Trump's peddling of false hope is not helping

At White House coronavirus briefings, rescue efforts are extensive but often aspirational
By
Isaac Stanley-Becker and
Nick Miroff
April 9, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. PDT
**SNIP**

Bad news tends to build up on pandemic days right until prime time, when President Trump and the coronavirus task force gather in the White House briefing room to tamp it down.

There, from the podium, generous quantities of medical supplies are distributed. The innovative forces of American science and industry are marshaling to defeat the enemy and make testing widely available. The economy gets the intensive care it needs for America to quickly recover. The “medical war,” as Trump calls it, is being won.

These pronouncements and pledges have turned out, again and again, to be a description of the administration’s aspirational response to the pandemic, not the one doctors, nurses and stricken families are reporting from the front.

That is where emergency responders and hospitals are dangerously low on protective gear, and where widespread, rapid testing for the virus in retail parking lots is not, in fact, a reality. Where millions of small business owners are struggling to get federal assistance they need to stave off collapse and where millions of people are newly unemployed and fearing ruin.

“LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!” Trump tweeted at the start of the week, without elaborating on the source of that optimism. The president had picked the Easter holiday this Sunday as his target to reopen the country during a briefing two weeks ago, acknowledging days later that his “beautiful timeline” was “aspirational.”

“I’m a cheerleader for the country,” Trump has said when asked why he has played down the threat and his sunnier predictions have not come true.

While all crisis leaders have to chart a delicate course between comforting the nation and providing reliable information to its citizens, the president and his top political aides have repeatedly used the nationally televised briefings to describe efforts and actions that have not panned out.

Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden nearly four weeks ago with top supermarket and pharmacy executives to announce a Google-powered testing system that Americans could access in store parking lots from the convenience of their automobiles. Such a system — which would be a critical step in the effort to assess the virus’ impact and ultimately to reopen the country — remains in its earliest stages.
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So Trump now thinks his job is to be a cheerleader?
With us approaching almost 16,000 Americans dead as of this moment, I would think being a cheerleader is the last thing we need. Now I do understand why he thinks that's his job since he has been criticized as lacking the necessary character traits to drumup some sort of empathy, but what we need now is follow-thru....that thing he does most of the time while golfing.


He's doing more harm by selling this false hope.

Trump's true colors are on full display.

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Yea he should come out and say it's all helpless there is nothing we can so do everyone go home and die.

 

More harm to what? His reelection, and his legacy is all he cares about. It is unclear if he is hurting those yet. And, his sick o phants, still glorify his name, and pray to him to advance their agenda.

 

Thanks for your knee jerk response and dismissal. You followed through as expected.

 

Yes, his re-election is all that he cares about, but how long are we going to allow him to have this horse and pony show while people die?

Doctors and nurses are struggling without PPE and ventilators and all we get is hope and promises.

How bad does it have to get before we start demanding accountability?

 

I really hope our tax dollars didn't pay for that cheesy 'art' in the OP, seeing as that's a liberal priority in a crisis...

 

Why don't you take up some of his greatest hits?

- The warm weather will get rid of the virus.
- It'll disappear like a miracle.
- The situation is completely under control.

And then he could call on the beautiful - and skilled - Kayleigh McEnany, the new press secretary:

"We won't see coronavirus here...."

 

Trump is a scammer. He’ll say anything to any one at any time to sell a bogus idea that helps him regardless of its affect on anyone else.

 

Sounds like it's helping a lot...people are quite encouraged...and it's looking like it's not going to be nearly as bad as many on the left suggested it was gonna be. In fact, while Trump was hoping to get the nation back to work by Easter....it's starting to actually look like that might be a diffferent, but very important milestone....that might be when the apex is hit and we start coming down as a nation.

Why have the models changed so much? Because citizens are actually following the guidelines the Trump admin put out there....great stuff.

 

I think Trump is encouraging to his base, and it works, for his base. That's probably why we're seeing all the threads for hydroxychloroquine and how much of a miracle drug it is. But for everyone else? He's not inspiring. He doesn't unite.

 

We're talking now not two months ago, so he's supposed to come out and squelch all hope and tell people to just go home and die?

 

So what's he supposed to do tell everyone it is hopeless and if he did what would be the response?

 

They simply hate America and everything it stands for.

Christianity......Freedom.....Self reliance......Capitalism......FAIR and EQUAL Rule of Law

Instead, they demand Atheism, Controlled Citizenship, Government dependence, Socialism and Rule by the few THEY deem worthy. (it's why they embrace Communism)

So they will never, ever give up the fight to destroy America regardless of the consequences to themselves.

 

What the hell are you referring to?

 

Two months ago, Trump lied to the public.

It's what he does best.

He knew the risks very well and ignored them for political reasons.

And his entire team relayed his propaganda.

Make all the excuses you want, Trump will still pay a huge political price for what he did.

 

Shove that STRAIGHT up your Trump/.

 

Can you ever unite if you've never bothered to try? No, serious question, look deep into your heart and ask if you've tried to unite in these 3 years?

 

His defeat is all the LW cares about, which explains their extreme pessimism. If they were in the UK in WWII they'd be calling for surrender.

 

Well said. That's why they defend China, heck Biden said last year they're not bad people.

 

More like, if we were in NAZI Germany, we would call for our own defeat.

 

He never lied but this is the now, is he supposed to come out and tell everyone it is hopeless yes or no?

 

Early models had up to 2.5 million dead... Are you saying 16k should not be in that scenario applauded? Or do you rely on opinion blogs and memes?

 

I expect him to be a LEADER, or at the very least appoint someone as the leader and step away.

The last time we had a crisis close to being this big was Katrina, and at least GW Bush eventually (because Brown was not cutting it) put Lt. General Russel L. Honoré in place to be the point person.

We NEED a Task force Czar to handle this Coronavirus, because Trump's peddling is way more than a distraction, it is a dangerous hindrance.

 

Two months ago Trump and his Admin relied on the information from WHO... Are you suggesting that was a mistake?

 

Gone are the days when Trumpsters could take voters for fools.

Trump is a compulsive liar and the way he has handled this crisis is outrageous.

There'll be a price to pay for that.

No matter what he does today, it's too late. Fewer and fewer people believe him anyway.