Tag: Donald Trump

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NY Times: Trump Accuses WHO ‘Of Making All The Mistakes He’s Made’

In an effort to diffuse the critiques of his slow and ineffective response to the COVID-19 threat, Donald Trump informed his administration he plans to stop U.S. funding for the World Health Organization saying the off-shoot of the United Nations was at fault for “severely mismanaging and covering up” the spread of the virus worldwide. From the New York Times:

“So much death has been caused by their mistakes,” the president told reporters during a White House briefing.

In effect, Mr. Trump was accusing the world’s leading health organization of making all of the mistakes that he has made since the virus first emerged in China and then spread rapidly. As of Tuesday, there had been about two million cases of the virus worldwide, and nearly 125,000 deaths. In the United States, there have been over 600,000 cases and 25,000 deaths from the virus.

The basis for the president’s anger at the W.H.O. was his contention that it was too quick to believe information about the virus coming from the Chinese government at a time when it should have been more critical. He said the W.H.O. “willingly took China’s assurances to face value” and “pushed China’s misinformation.”

But it was Mr. Trump himself who went out of his way to publicly and repeatedly praise the Chinese government for its handling of the virus at a time at the beginning of the year that his administration was negotiating a trade deal with China.

In March, Trump famously declared, “I don’t take any responsibility at all” for the coronavirus threat. Defending the decision on Fox News, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway embarrassingly declared, “This is COVID-19, not COVID-1 folks, and so you would think the people in charge of the World Health Organization, facts and figures, would be on top of that.” Apparently, no one told Kellyanne the “19” refers to the year 2019, the year the virus appeared. This isn’t the 19th version of the coronavirus. #smh

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Treasury Orders Trump’s Signature Printed On Stimulus Checks

Because nothing says “Vote for me” like a $1,200 check designed to look like it came from the Trumpster himself… From the Washington Post:

The Treasury Department has ordered President Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service is rushing to send to tens of millions of Americans, a process that could slow their delivery by a few days, senior IRS officials said.

The unprecedented decision, finalized late Monday, means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks the IRS is scheduled to begin sending to 70 million Americans in coming days, “President Donald J. Trump” will appear on the left side of the payment.

It will be the first time a president’s name appears on an IRS disbursement, whether a routine refund or one of the handful of checks the government has issued to taxpayers in recent decades either to stimulate a down economy or share the dividends of a strong one.

The Post goes on to note that standard practice is to have a civil servant sign checks from the federal government in order to avoid any appearance of partisanship.

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White House Press Briefing Turns Into #TrumpMeltdown

Please note the chyron by CNN (screen capture)
Donald Trump held another of his propaganda rallies White House press briefings on the coronavirus threat today, and it didn’t go well. At one point, he claimed he has “total authority” as president to do what he wants like re-open all the businesses in the country when he wants to. Mind you, it’s the governors of each state that has made the decisions to announce stay-at-home orders, but now the Donald says he can do what he wants when he wants because “the Constitution says so.”

Then, he got into another heated exchange when he was asked what it was he was doing during the month of February regarding the COVID-19 threat (answer: basically not much). Paula Reid of CBS News does not back down here.

“OMG Trump” and #TrumpMeltdown are now trending on Twitter. I’ll also mention it became apparent during today’s press briefing that the writer of CNN’s chyron has zero fucks left to give.

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Trump’s Favorite Poll Shows His Approval Rating At 6-Month Low

Trump walks past reporters with no comment

Trump walks past reporters with no comment
Donald Trump (image via public domain/White House)
The latest results from Donald Trump’s favorite polling outlet, Rasmussen Reports, shows the Donald’s approval rating declining to a six month low of 43 percent. The survey, released Friday, found that 56 percent of voters disapprove of Trump’s job performance. In the past, Trump has cheered Rasmussen as “one of the most accurate” polling companies in the game. Those numbers mirror what’s happening at the Real Clear Politics average of polls where Trump scored his best-ever approval high of 47.3 percent on March 31 only to tumble to 44.9 percent in the days afterward. Rasmussen’s results have been an up/down adventure as Trump’s approval tends to rise in the middle of weeks only to decline again as new reports of record unemployment claims bring the new reality into focus again and again.

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Fact-Check: Trump Says U.S. Has ‘Best’ COVID-19 Testing System (Nope)

L-R CNN’s Jim Acosta, Donald Trump
From NowThis News:

During a White House press briefing, Donald Trump said the U.S. doesn’t need nationwide testing before sending people back to work. Watch CNN’s Jim Acosta challenge President Trump on his COVID-19 testing claim.

The U.S. does not have the ‘best’ testing system. As of April 1, dozens of countries have far higher testing rates including Germany, Italy, Norway, S. Korea, Canada, Australia, & Estonia.

