President Donald Trump is continuing to prove that he is in no way competent enough to handle the Coronavirus outbreak, no matter the facts that months of the crisis have already passed and any remotely adept leader would likely try and learn from their mistakes rather than repeating them ad nauseum for months on end. In conversation with reporters at the White House this Monday, Trump yet again brought up his point that if testing in the U.S. went down, so would the number of newly confirmed Coronavirus cases. What on earth is he trying to say here? That Americans could just look the other way and all would be well?
As NBC reporter Peter Alexander shared:
‘President Trump on the coronavirus pandemic, according to the pool: “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.”‘
President Trump on the coronavirus pandemic, according to the pool:
"If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any."— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) June 15, 2020
That is an absolutely ridiculous statement. On a basic level, the virus would, in fact, continue to spread and people would continue to get sick and die from it even if not a single additional test was conducted in the United States after this present moment. Additionally, Trump’s notion seems to imply that he thinks the Coronavirus is some kind of unstoppable otherworldly plan that he’s had nothing to do with and will continue on no matter what he does. The sheer incompetence of that perspective, in which he’s ignored many possibilities for intervening in the crisis, has cost American lives. He’s made up that the virus is some kind of invader from China that testing makes no difference towards addressing rather than a public health crisis that any competent leader would at least try and face head-on.
Later this week, Trump will be holding his first rally in months. He’ll be stopping at an arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Coronavirus cases have been increasing recently — although at the same impromptu White House press conference this Monday, Vice President Mike Pence claimed that Oklahoma has “flattened the curve” of their new Coronavirus infection rate, which is false.
Actually, Oklahoma is one of six states where cases are up as tests are down over the past two weeks. https://t.co/3gU2H1AVss https://t.co/Ih28a6fkNL
— Philip Bump (@pbump) June 15, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response to the president’s nonsense:
There is no bottom to Trump's ignorance https://t.co/Qtt8xKJNXZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 15, 2020
Every day is a new chance to take another loss in your lifelong struggle with the concept of object permanence. https://t.co/wmUyHTi1Wx
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) June 15, 2020
Object permanence but for pandemic disease https://t.co/eDUoVo1lgC
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) June 15, 2020
Please understand Trump only said this inflammatory sentence today in order to rile everyone up and get the press to cover it instead of his SERIOUS HEALTH CONDITIONS and inability to hold a glass with one, stand with shaking or walk down a small ramp.
DON'T FALL FOR IT. https://t.co/iBtARKvvAH
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) June 15, 2020
"If we stopped pitching right now, we'd have very few earned runs allowed, if any." 2019 Orioles https://t.co/JFYJLoI0yr
— Jason Collette (@jasoncollette) June 15, 2020
And if I stopped stepping on the scale right now, I'd no longer be overweight https://t.co/e9Gf8BM7Gj
— Mark Gongloff (@markgongloff) June 15, 2020
And if I stop stepping on the scale, I'll never gain weight! https://t.co/MbSVOPmRWO
— Kimberley Johnson (@AuthorKimberley) June 15, 2020
"If I stopped weighing myself right now, I'd add very few pounds, if any" https://t.co/8B2cd3ZKfZ
— Isaac (@WorldofIsaac) June 15, 2020
The old: close your eyes and hope it goes away approach https://t.co/dTTu2v6xxS
— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 15, 2020
Because ignorance is, like, bliss, the massive and tragic loss of life excepted.
Oh and the collapse on overload of our hospital system.
America as a pariah state to foreign travelers, yeah that too. https://t.co/tDnWvwIfgQ— Quentin Hardy (@qhardy) June 15, 2020
