Trump tries to explain why “nobody” likes him: “It can only be my personality”
They’re baaaack!
Yes, those gaslighting gatherings at the White House that Donald Trump calls his Coronavirus Task Force press briefings are now entering the second week of their second season after weeks of the president essentially pretending that the COVID-19 pandemic simply wasn’t happening or serious enough to take him away from his campaign plotting.
The major difference is that the briefings are now all Trump, all the time, as the president has jettisoned all of the scientific experts who previously would show up from time to time to pronounce the words that Trump himself couldn’t and add an air of competence to the administration’s efforts to fight the pandemic.
Of course, experts aren’t worth much if you don’t follow their advice, as the president has studiously avoided doing so far.
With Trump having tweeted out more misinformation about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine against the COVID-19 virus earlier in the day, anticipation was high for today’s briefing to see how the president would react to Twitter’s removal of his posts for including dangerously false medical advice.
It didn’t take long for Trump to start telling tales of the fictional America that exists only in his mind.
"They think it is extremely successful, the hydroxychloroquine, coupled with the zinc … it's safe" — Trump is back to using the White House briefing to push unproven, potentially deadly coronavirus miracle cures pic.twitter.com/SfKWiDvvl8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2020
Trump fails to mention that the large portions of the country that are coronavirus free are also those sections of the map with population densities near zero.
He also fails to explain why he elevates the opinions of a few outlier medical crackpots — one of who believes in space aliens and warns about sex with demons who visit you in your sleep — over the preponderance of the medical community who agree with the scientific studies proving that Trump’s favorite placebo has no proven medical benefit and can, in fact, create problems of its own for the health of those foolish enough, like Trump himself, to take it.
As far as those deleted tweets go? Well, whatever Trump may have said to himself and anyone within earshot when his and his son Don Jr.’s tweets were removed, he downplayed their importance at the briefing this afternoon, feigning that he didn’t have any idea why social media companies were deleting the medical disinformation campaign he was engaging upon.
Trump denies that he posted retweets accusing Dr. Fauci of misleading the public about coronavirus that he most definitely posted pic.twitter.com/oelKHDB5dT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2020
That was Trump in full Orwellian-mode, denying that what many saw with their own eyes ever existed.
Still, the president demonstrated a rare form of self-insight while simultaneously making it quite clear how jealous he is of the attention and credibility that Dr. Fauci and other Medical professionals on the task force have while he is regarded as leftover chopped liver…without the redeeming qualities of that delicacy.
President Trump asks why Dr. Anthony Fauci has high approval ratings, but he doesn't. He says of Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx: "They are highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality, that's all." https://t.co/Nj065CIsxp pic.twitter.com/R7h647fiQR
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 28, 2020
For once, Trump got one thing right.
Perhaps the scariest moment of the press conference came when the president revealed that he interpreted the recent Supreme Court smacking down his destruction of the DACA program as vastly expanding his powers to rule by executive decree.
"We are going to make DACA happy" — Trump seems to think DACA is a person pic.twitter.com/Pw9sNFyKAp
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2020
While Trump stuck to prepared remarks during the majority of the briefing, his tortuous reading style making for an excitement level usually reserved for observing blades of grass grow in the summer sun, the Q & A session at the end is usually good for a few unscripted moments of note.
Today was no exception, with an inexplicable comment about one African American reporter’s resemblance to Michael Bloomberg (an attempt to prove his color blindness, perhaps?) and a quick exit from the room as soon as the questions started getting too pointed and difficult to answer.
.@kaitlancollins: The woman you say is a 'great doctor' said masks don't work & doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens-
TRUMP: "I can tell you this: She was on air, along with many other doctors, & they were big fans of hydroxychloroquine. I thought she was very impressive" pic.twitter.com/nSui8DOLDL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 28, 2020
You can lead an ass to water, they say, but you can’t make them drink or answer questions, apparently.
Don’t worry, the White House correspondents will get another chance to have Trump avoid answering their questions tomorrow since, with the COVID-19 virus still spreading rapidly, these briefings are the only way Trump can try to reverse his precipitous slide in the polls and address the pandemic failures that caused his personality to be seen as so loathsome by so many people.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Aaron Rupar at Vox.
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