Is the Coronavirus situation nothing more than a reality television-style debacle to President Donald Trump? Perhaps. Early this Saturday, he announced on Twitter that he’d be having an early afternoon press conference to discuss what he called the “latest CoronaVirus developments.” What are these developments? What aspects of the situation will he be discussing? What topics will he cover? Who knows. He’s decided to treat a potentially grave public health issue like a television teaser.
Besides a post of a video montage from his South Carolina rally held this week, he tweeted:
‘I will be having a 1:30 P.M. Press Conference at the White House to discuss the latest CoronaVirus developments. Thank you!’
THANK YOU SOUTH CAROLINA! pic.twitter.com/7i5BYCQfg8
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 29, 2020
I will be having a 1:30 P.M. Press Conference at the White House to discuss the latest CoronaVirus developments. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 29, 2020
The press conference will be the second on the topic in a matter of days featuring the president. His first was on Wednesday, when he announced that the unqualified Vice President Mike Pence would be coordinating virus response efforts.
This time around, the press conference will come shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that “state public health authorities are monitoring four new presumptive positive cases of the novel coronavirus as of late Friday evening,” as Axios summarizes. Those cases include a second possible community-transmitted case in California, one case in Oregon, and two cases in Washington, at least one of which might also be community-transmitted.
Besides the brute facts of the virus’s spread, other issues include the wildly contorting stock market and serious questions about the preparedness of U.S. public health infrastructure to deal with possible further virus spread. Trump has attempted to blame the stock market fluctuations on Democrats, and he’s accused journalists covering the situation of conspiring to make him look bad. In other words, no matter what he says, he’s not exactly well-prepared to inspire confidence.
Check out Twitter’s response…
