Trump’s attempt to improve perceptions of his response by depicting the pandemic as a shock to everyone is just one of numerous ways he has dishonestly described the crisis.Trump claimed Saturday that the situation has been “urgent for me” from the very beginning, citing his late-January decision to restrict travel from China.
But Trump downplayed the severity of the issues facing the US long after that — even as experts were issuing the warnings Trump is now saying did not happen.Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in Wuhan was potentially a global threat.. One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House’s response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US’s lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection. After all, you can have a confirmed case without a test, which requires a test that isn’t available.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who served under former President Barack Obama as director of the US Agency for International Development’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, wrote during the first two months of Trump’s presidency in 2017 about what he argued was Trump’s unpreparedness for the pandemic he warned could be coming. “A major new global health crisis is a question of when, not if,” he wrote in Politico.John Bolton, then Trump’s national security adviser, disbanded the team during a reorganization of the NSC. Bolton tweeted Saturday that it’s “false” that his “streamlining” hurt the country’s “bio defense.” Trump disavowed responsibility on Friday, March 13th for the NSC changes, saying, “I didn’t do it” and “I don’t know anything about it” — though he conceded that “the administration” did. Trump is either responsible or irresponsible. This is his fault. The Trump Plague is his.
But Trump downplayed the severity of the issues facing the US long after that — even as experts were issuing the warnings Trump is now saying did not happen.Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in Wuhan was potentially a global threat.. One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House’s response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US’s lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection. After all, you can have a confirmed case without a test, which requires a test that isn’t available.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who served under former President Barack Obama as director of the US Agency for International Development’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, wrote during the first two months of Trump’s presidency in 2017 about what he argued was Trump’s unpreparedness for the pandemic he warned could be coming. “A major new global health crisis is a question of when, not if,” he wrote in Politico.John Bolton, then Trump’s national security adviser, disbanded the team during a reorganization of the NSC. Bolton tweeted Saturday that it’s “false” that his “streamlining” hurt the country’s “bio defense.” Trump disavowed responsibility on Friday, March 13th for the NSC changes, saying, “I didn’t do it” and “I don’t know anything about it” — though he conceded that “the administration” did. Trump is either responsible or irresponsible. This is his fault. The Trump Plague is his.