The criticisms of Trump’s early response continued this week… Here is Bill Kristol: February was the lost month to deal with the virus. April, we hope, will be the virus’s cruelest month. But February was the incubation period, the period of presidential misinformation and maladministration that made the disaster of March and April—and everything after—possible.
Throughout most of his press briefings this week Trump has raved against the narrative that he botched the early period of fighting the virus, of which trying to shift blame to the WHO is a part. On Tuesday, the president tried to shift the blame elsewhere, ordering his administration to halt funding for the World Health Organization and claiming the organization made a series of devastating mistakes
Trump announced the US was stopping funds for the WHO: “It is not yet clear how the United States will cut off money to the main international organization focused on fighting the pandemic, or whether Trump is setting conditions for a resumption of U.S. payments.”
The GOP establishment is looking to channel voter anger away from itself onto China, except Trump and some in the White House are balancing that strategy against wanting to continue to court China for favorable trade deals: From the Republican lawmakers blanketing Fox News to new ads from President Trump’s super PAC to the biting criticism on Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter feed, the G.O.P. is attempting to divert attention from the administration’s heavily criticized response to the coronavirus by pinning the blame on China…. Republicans increasingly believe that elevating China as an archenemy culpable for the spread of the virus, and harnessing America’s growing animosity toward Beijing, may be the best way to salvage a difficult election.
At Wednesday’s press conference Trump announced a group of business leaders he said he had enlisted to help him reopen the economy: Advisers said the effort was aimed at building national momentum to reopen much of the country’s economy by next month…. But across the business world, there was private unhappiness with how the White House handled the announcement of the advisory council… Many of the chief executives urged the White House to focus more on mass testing… Some of the groups involved in the calls were notified in advance of Trump’s announcement, while others heard their names for the first time during the Rose Garden event.
Here is the New York Times take: Some business leaders had no idea they were included until they heard that their names had been read in the Rose Garden on Tuesday night by President Trump. Some of those who had agreed to help said they received little information on what, exactly, they were signing up for. And others who were willing to connect with the White House could not participate in hastily organized conference calls on Wednesday because of scheduling conflicts and technical difficulties.
According to this news report: most of the country is not conducting nearly enough testing to track the path and penetration of the coronavirus in a way that would allow Americans to safely return to work.
The small business loan program ran out of money this week, and it has been beset with problems since it launched: “Banks participating in the loan program were given wide discretion over who to lend to, and many chose only to lend to businesses they had existing relationships with. That left many small business owners — including those in minority and underserved communities — unable to borrow because they didn’t have prior ties to a lender or didn’t have a strong enough relationship with their existing lender.”
Here is a good summary of how the courts intervened in the Wisconsin election last Tuesday, and how despite the voting challenges of long socially distancing lines and closed polling places and uncounted absentee ballots, the liberal state supreme court justice was victorious. There is also evidence of an uptick on COVID-19 cases resulting from the election day.
There were small rallies in a few states against the lockdown orders, organized by conservative groups protesting Democratic governors and a few Republicans ones, or government or libertarian groups.
In tweets and statements at his Friday press conference, Trump encouraged the protests: His stark departure from the more bipartisan tone of his announcement on Thursday night suggested Mr. Trump was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic, and choosing instead to divide the country by playing to his political base.
On Thursday the White House released its plan to re-open the country. It is a measured approach that sets some general guidance on criteria before proceeding with a phased re-opening. However: he plan endorses testing, isolation and contact tracing — but does not specify how these measures will be paid for, or how long it will take to put them in place. On Friday, [April 17] none of that stopped the president from contradicting his own message by sending out tweets encouraging protesters in Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia to fight their states’ shutdowns.
According to New York Times interviews with 20 experts: “The scenario that Mr. Trump has been unrolling at his daily press briefings — that the lockdowns will end soon, that a protective pill is almost at hand, that football stadiums and restaurants will soon be full — is a fantasy, most experts said.”
The CDC and FDA admitted on Saturday that lab contamination led to the faulty early tests for COVID-19.
Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, is arguably the leading cause of death in the United States right now. The virus has killed more than 1,800 Americans almost every day since April 7, and the official toll may be an undercount.
Jobless claims continued to increase this week: In the last four weeks, the number of unemployment claims has reached 22 million — roughly the net number of jobs created in a nine-and-a-half-year stretch that began after the last recession and ended with the pandemic’s arrival.
Personal Log: Wearing masks became normalized this week. In the weeks before, you could go to the grocery store or Home Depot and see enough people not wearing masks that you felt a bit self conscious wearing one. No longer. Some places have signs requiring masks. The stores have someone counting customers in the door, and lines form as they limit the number who come in until others leave; we all try to stand six feet apart.
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Trump Approval Rating: 44%
COVID-19 Cases / Deaths: 661,712 / 33,049