What Chance do Any of Us Have With a Group of Idiots Like the Trump Administration?

Today was the deadliest day in America during the coronavirus crisis, and there was no mention from our incompetent leader.   Before his afternoon press briefing, there was still no indication that Trump had used the National Defense Production Act-- all while hospitals are turning "apocalyptic" due to the onslaught of patients of ongoing critical shortage of hospital supplies.  During the briefing, Trump hinted at "two minor" invocations of the National Defense Production Act, but callously acted like a game show host, keeping it a secret.   Trump also continued in his false claim that "everyone wants to get back to work"-- that is a LIE.  The majority of Americans believe that social distancing/stay-at-home measures should continue and contagious disease scientists and experts also continue to say that it will be many weeks until we have reached the peak of the crisis.    If you think that Trump is the only idiot endangering the lives of Americans, take a look at his cabinet:

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China could be positive for the American economy.  During a TV interview Ross said: "I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America".

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo torpedoed the recent meeting of G-7 leaders by insisting that the group use the Trump administration's preferred racist nomenclature, by labeling COVID-19 the "the Wuhan virus" in any communique.  As Germany's Der Spiegel reports, the other G-7 nations rejected Pompeo's label of COVID-19 as "the Wuhan virus." No medical organization on earth calls it the "Wuhan" or "China" virus, but still the White House is adamant that the world stick with its racist nickname.

"We've wanted to work with the Chinese Communist Party throughout this crisis," Pompeo said at a press conference after the G-7. "We tried, you'll remember, from the opening days to get our scientists, our experts on the ground there so that we could begin to assist in the global response to what began there in China, but we weren't able to do that. The Chinese Communist Party wouldn't permit that to happen."

But that's not what Trump was saying back in January-- he was touting China's marvelous cooperation to keep Americans safe:

And then today, tone-deaf Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin callously waved aside jaw-dropping unemployment numbers, saying that 3.28 million jobless Americans were "irrelevant."

Back on March 10, a group of Democratic senators asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to answer some key questions about her agency’s response to the spread of the novel coronavirus across the country, especially about how it plans to help vulnerable students.  Over two weeks later, the letter has still gone unanswered-- schools nationwide acted unilaterally, and began closing in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

On March 13, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt praised Trump’s declaration of a national emergency and lauded his boss for taking “decisive — even unprecedented — actions to protect the American people” from the coronavirus.  But just two days earlier, Bernhardt’s office had sent talking points to Interior officials that downplayed the virus threat.  “While the situation could change rapidly, the threat to the American public today remains low ... Americans don’t need to change their day-to-day lives but should stay informed and practice good hygiene, stated the two-page memo, which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times.  The March 11 memo closed with language highlighting the strength of the nation’s economy and advice on holding “large scale events (rallies).  If there is an event tomorrow in a place where there is no community spread, I think the judgment to have it might be a good judgment."

On March 18, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced cut backs on processing applications for guest workers from Mexico, which represents 60% of the needed laborers in the U.S.  Fruit and vegetable growers are "bracing for dramatic disruptions to their labor force" because of the guest worker changes, and and anticipate it will soon lead to food shortages.  "There won't be anyone to harvest the crops," said Robert Guenther, senior vice president for public policy at the United Fresh Produce Association. "It will be devastating to growers and ultimately to the supply chain and consumers. They won't have the food."



Alex Azar, the incompetent Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services was sidelined early on by the Trump administration.  HHS overruled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in how infected Americans trapped in Japan were brought back to this country. According to a department whistleblower, HHS also appears to have bollixed its handling of Americans returning from Wuhan, China, leading to community spread of the virus in California.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson was also sidelined early on, after unexpectedly admitting on national TV that Trump had no plan to deal with the docking of The Grand Princess and the 3,500 passengers potentially exposed to coronavirus.

Already on the sidelines is Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, who has no experience in emergency management.  He has been largely absent from meetings with senior officials on the pandemic, and only last Friday raised his hand and said that his agency had over 3,000 medical personnel and unused VA hospital capacity-- but that no one had asked him. 

Chad Wolf, who has also disappeared from Trump's coronavirus briefing, is the acting secretary of Homeland Security.  People wrote him off when he was recently unable to tell a Senate committee how many respirators and protective face masks were available in the United States.  In case you didn't know, administration officials are typically told in advance what questions they'll get at a hearing.

Bottom line: Trump has got a lot of third-stringers running the show and God help us all!