- Advisers to President Donald Trump forced him to pay more attention to the COVID-19 pandemic by informing him that the increase in cases is hurting “our people” in Republican states, an administration official told The Washington Post.
- The tactic appears to “resonate” with Trump, The Post reported Monday, as the president “listened closely to the prewritten comments” in subsequent briefings.
- Previously, the president had lost interest in a pandemic that has cost an average of 850 deaths per day and killed more than 147,000 Americans.
- “The president was bored with that,” David Carney, an adviser to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, told The New York Times earlier this month.
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President Donald Trump was “bored” with the pandemic, viewing it – an average of 850 deaths, every day since February – as a distraction from all “victories”, from a new trade deal to a rising stock market, he wishes he could campaign instead.
But then top advisers tried a new approach: They told the president that the coronavirus not only killed liberals in the blue states, but it hurt Republicans and could spread in changing states.
“Our people.” That’s the term a senior Trump administration official used in an interview with The Washington Post. On Monday, the newspaper reported that the president’s top advisers had begun providing him with “maps and data showing spikes in coronavirus cases among” our people “in the Republican states.”
It worked, The Post reported, that the tactic seemed to “resonate” with the president, who then “listened closely to the prewritten comments” in subsequent briefings. While the message on the face covers remained inconsistent, they are not without their own problems, Trump said, the president allowed himself to be seen wearing a mask, serving Republicans battling the coronavirus in their home states.
The Post also reported that the White House has resumed a small “coronavirus task force” led by Dr. Deborah Birx and her son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner, who is “half-focused on the government’s response to the pandemic and a half focused on the White House public message, “The Post reported. (Outstanding infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci was not mentioned.)
Before recent briefings, Trump had lost interest in the coronavirus, according to Republicans dealing with it. According to The New York Times, Republican governors and some senators were breaking ranks on the issue of masks, others said they were dealing exclusively with Vice President Mike Pence on issues related to managing the spread of the virus. In a conference call in late June, a governor asked Pence to help with the administration’s “complacency” about the virus.
“The president was bored with that,” said David Carney, an adviser to Texas Governor Greg Abbott earlier this month.
With the rise of the virus in the states, the president must win if he wants to be reelected in November, Florida in particular is, at least for now, paying closer to its lethal impact on his fellow Americans.
“The President also led a historic coronavirus response across America, resulting in the acquisition of 100,000 fans, the provision of critical PPE for our front-line heroes, and a robust testing regime that resulted in more than double the number of evidence than any other country in the world, “White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews told The Post.
The new coronavirus has infected more than 4 million Americans and killed more than 147,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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