SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
This is not leadership. This is the exact opposite of leadership. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump's Failed Coronavirus Response
At every point, Trump has used this crisis to compliment himself.
Apr 15, 2020
The Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been a deliberate disaster from the beginning. But don't take my word for it - just look at the facts.
Here's the timeline:
In 2018, he let the pandemic-preparedness office in the National Security Council simply dissolve, and followed up with budget cuts to HHS and CDC this year. That team's job was to follow a pandemic playbook written after global leaders fumbled their response to Ebola in 2014. Trump was briefed on the playbook's existence in his first year - had he listened, the government would've started getting equipment to doctors two months ago.
The initial outbreak of the coronavirus began in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019.
By mid-January, 2020, the White House had intelligence reports that warned of a likely pandemic.
On January 18th, HHS Secretary Azar spoke with Trump to emphasize the threat of the virus just as US Diplomats were being evacuated from Wuhan.
Two days later, the virus was confirmed in both the US and South Korea.
That week, South Korean officials immediately drafted medical companies to develop test kits for mass production. The WHO declared a global health emergency. But Trump ... did nothing.
As Hubei Province went on lockdown, Trump, who loves any excuse to enact a racist travel ban, barred entry of any foreigners coming from China (it was hardly proactive) but took no additional steps to prepare for infection in the United States.
He said, "We pretty much shut it down, coming in from China,"
He didn't ramp up production of test kits so we could begin isolating the virus.
By February, the US had 14 confirmed cases but the CDC test kits proved faulty; there weren't enough of them, and they were restricted to only people showing symptoms. The US pandemic response was already failing.
Trump then began actively downplaying the crisis and baselessly predicting it would go away when the weather got warmer.
Trump decided there was nothing to see here, and on February 24th, took time out of his day to remind us that the stock markets were soaring.
A day later, CDC officials sounded the alarm that daily life could be severely disrupted. The window to get ahead of the virus by testing and containment was closing.
Trump's next move: He compared Coronavirus to the seasonal flu...and called the emerging crisis a hoax by the Democrats.
With 100 cases in the US, Trump declined to call for a national emergency.
Meanwhile, South Korea was now on its way to testing a quarter-million people, while the US was testing 40 times slower.
When a cruise ship containing Americans with coronavirus floated toward San Francisco, Trump said he didn't want people coming off the ship to be tested because they'd make the numbers look bad.
It wasn't until the stock market reacted to the growing crisis and took a nosedive that Trump finally declared a national emergency.
By this time, South Korea had been using an app for over a month that pulled government data to track cases and alert users to stay away from infected areas.
Over the next weeks, as the virus began its exponential spread across the US, and Governors declared states of emergency, closing schools and workplaces and stopping the American economy in its tracks - Trump passed on every opportunity to get ahead of this crisis.
Trump's priority was never public health. It was about making the virus seem like less of a nuisance so that the "numbers" would "look good" for his reelection.
Only when the stock market crashed did Trump finally begin to pay attention...and mostly to bailing out corporations in the form of a massive $500 billion slush fund, rather than to helping people. And then, with much of America finally and belatedly in lockdown, he said at a Fox News town hall that he would "love" to have the country "opened up, and just raring to go" by Easter.
At every point, Trump has used this crisis to compliment himself.
This is not leadership. This is the exact opposite of leadership.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Robert Reich
Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."
The Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been a deliberate disaster from the beginning. But don't take my word for it - just look at the facts.
Here's the timeline:
In 2018, he let the pandemic-preparedness office in the National Security Council simply dissolve, and followed up with budget cuts to HHS and CDC this year. That team's job was to follow a pandemic playbook written after global leaders fumbled their response to Ebola in 2014. Trump was briefed on the playbook's existence in his first year - had he listened, the government would've started getting equipment to doctors two months ago.
The initial outbreak of the coronavirus began in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019.
By mid-January, 2020, the White House had intelligence reports that warned of a likely pandemic.
On January 18th, HHS Secretary Azar spoke with Trump to emphasize the threat of the virus just as US Diplomats were being evacuated from Wuhan.
Two days later, the virus was confirmed in both the US and South Korea.
That week, South Korean officials immediately drafted medical companies to develop test kits for mass production. The WHO declared a global health emergency. But Trump ... did nothing.
As Hubei Province went on lockdown, Trump, who loves any excuse to enact a racist travel ban, barred entry of any foreigners coming from China (it was hardly proactive) but took no additional steps to prepare for infection in the United States.
He said, "We pretty much shut it down, coming in from China,"
He didn't ramp up production of test kits so we could begin isolating the virus.
By February, the US had 14 confirmed cases but the CDC test kits proved faulty; there weren't enough of them, and they were restricted to only people showing symptoms. The US pandemic response was already failing.
Trump then began actively downplaying the crisis and baselessly predicting it would go away when the weather got warmer.
