Donald Trump appeared on camera talking about the cruise ship moored two and one-half miles off-shore from California. There were 19 people on board who had the virus, and 17 of those individuals were crew members. The ship was a floating Petri dish with almost 3,000 passengers, but Trump did not want to let the ship offload.
He said he preferred to keep the people on board the ship, not for their own safety, but to keep the confirmed case numbers down. That showed Trump’s thinking when it came to other human beings. Given that, how could people feel sympathy for the super germaphobe?
The president has been trying to manage the coronavirus (COVID-19) story, but the outbreak will not be stuffed into a control box. It has a mind of its own and will go where it wants. However, there were plenty of suggestions about how to handle the situation.
POTUS worried according to an article in The Vanity Fair:
‘Privately, he worries about virus-carrying journalists on Air Force One. But cancel his rallies? “I’m not going to do it,” he says.’
Coronavirus sprung forth in China, but now there were 34 U.S. states with documented cases of coronavirus by Monday morning. The White House has known about the pandemic since January. The stock markets took huge dives overnight, causing the Dow Jones to circuit break several times Monday, when it lost seven percent of its value. That has not happened since the not-so-great depression in 2008.
A former West Wing official told Vanity Fair:
‘He is trying to control the narrative and he can’t.’
This president has the warped idea that the press is always out to get him. So his automatic response in a morning tweet was:
‘So much FAKE NEWS!’
Trump continued tweeting:
”Justice (should) open investigations of the media for market manipulation.’
The commander-in-chief has also been frustrated, because he wanted his administration to handle the new cycle on the virus and the economy. A source near the White House said:
‘He’s very frustrated he doesn’t have a good team around him.’
Last week White House official Larry Kudlow refused Trump’s request that he hold an on-camera press briefing, sources said:
‘Larry didn’t want to have to take questions about coronavirus.’
Trump hated the way he looked on camera during a Fox News town hall meeting last Thursday. A source familiar with the conversation said:
‘Trump said afterwards that the lighting was bad. We need Bill Shine back in here. Bill would never allow this.’
Trump was wearing his “Keep America Great” cap and told reporters:
‘People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors say, “How do you know so much about this?” Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should’ve done that instead of running for president.’
Then, the president pivoted to the “Ukraine shakedown:”
‘The [coronavirus] tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect.’
One former official noted:
‘There’s very little that fazes anyone now.’
Another individual thought the press conference went badly:
‘He’s (Trump) just now waking up to the fact that this is bad, and he doesn’t know how to respond.’
Apparently, POTUS is “terrified about getting the virus.” Former Republican aide Sam Nunberg explained the Ebola situation in 2014:
‘Donald is a famous germaphobe. He hates it if someone is eating nachos and dips a chip back in after taking a bite. He calls them “double dippers.”‘ When I worked for Trump, he was obsessed with Ebola.’
One Mar-a-Lago guest disagreed and said Trump appeared to be handshaking energetically last weekend:
‘He was acting like the opposite of a germaphobe.’
Another person near the White House said that the president had requested his Secret Service detail set up “a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds:”
“He’s definitely melting down over this.’
A former West Wing official told Vanity Fair that Trump would hold his rallies, even in the face of White House concerns:
‘He is going to resist until the very last minute. He may take suggestions to stop shaking hands, but in terms of shutting stuff down, his position is: “No, I’m not going to do it.”‘
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
