Day 1,144: As Trump plays more golf, even White House aides are criticizing his coronavirus response
Donald Trump visited one of his golf courses for the 264th time on Sunday, representing an astounding 23% of his days in office.
As the world is trying to fight off a potential coronavirus pandemic, Trump is trying to fight off the wind to hit a pitching wedge onto the green.
Even the White House is getting tired of defending their boss.
White House officials are growing increasingly frustrated at what they see as President Donald Trump’s consistent bids to downplay the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, a tendency that has led to a clash in messaging with public health officials.
Those mixed signals were on display Sunday as the top infectious disease doctor at the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci, warned the elderly and medically vulnerable to avoid large crowds and long trips or cruises and Surgeon General Jerome Adams told the public to be prepared for more cases and deaths.
But the message Sunday morning from Trump on Twitter was praise for his administration’s response, which he called a “perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan,” and blame for the media, which he said was “doing everything possible to make us look bad.”
Trump is (falsely) trying to blame the media for exaggerating facts and figures surrounding the coronavirus, which he has (falsely) called a hoax. Meanwhile, top scientists, including many in the government, are trying to use the media to spread information and potentially save lives.
Try as they might, White House officials are basically giving up on trying to get Trump to understand the direness of the situation. Trump only cares about the political implications of the disease, not American lives.
Multiple sources familiar with the discussions acknowledged that Trump is simply not on the same wavelength as the rest of his team, but they said there isn’t much they can do to change his public tone. Trump has been advised by some close to him to let public health officials, rather than the politicians, take a more forward-facing role, according to a person familiar with the conversation. But a person close to the White House said Trump thinks it helps him politically to keep doing what he has been doing.
That has left aides feeling discouraged over their efforts to get out a more comprehensive message about what needs to be done to prepare the public for likely hardships and major changes to their daily lives that could be ahead, said one White House official.
To truly understand how Trump’s tone and urgency differs from medical professions, here is an example of a Trump tweet about coronavirus…
…and one from his former FDA commissioner.
One chooses to try and sow division, the other tries to warn the public of the life and death issues at hand.
The White House isn’t happy with Trump. Medical professionals aren’t happy with Trump. And now even Republicans in Congress aren’t happy with Trump.
The lack of urgency from Trump, months after the coronavirus was known to be a potential threat to Americans’ health and interests, is now costing Americans their lives. Unsurprisingly, Trump remains more concerned about his 2020 re-election prospects and the stock market (and playing golf) than anything else.
1,144 days in, 318 to go
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