Trump's push to shorten coronavirus shutdown
proves the captain is flying blind
To watch Trump is to witness the awesome and
terrifying power of the American president over life and death – a burden he is
unqualified to bear
David Smith
David Smith
in Washington
@smithinamerica
Tue 24 Mar
2020 03.46 GMTLast modified on Tue 24 Mar 2020 14.44 GMT
Due to
social distancing, there were only two dozen or so reporters in the White House
press briefing room on Monday, making it feel like a flight with numerous empty
seats and lots of legroom.
But when
Donald Trump let rip for nearly two hours, it was as if the captain had
announced a sudden whim to land the plane on water while wearing a blindfold.
We sat tight for an unnerving journey.
On a day
that a hundred American deaths were reported, the US president made clear his
intention to reopen the country for business much sooner than expected and,
seemingly, sooner than medical experts believe to be safe. Everything we know
about him suggests this impulse has been guided by Fox News, the Wall Street
Journal, the stock market, poll numbers, the imminent election and pure gut
instinct. Not science.
To watch
Trump talk himself into this rash action in real time from a seat 30 feet (10
metres) away was to witness the awesome and terrifying power of the American
president over life and death. It is a solemn burden that he, the first White
House occupant with no prior political or military experience, is uniquely
unqualified to bear.
“Our
country wasn’t built to be shut down,” he said at the halfway mark of his
planned 15 days to slow the spread advice. “America will again and soon be open
for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody
was suggesting. A lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem
itself.”
Trump
signals change in coronavirus strategy that could clash with health experts
“I’m not
looking at months, I can tell you right now,” he replied.
It
represented yet another violent policy swing. First, Trump told Americans there
was nothing to worry about and the virus would disappear “like a miracle”. Then
he spun 180 degrees and declared himself “a wartime president”, issuing federal
guidelines urging Americans to limit social contact and stay home. Now, it
seems, he is pivoting back to the original position.
Perhaps it
was just coincidence that, on Sunday, Fox News host Steve Hilton told viewers:
“You know that famous phrase, the cure is worse than the disease? That is
exactly the territory we’re hurtling towards… You think it’s just the
coronavirus that kills people? This total economic shutdown will kill people.”
Perhaps it
was also just coincidence that, on Monday, the stock market dropped past its
closing level on 19 January 2017, the day before he took his oath of office.
The entire Trump stock gain is wiped out.
The economy
had been booming with a record number of jobs, he said. “We can’t turn that off
and think it’s going to be wonderful. There’ll be tremendous repercussions.
There will be tremendous death from that. Death. You’re talking about death.
Probably more death from that than anything that we’re talking about with
respect to the virus.”
He pointed
to the depressions and suicides caused by economic recession but did not
present any evidence the death toll would be higher than from the coronavirus.
He did
suggest the mortality rate from the virus is not as bad as initially feared.
“The whole concept of death is terrible,” he said, “but there’s a tremendous
difference between something under 1% and 4 or 5 or even 3%.”
Trump’s
Pollyannish tone was jarring on day that people were dying and hospitals
desperately running short of masks and other equipment. It made for a startling
contrast with the UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, who announced a strict
lockdown in Britain, and the draconian measures in place across Europe. It also
begged the question of whether citizens would sufficiently trust him to feel
safe returning to work or public places and whether state governors would have
the final say in any case.
Senator
Lindsey Graham, usually a Trump loyalist, warned in a tweet: “There is no
functioning economy unless we control the virus.”
But the
president insisted “we can do two things at one time”, adding: “We have a very
active flu season, more active than most. It’s looking like it’s heading to 50,000
or more deaths – deaths, not cases. 50,000 deaths – which is, that’s a lot. And
you look at automobile accidents, which are far greater than any numbers we’re
talking about. That doesn’t mean we’re going to tell everybody no more driving
of cars. So we have to do things to get our country open.”
Yet last
Friday, when the car accident argument was put to Dr Anthony Fauci, director of
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he said: “That’s
totally way out. That’s really a false equivalency … I don’t think with any
moral conscience you could say, ‘Why don’t we just let it rip and happen, and
let X per cent of the people die?’ I don’t understand that reasoning at all.”
Like an
insufficiently loyal apparatchik in the Soviet Union, Fauci was suddenly
nowhere to be seen at Monday night’s briefing. The Guardian asked why. Trump
said: “I was just with him ... he’s at the task force meeting right now.” Does
he agree with you about the need to reopen the economy soon? Trump: “He doesn’t
not agree.”
But the
president was joined by coronavirus task force response coordinator, Deborah
Birx. She noted: “I was not here over the weekend... Saturday, I had a little
low-grade fever...”
Trump
interjected “Uh, oh!” and cartoonishly recoiled to a distance. Attorney General
William Barr smiled devotedly. Birx added: “I got a test late Saturday night
and I am negative.”
Trump gave
an exaggerated, “Phew!” Again Barr smiled. But the room did not erupt in mirth.
The president also mentioned that his wife, Melania, had taken a test that came
back negative.
Barr was on
hand to discuss Trump’s executive order to stop hoarding and price gouging. “If
you have a big supply of toilet paper in your house, this is not something you
have to worry about,” the attorney general said. “But if you are sitting on a
warehouse with masks, surgical masks, you will be hearing a knock on your
door.”
In another
reversal, Trump is dialling back his constant references to the “Chinese virus”
amid media reports of hate crimes against Asian Americans. He said: “It’s very
important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United
States and all around the world. They’re amazing people and the spreading of
the virus is not their fault in any way shape or form.”
The
briefing finished at 8pm. Trump and co-pilot Pence returned to the cockpit.
We’re in for a bumpy flight. Gabriel Sherman, special correspondent at Vanity
Fair magazine, spoke for many when he tweeted: “This is the first time I am
genuinely scared. I must have been in denial before. But that presser changed
everything.”
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