Trump on covid-19: It will get worse before he gets better
(CNN) - President Donald Trump's new political self-preservation effort to demonstrate that he has control over a pandemic that is killing hundreds of Americans every day is being exposed by his refusal to share the stage with scientific experts, or the facts.
On a day that laid bare his remodeled campaign strategy, Trump launched a strong push for law and order, escalated a Cold War with China, and attempted to demonstrate that he is managing the fight against covid-19 after weeks of neglect.
The president has been rocking for days as a vicious increase in infections runs through the sunbelt, caused in part by governors who heeded his opening calls before the pathogen was suppressed.
- OPINION | Trump's turn on the pandemic is mere politics, not a policy of change
With a poll showing him 20 points behind alleged Democratic nominee Joe Biden on who can best handle the situation, Trump has taken the rare step of making a partial reversal of wearing masks although he is still reluctant to model one in public. He also decided that outright denial of the worst public health crisis in 100 years was not working and has returned to the White House meeting room to spin the mess as best he can.
The anchor of Trump's powerful new briefings is a booklet opening in which he picks out the most hopeful aspects of a pandemic that has destroyed the rhythm of American daily life and turned the economy upside down. Wednesday was another tragic day, with another 1,195 new deaths and 71,695 new infections.
In its two briefings so far, its renewed focus seems more like a cosmetic political exercise than an attempt to provide the country with meaningful public health advice as the pandemic worsens.
And the new tone detected by some political commentators did not survive a Fox News interview in which the president again doubted the value of diagnostic tests, which scientists say is crucial in isolating newly infected patients and stopping the spread. of the illness.
Another problem is that the President will not appear alongside public health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx.
“They are informing me, I will meet with them. I just talked to Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx is out there and they are giving me everything you know from now on and I will be giving the information to you, "Trump said Wednesday.
"I think it's probably a very concise way to do it. It seems to be working very well. ”
However, Trump made misleading statements that a public health expert would never have said, but which he seems to think are politically useful. He blamed migrants from Mexico crossing the closed border for causing an increase in cases, along with youths who attended protests against racism.
The president also stated that children with strong immune systems do not bring the coronavirus home and that all schools can open in the fall. It did not provide any scientific evidence for the claim, nor did it explain, for example, why children, who often catch the flu and colds in class, would not have a similar risk of transmitting the coronavirus.
And once again, Trump falsely claimed that the United States is doing "amazing things" compared to other countries while fighting the virus. In fact, the United States lags far behind other highly industrialized nations in suppressing infection curves and leads the world in infections and deaths.
"The president does not want Fauci or Birx to be there because they are real-time fact checkers," Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN's Kate Bolduan.
"Without them, he can say things that are misleading or false," Reiner said, using the president's misleading interpretation of statistics about a positive test rate as an example.
"The truth is the truth and the more the public understands, the better the public will adhere, you know, a prudent policy," he said.
- Trump insists he is "right" about the coronavirus as more Americans get sick and die
Trump wants to open schools
Trump's approach to controlling the virus, which tends to put his own political interests above science-based reasoning, extends to the reopening of schools, which he wants to do to make the country see it return to the appearance of normal before the fall election.
But experts disagree with his calls.
“He wants to open schools, regardless of what science says. And the science is pretty clear. If you open schools in areas or school districts where there is a high level of virus transmission, for example doing it in Houston today or San Antonio or Phoenix, it will fail, "said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University .
"It will fail because children not only transmit the virus but adults, vendors go in and out of schools," Hotez said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."
"What will happen in two weeks is that teachers will begin to enter hospitals, ICUs. They will be bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and parents will start to get sick. It is unsustainable. It is not sustainable. ”
The president also dwells on the few positive developments amid a grim moment as the country battles a virus that has already killed more than 140,000 Americans.
- ANALYSIS: While Trump refuses to lead, the United States tries to save himself
On Wednesday, he promoted a new agreement with Pfizer to produce and deliver 100 million doses of a vaccine when it becomes available. With an eye on the older voters who have grown cold with him, according to the latest polls, he announced new measures to help nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
Still, for once, and despite much of his presentation being very misleading, the President did not destroy his own strategy with bad discipline.
He largely avoided getting involved in grumpy confrontations with journalists and left the meeting after just a few questions. So if your return to the podium is a political tactic rather than a genuine effort to shift your focus to a virus you've minimized and mismanaged, it may have done at least a little good in the eyes of your campaign team.
Trump's discourse on law and order in the suburbs
Another part of the president's remodeled electoral strategy was unveiled early Wednesday when he announced that it would "augment" federal law enforcement officers in Chicago and other cities, despite opposition from state and local government officials.
The plan, another way Trump has used his executive power to meet personal political goals, solidifies his effort to portray Democrats as weak against crime and create an image of a nation besieged by radical, anarchist, and staggering elements under which he says are liberal efforts to destroy the Police. The move comes after federal officials are dispatched to Portland, Oregon, who have been seen arresting protesters while wearing camouflage uniforms and without identifying their name and rank. Critics have warned that the President is indulging authoritarian tendencies and promoting a law and order crisis to discredit the Black Lives Matter protests.
- Black Lives Matter protests have not led to an increase in coronavirus cases, according to research
"We will work every day to restore public safety, protect the children of our nation, and bring violent perpetrators to justice," Trump said. "We have been doing it and have been seeing what is happening across the country."
"We have just started this process and, frankly, we have no choice but to get involved," said the president, announcing deployments by the FBI, the US Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco. and Firearms.
From Trump's point of view, the effort makes political sense. As Democratic mayors and governors resist his pressure and say they will not accept Trump's "soldiers" and "secret police" on their streets, he can accuse them of not taking the safety of Americans seriously. It is an act aimed directly at suburban voters who have drifted away from Republicans since the 2016 election. Trump has repeatedly touched on public policy issues, apparently designed to play on the fears of white voters, whom he believes see the others as an enemy that threatens their vision of traditional American culture.
This is what a press release from the Trump campaign put it this Wednesday: "His family will not be safe in the United States of Biden."
The alleged Democratic candidate lashed out at the president in the latest in what are becoming increasingly intense exchanges in a campaign that has been dormant for months as the pandemic crisis has deepened.
"The way he treats people based on their skin color, their national origin, where they are from is absolutely disgusting," Biden said in a virtual forum organized by the International Union of Service Employees.
"No incumbent president has done this," he said. "Never never never. No republican president has done this. No Democratic President. We have had racist people, and they have existed, who tried to be elected president; he is the first to be chosen. "
Trump intensifies the confrontation with China
In another example of the way Trump is using presidential power to push a campaign issue, the administration announced on Wednesday the closure of the Chinese consulate crash in Houston, Texas.
The State Department accused Beijing of participating in massive illegal espionage operations for years, but did not say whether there was an individual incident that triggered the measure.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been on a tour of Europe seeking to gain the support of American allies on a broad front against Beijing.
There is credible evidence to suggest that China has been stealing US intellectual property and has used its espionage services to try to infiltrate US government, military, science and intelligence establishments.
But the new crackdown, which is accelerating a serious deterioration in ties between the established superpower and rising power, comes as the White House searches for a scapegoat in China, the origin of the new coronavirus, to cover up Trump's earlier denials. that the pandemic would threaten the United States.
But just as he cannot control what happens next with the virus, Trump is now vulnerable, and China could react to the closure of his Houston consulate. While attacking Beijing has long been a tactic in presidential campaigns, it is not clear that all voters welcome a new showdown with a powerful foreign rival, especially one exacerbated for personal political gain.
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