Originally posted on June 20, 2020
March 2. Trump presses pharmaceutical CEOs to say a vaccine will be ready in a matter of months. They demur. Regardless, at yet another rally, he says that drug companies are “going to have vaccines I think relatively soon. And they’re going to have something that makes you better, and that’s going to actually take place we think even sooner.” And: “The U. S. is right now ranked by far number one in the world for preparedness.” And: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4. On Hannity: “A lot of people will have this, and it’s very mild. They will get better very rapidly. So, if we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work – some of them go to work, but they get better. It’s not that severe.”
March 5. Trump: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work. That is just more Fake News and disinformation put out by the Democrats.” Meanwhile, Pence says: “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.” But, but I thought on February 26 he said everybody who needed a test could get one.
March 6. Regardless of what Pence said on the 5th, Trump: “Anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.” He also says he would like to keep the Grand Princess, with its 700 cases, off the California coast so the official case count doesn’t rise. “I like the numbers where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.” There’s apparently no thought at all of the people on the ship. And bizarrely: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 8. Golfing at Trump International. Saying: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus.”
March 9. Tweets: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” And: “The Fake News Media & their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power to inflame the Coronavirus situation.” Dow drops 2000 points.
March 10. Says: “We’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 11. The WHO declares a pandemic. The NBA suspends its season. Trump announces he will suspend travel from Europe, except the UK and U.S. citizens.
March 12. Trump claims that travelers to the U.S. are being tested. This is not true. Dow drops 2300 points.
March 13. The U.S. declares a national emergency. asked if he takes responsibility for the testing delays, he responds: “Yeah, no, I don’t take responsibility at all.” When asked why he disbanded the White House pandemic office in 2018: “I just think it’s a nasty question…And when you say ‘me’ I didn’t do it.
March 15. Trump: “This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something we have tremendous control over.” He also tweets: “The individual Governors of States, and local officials, must step up their efforts on drive up testing and testing sights [sites]…” Apparently he is preparing to blame someone, anyone else for his failures.
March 16. Dow drops nearly 3000 points. Trump announces new social distancing recommendations. Epidemiologists estimate that tens of thousands of lives might have been saved if he had acted sooner, by a little as a week. Asked how he thought he was doing: “I think we’ve done a great job.” One can only wonder just what a bad job would look like.
March 17. Trump: “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic…I’ve always viewed it as very serious.” One can only wonder just how he would view something not very seriously.
March 18. Trump: “I’ve always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning.” Could it be that, as the consequences of his own failures become more evident, he instinctively starts looking around for someone else to blame, in spite of his previous praise of the Chinese?
March 19. Trump passes responsibility to the governors to obtain whatever supplies and equipment they need, saying: “We’re not a shipping clerk.” This looks like a continuation of blaming everyone else. He also introduces hydroxychloroquine as a potential covid-19 cure, incorrectly stating that the FDA has approved it for such.
March 21. Tweets: “HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.” This is not only unproven, it is even dangerous.
March 23. An Arizona man dies after trying to follow Trump’s medical advice.
March 24. Trump: “I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” I’m sure he would, regardless of the price paid by his constituents.
March 26. The U.S. now has more reported cases than any other country. Trump: “We’ve now established great testing…We’ve tested now more than anybody.” And: “This is something that nobody has ever thought could happen to this country.” Both of these, like a lot of what Trump says, are untrue.
March 27. Trump signs the CARES act, a $2T stimulus package. He promises 100,000 ventilators after invoking the defense Protection Act, when the adults in the room say maybe 30,000 by June. In echos of the Ukraine mess he says governors: “should be appreciative” of him and has told Pence not to call those who: “don’t treat you right.”
March 29. Trump says that if the death toll is between 100,000 and 200,000 then he has done a good job.
March 30. On a call with the governors, Trump: “I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.” Are his underlings so afraid of bringing him bad news? Everybody else in the country was aware of this problem.
March 31. Deaths in NJ and NY double in 3 days. Trump: “I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached, okay? And I think that’s a great tribute to something, maybe it’s a tribute to me…”
