- President Donald Trump finally acknowledged this week that COVID-19 is a serious problem in the U.S., but failed to address his own lack of response.
- Despite Trump’s refusal to take responsibility for getting the pandemic spiral out of control, experts and mainstream media praised the president’s tone as “bleak” and said he represented a pivot.
- But Trump’s tone, which history suggests won’t last, doesn’t matter because the damage has already been done and he was largely self-inflicted.
- As of Thursday, the disease has infected nearly four million Americans and has killed more than 143,000 people in the country.
- The United States economy is also in ruins and more Americans have died from the virus than all of the United States’ battle deaths combined in all wars since 1945.
When President Donald Trump resumed his coronavirus briefings this week, he did not suggest injecting disinfectant as a cure, did not undermine medical experts in his own coronavirus task force, and did not suggest a pandemic that has infected nearly four million Americans. . deception perpetrated by the false media.
In other words, according to experts, commentators, and some of the mainstream media, the president had turned to a serious and somber tone that adjusted to the gravity of the moment.
—ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 21, 2020
—Sara Cook (@saraecook) July 21, 2020
—Reuters (@Reuters) July 22, 2020
—The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 21, 2020
But Trump’s “new tone” (which history suggests won’t last) doesn’t matter. It was too late, and Trump’s actions speak louder than his words.
Leading public health experts warned from January and February that the coronavirus was a serious threat that could have fatal consequences for the public. US intelligence officials have also raised the alarm about an impending pandemic more than a dozen times before the coronavirus became established in the country.
Trump ignored them, demonized experts, including those from his own coronavirus task force, and insisted the disease would go away on its own. As officials said in February that cases would continue to rise in the US, Trump told Americans that the number of cases would be “close to zero” in a “couple of days.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first released its guide on the use of face covers in early April. Trump was first publicly seen with a covered face on July 11, more than three months after the CDC issued its recommendations.
On July 20, he tweeted a photo of himself wearing a black mask with a presidential seal, adding that “many people say it is patriotic to wear a face mask when you cannot socially distance yourself.”
But last month, the president told The Wall Street Journal that Americans who cover their faces do so only to show disapproval and not as a preventive measure. In addition to minimizing his effectiveness, Trump also teased his 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, for wearing a mask in May.
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway blamed the governors on Wednesday for rushing to reopen their states. She added that Republican and Democratic governors “backed off a lot” when it was “falsely rumored” that Trump would be in charge of when states could reopen.
But Conway did not mention that the president himself said in April that he had “full authority” to compel states to reopen their economies. Trump also attacked states that implemented strict blocking measures to curb the spread of the virus, and called on protesters to “free” Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia from their blockades.
Earlier this month, Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from schools (which he cannot do) that do not reopen in the fall, despite public health experts urging him and as states across the country see an increase in the new COVID-19 cases.
And in May, the White House forced the CDC to back down from the original set of reopening guidelines it had put forward for schools and churches and issue a new guide that was more lenient.
“It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better, something I don’t like to say about things, but that’s the way it is,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
He was correct.
States across the country are struggling to reimplement blockade measures as new cases skyrocket. As of Thursday, the disease has infected millions of Americans and killed more than 143,000 people in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The US economy is now in ruins and more Americans have died from the virus than all US combat deaths combined in all wars since 1945.
