The Presidential Events: March 2020

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The month of March was light on non-coronavirus events. Maybe the President and his staff engaged in less outrageous decisions because of the pandemic. Perhaps his activities drew less attention because of the disease. He's said so many outrageous things, it's unlikely he paused for a month. During the last month Trump held near daily press briefings about the coronavirius, but those didn't make the list as well, since they were repetitive, redundant propaganda. It's also possible the Democratic Primary, with its competition between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, monopolized national attention.


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As Joe Biden became the favorite to win the Democratic Primary, Republicans prepared to reinvestigate Hunter Biden to undermine his father.





Under the cover of the pandemic, the White House sought to roll back clean car rules instituted during the Obama administration, allowing for more air pollution and global warming.

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The Coronavirus:
Vice President Pence began the month covering for the President, by claiming that Democrats hoped the coronavirus would kill millions of people to undermine Trump. This didn't stop the President from calling into Fox News and lying about the mortality rate of the coronavirus, how much the United States was testing, and claiming that the flu would kill more people. In fact, the CDC by March 6th had tested fewer than 2,000 people, while South Korea, which had its first case of coronavirus on the same day as the United States, had tested 140,000 citizens. The President seemed interested in downplaying the threat of the coronavirus for political purposes, tweeting, “last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu … At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths.” Then Trump claimed Republicans would create a plan to deal with economic damage, with Pence saying the risk to the American public from the coronavirus remained low. Meanwhile the White House sought to kick 700,000 people off food stamps by tightening work requirements.

As the disease took hold, the President oversaw a press conference in the Rose Garden, and when asked if the slow government reaction was his fault he responded, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” To keep the stock market afloat, the Fed announced 1.5 trillion dollars in short term loans to big banks. Though the President refused to take responsibility, news reports revealed that the President knew more than he admitted. Intelligence officials warned Trump about the threat of coronavirus in early January, but publicly he downplayed the danger. When forced to confront the virus, Trump proscribed an unproven treatment, that when used incorrectly can lead to injury. The President, during one of his near daily press conferences, announced that though the virus had infected 400 people nation wide, “It’s gonna be a victory that, in my opinion, will happen much sooner than originally expected.”

Meanwhile governors rejected the President's public claims he was sending them masks. The President publicly threatened to only help States whose governors agreed to help him politically. It was reminiscent of his behavior during the Ukraine crisis, a withholding of a service in exchange for a political favor. Trump explicitly told Pence, “Don't call the woman in Michigan. If they don't treat you right, I don't call.” He didn't want to help the Democratic Governor of Michigan, and the citizens of the state, because she was a political foe. When Cuomo asked for 30,000 ventilators, the President refused to send them, because he didn't believe New York needed them.

Though the President hosted frequent press conferences, he didn't expressed sympathy with the suffering citizens. When asked serious questions by the media, he interpreted them as personal attacks, and screeched back. When questioned whether his desire to reopen churches and businesses by Easter was for his political benefit, the President replied, “There are people in your profession who write fake news. You do. She does.” In another press conference the President dismissed New York's need for masks, while accusing doctors and nurses of stealing them. During a press conference on March 30th the President paraded a number of corporate allies, such as the CEOs of MyPillow, Proctor & Gamble, and Honeywell to the Rose Garden podium for national PR, as US cases reached 160,000.

But while the President tried to paper over his errors, cases of the coronavirus spiraled upwards. The White House failed their response to the pandemic. The President had to pretend that a response that might result in 200,000 deaths, was “a very good job,” though the likely result (due to social distancing), may be closer to 100,000. Trump may actually believe he is responding well, as leaked audio reported him saying, “I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.”

Under the cover of the coronavirus, the EPA suspended its enforcement of all environmental laws, allowing for mass pollution with no punishment, as long as companies blame the pandemic.



That's all for March. I suspect that the events for April will be much the same, a focus on the increasing pandemic, and the President's attempts to avoid responsibility.

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