Trump decided there was nothing to see here, and on February 24th, took time out of his day to remind us that the stock markets were soaring.
A day later, CDC officials sounded the alarm that daily life could be severely disrupted. The window to get ahead of the virus by testing and containment was closing.
Trump's next move: He compared Coronavirus to the seasonal flu...and called the emerging crisis a hoax by the Democrats.
With 100 cases in the US, Trump declined to call for a national emergency.
Meanwhile, South Korea was now on its way to testing a quarter-million people, while the US was testing 40 times slower.
When a cruise ship containing Americans with coronavirus floated toward San Francisco, Trump said he didn't want people coming off the ship to be tested because they'd make the numbers look bad.
It wasn't until the stock market reacted to the growing crisis and took a nosedive that Trump finally declared a national emergency.
By this time, South Korea had been using an app for over a month that pulled government data to track cases and alert users to stay away from infected areas.
Over the next weeks, as the virus began its exponential spread across the US, and Governors declared states of emergency, closing schools and workplaces and stopping the American economy in its tracks - Trump passed on every opportunity to get ahead of this crisis.
Trump's priority was never public health. It was about making the virus seem like less of a nuisance so that the "numbers" would "look good" for his reelection.
Only when the stock market crashed did Trump finally begin to pay attention...and mostly to bailing out corporations in the form of a massive $500 billion slush fund, rather than to helping people. And then, with much of America finally and belatedly in lockdown, he said at a Fox News town hall that he would "love" to have the country "opened up, and just raring to go" by Easter.
At every point, Trump has used this crisis to compliment himself.
This is not leadership. This is the exact opposite of leadership.
Robert Reich
Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."
The Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic has been a deliberate disaster from the beginning. But don't take my word for it - just look at the facts.
Here's the timeline:
In 2018, he let the pandemic-preparedness office in the National Security Council simply dissolve, and followed up with budget cuts to HHS and CDC this year. That team's job was to follow a pandemic playbook written after global leaders fumbled their response to Ebola in 2014. Trump was briefed on the playbook's existence in his first year - had he listened, the government would've started getting equipment to doctors two months ago.
The initial outbreak of the coronavirus began in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019.
By mid-January, 2020, the White House had intelligence reports that warned of a likely pandemic.
On January 18th, HHS Secretary Azar spoke with Trump to emphasize the threat of the virus just as US Diplomats were being evacuated from Wuhan.
Two days later, the virus was confirmed in both the US and South Korea.
That week, South Korean officials immediately drafted medical companies to develop test kits for mass production. The WHO declared a global health emergency. But Trump ... did nothing.
As Hubei Province went on lockdown, Trump, who loves any excuse to enact a racist travel ban, barred entry of any foreigners coming from China (it was hardly proactive) but took no additional steps to prepare for infection in the United States.
He said, "We pretty much shut it down, coming in from China,"
He didn't ramp up production of test kits so we could begin isolating the virus.
By February, the US had 14 confirmed cases but the CDC test kits proved faulty; there weren't enough of them, and they were restricted to only people showing symptoms. The US pandemic response was already failing.
Trump then began actively downplaying the crisis and baselessly predicting it would go away when the weather got warmer.
Trump decided there was nothing to see here, and on February 24th, took time out of his day to remind us that the stock markets were soaring.
A day later, CDC officials sounded the alarm that daily life could be severely disrupted. The window to get ahead of the virus by testing and containment was closing.
Trump's next move: He compared Coronavirus to the seasonal flu...and called the emerging crisis a hoax by the Democrats.
With 100 cases in the US, Trump declined to call for a national emergency.
Meanwhile, South Korea was now on its way to testing a quarter-million people, while the US was testing 40 times slower.
When a cruise ship containing Americans with coronavirus floated toward San Francisco, Trump said he didn't want people coming off the ship to be tested because they'd make the numbers look bad.
It wasn't until the stock market reacted to the growing crisis and took a nosedive that Trump finally declared a national emergency.
By this time, South Korea had been using an app for over a month that pulled government data to track cases and alert users to stay away from infected areas.
Over the next weeks, as the virus began its exponential spread across the US, and Governors declared states of emergency, closing schools and workplaces and stopping the American economy in its tracks - Trump passed on every opportunity to get ahead of this crisis.
Trump's priority was never public health. It was about making the virus seem like less of a nuisance so that the "numbers" would "look good" for his reelection.
Only when the stock market crashed did Trump finally begin to pay attention...and mostly to bailing out corporations in the form of a massive $500 billion slush fund, rather than to helping people. And then, with much of America finally and belatedly in lockdown, he said at a Fox News town hall that he would "love" to have the country "opened up, and just raring to go" by Easter.
At every point, Trump has used this crisis to compliment himself.
This is not leadership. This is the exact opposite of leadership.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.