, but it\u2019s in the bottom 20 percent for deaths since the pandemic began, and reports seven times the deaths as the median developed country. If the US had the same Covid-19 death rate as, say, Canada, 115,000 more Americans would likely be alive today.<\/p>\n
Overall, Covid-19 cases in the US are now declining after the country\u2019s recent surge. But that\u2019s in large part because people have ignored much of what Trump has said: The public, as well as many cities, counties, and states, have embraced social distancing, particularly indoors, and masking \u2014 likely driving down new infections.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the US\u2019s number of cases and deaths remains unacceptably high; over the past week, nearly 900 Americans have died each day, on average, from Covid-19. Some US outbreaks continue to pop up as well, with states in the Midwest and South recently hit hard.<\/p>\n
This is the reality Trump tried to downplay. And we\u2019re stuck with those consequences \u2014 those infections, those deaths \u2014 no matter how the president tries to spin the pandemic.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump seemed to have very different things to say about Covid-19 when he spoke in public \u2014 at press conferences and TV appearances \u2014 than when he spoke to journalist Bob Woodward one-on-one. In public comments, Trump took a tone that downplayed the coronavirus \u2014 making it seem like the virus would go…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}