Trump held another horrible press briefing late yesterday. Trump started off by talking about repatriating two groups of young Americans in Peru and Honduras.
He then announced that Rand Paul had tested positive for coronavirus-- but it's not clear how he got tested, since he is not symptomatic and the CDC is preventing the average American from getting tested unless they show symptoms. It was later reported the Rand Paul was in the Senate gym earlier Sunday, even though he was tested on Saturday and show have been home under self-quarantine.
While spelling out specific statistics on the federal response, Trump digressed to say that he has very high poll ratings among military veterans.
Trump announced that Major Disaster Declarations have been approved for New York and Washington with approval for California to come. No details on why these declarations have taken so long or when the California declaration will come. Don't these White House guys work weekends or overtime?
Trump then repeated accusations that he has made in the past that any problems are not down to him but rather than the “broken” system he inherited.
Trump resumed his criticism of China, saying he wished China “had told us three months sooner” about coronavirus. He adds that “we could have saved a lot of lives.” No one thought to mention that CNN and MSNBC had been reporting on the outbreak in China as far back as early December.
As news broke that the Senate failed to advance the coronavirus bill, Trump said the economic stimulus package is important so U.S. companies can be helped (no mention about workers). Trump was then asked if he would reach out to former presidents for advice. Trump said that he has an “incredible” team already and he “doesn’t see” a situation where he would reach out to George W Bush or Barack Obama.
Trump complained that no one said “thank you” after he gave away his salary as the US president. “I get excoriated all the time,” he says. What this has to do with a global pandemic is unclear.
Callously joked about Mitt Romney being in quarantine-- which is especially despicable, given that Romney's wife has an underlying medical condition which could prove FATAL if she catches the virus. What the fuck is wrong with this narcissistic jerk?
Trump was asked if he sold stock in the run up to the outbreak, as several other Republicans have done. He describes it as a “nasty” question. He goes into a rambling answer even by his own standards. “It cost me billions of dollars to be president,” he says before praising Melania as a great first lady and a then segues into a riff about the fact that George Washington had two desks, presumably a reference to the fact that he was the president and a businessman. Trump then adds he is now a “wartime” president. “I’m glad that this team and me are here for this horrible thing,” he says.
in the meantime, Pete Gaynor, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (who is supposed to be coordinating the federal government’s coronavirus pandemic response), appeared on a variety of Sunday talk shows and managed to sidestep question after question about how many masks are actually being sent to hospitals across the nation as healthcare workers plea for supplies on not one, but two major Sunday shows.
The Trump administration has continued to do very little to help states hard-hit by the virus. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker blasted Trump, saying "Get to work or get out of the way."
The basics: People are still getting turned away for testing, hospitals are still critically short of medical supplies, there is still not national lockdown and the national government has still not invoked the National Defense Production Act and nationalize the supply chain so that individual states aren't competing against one another bidding up the prices of previous medical supplies.
In early overnight trading, Dow futures started tanking immediately after the Trump press briefing.
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