The White House had promised to conduct 27 million tests by the end of March. As of April 9, Trump himself told the press only 2 million tests had been administered. Based on those 2 million tests, the U.S. is testing approximately 6 people per thousand. Countries like South Korea and Germany are triple that rate. In the same exchange between Acosta and Trump, the Donald told the CNN journalist, “You shouldn’t be asking that kind of a question … it is very insulting to a lot of great people.” Journalists ask questions. It’s literally their job. People who are on point don’t get defensive when asked questions. They have answers.

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Campaign Ad: “Distracted”

A pretty devastating new ad from The Lincoln Project: “Trump says his own impeachment “distracted” him from the #Coronavirus response. Let’s be clear: He was never distracted. He just didn’t care.”

 

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Poll: Biden Leads Trump By 6 Points In Vital Swing State

L-R Former Vice President Joe Biden, Donald Trump
A new poll by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab shows Donald Trump’s mixed messages and slow response to the ongoing coronavirus health threat is having a negative impact on his standing with voters in the vital swing-state of Florida. Pollsters found that 55% said the federal government has not gone far enough in taking action against COVID-19. The poll found 45% strongly or somewhat approve of the job Trump is doing to address the pandemic, while a majority of 53% disapprove. Asked if the election were held today, who voters would support for president, former Vice President Joe Biden trumped Trump by six points, 46% to 40%. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the president’s top health advisor, scored the highest rating with 85% approval and 6% disapproval among registered Florida voters.

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Jake Tapper To Trump: ‘This Isn’t About Winning A News Cycle’

CNN’s Jake Tapper addressed Donald Trump directly today on-air asking questions many Americans – like myself – would like answered.

“If I can take a moment, I would like to speak directly to one person known to watch this show, or at least clips of this show, President Trump.

“Mr. President, I know you, like millions of Americans, are eager to have the nation go back to some semblance of normal. One of the questions the American people need answered for that to happen responsibly: What’s the plan?

“Is there a plan for widespread testing of every American so as to isolate the virus — the way other countries have done? When will there be enough tests for that to happen? How will they be administered? Who will pay for the tests and the results? Who will notify us as to whether we’ve tested positive or not and what to do then?

[snip]

“This isn’t about winning a news cycle on Fox, please. The American people right now need someone to explain what is going to be done to get us out of this. It’s a moment that requires leadership. It requires honest information. It requires empathy. And it requires a plan. Do you have one?”

Sadly, I think we know the answers to those questions.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Trump Goes On Attack After Question About Jared Kushner’s “Our Stockpile” Comment

On Thursday, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (you know, the one solving the Middle East conflict) made a perplexing remark about the stockpile of medical equipment housed by the federal government. “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” Kushner said. “It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.” Folks were confused as to what differentiates the federal “our” stockpile from what would/should be used by states. It almost sounded like Kushner was saying the stockpile was for the Trump clan or the Trump administration to do with it as they wished. The federal government IS the United States of America. It exists primarily to keep the citizens of all states and U.S. territories safe. If the stockpile isn’t meant for states to use, then who would be using it? And why is anyone at this point in time even using the word “OUR” in regard to anything? Then on Friday (via CBS News):

When CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang pressed the president on what Kushner meant by “our,” he dismissed the question as a “gotcha.”

“‘Our, our’ — it means the United States of America,” the president said.

Mr. Trump said the stockpile is needed for the “federal government,” to keep for the country “because the federal government needs it, too, not just the states.”

The president accused Jiang of using a “nasty” tone in her question.

Governors have implored the president to provide them more ventilators and other much-needed equipment, but the president has repeatedly put the blame on the states for not stocking up on the equipment themselves.

Basically, Kushner misspoke. And in the Trump administration handbook, rather than say, “He misspoke,” everyone has to act like the response was “perfect” and they are stuck defending a stupid comment.

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The Daily Show: Supercut Of Fox News’ COVID-19 Coverage

Remember when COVID-19 was declared a “Democratic hoax” by Donald Trump? Remember when all of Fox News fell over itself to announce we had practically “nothing to fear” from the virus? Pete Hegseth on Fox & Friends: “The more I learn about coronavirus, the less concerned I am.” Man, how I’d love to hear what they think about their dumb AF comments today. But, come to think of it, they probably still believe them. From The Daily Show with Trevor Noah:

Hannity. Rush. Dobbs. Ingraham. Pirro. Nunes. Tammy. Geraldo. Doocy. Hegseth. Schlapp. Siegel. Watters. Dr. Drew. Henry. Ainsley. Gaetz. Inhofe. Pence. Kudlow. Conway. Trump.

Today, we salute the Heroes of the Pandumbic.