Trump publicly trashes World Health Organization’s virus test after refusing to use it
The “executive time” is getting scarce for Donald Trump these days.
With the pandemic crisis growing logarithmically every day, and the reality of the effects of the disease on the everyday lives of Americans now undeniable, the president is being forced to at least show up for press conferences and meetings and had to skip his weekend golf excursions, at least saving the government from wasting money that could otherwise go to help those economically impacted by business closures on his travel and security.
While the coronavirus may have forced a change of lifestyle even for the president, som old habits die hard.
Take for example Trump’s compulsive habit of substituting a falsehood for the truth at any available opportunity.
That habit was on full display in his White House press conference updating the nation on the status of the government response to the health crisis that has blossomed into a full-blown economic disaster as well.
In a stunning denial of words memorialized on his Twitter feed, Trump denied dismissing the coronavirus as overblown and downplaying its risks and claimed that he has taken it seriously all along.
Trump, who not a month ago characterized Democratic criticism of the coronavirus response as a "hoax," now claims, "I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic." pic.twitter.com/6GTpZ59b75
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2020
Gaslighting is a hard habit to quit, even if it reduces your already infinitesimal credibility even further at a time when the dissemination of facts is at a premium.
Today’s press conference was also notable for Trump’s reinforcement of racist stereotypes by insisting on calling the COVID-19 virus the “China Virus” since the first cases were reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan. He saw it as a retaliatory move because some reports in China have accused the American military of introducing the virus into their country.
REPORTER: People are criticizing you for using the phrase "China virus." Your response?
TRUMP: I think it's a very accurate term. pic.twitter.com/IsDlzZP8Oj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2020
Trump’s undermined his credibility further by both claiming that he was working well with state governors well on coordinating the response to the pandemic — just hours after tweeting attacks on the Democratic governors of Michigan and New York — and by arguing that the only deficiency in his administration’s crisis management has been its public relations failures.
TRUMP: "The only thing we have not done well is to get good press." pic.twitter.com/92SPRF7MTs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2020
Perhaps the president would get better press if the media wouldn’t keep trying to confront him with pesky facts about his past statements since it is his own behavior from the early days of the coronavirus’ initial entry onto American shores that keeps coming back to haunt him in appropriately negative coverage.
MSNBC‘s Joy Reid pointed out the perniciousness of the president’s lies and revisionist history about the federal government response to the health crisis in an outraged tweet at the end of his press conference.
Fact Number One: The U.S. DID reject the WHO-certified test. Item: https://t.co/udbK1Qvx0w pic.twitter.com/DoLOMotfzA
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 17, 2020
More: pic.twitter.com/5Ozwkm0v6k
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 17, 2020
Donald Trump cares only about pushing responsibility away from himself; to make sure the buck does not stop with him. It is shameful. He is in charge and this mess is HIS responsibility. That's the job of a president. To LEAD, not to make excuses.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 17, 2020
Excusing one’s own failures and misjudgments by blaming them on others is a standard tactic for the man who has said that he doesn’t “take responsibility at all” for the failure to distribute a sufficient number coronavirus testing kits earlier in the spread of the disease when it could have been an effective tactic in slowing down the contagion of the virus.
At this point, it goes without saying that the nation needs new leadership in dealing with the new reality in our nation.
While some people may be enheartened to learn that the government will be taking measures including direct payments to citizens whose livelihoods have been threatened by the economic fallout of the epidemic and tax relief, the Trump administration’s response has been too little and too late.
After years of GOP attacks on socialism as antithetical to American values, the value of shared responsibilities and the holes in our profit-driven health care system have been exposed. If America doesn’t emerge from the coronavirus pandemic with a renewed groundswell of support for Medicare for all, then we will have squandered a valuable learning opportunity and wasted perhaps the only good thing that may result from this pandemic.
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