Such a surplus

Trump held another briefing.

Because Europe “took a much different route than we did, a much different route,” in responding to the coronavirus pandemic, “they’re having tremendous problems,” Trump said. As he did during yesterday’s briefing, the president is attempting to paint the US’ delayed and chaotic response to the pandemic as superior to Europe.

Yesterday, Trump implied that the US would soon have such a surplus of scarce and necessary medical equipment that he’d be able to send the excess to Italy, France and Spain.

Adding another chapter to the Great Book of Lies.

Trump said there are lots of ventilators. There aren’t.

We are going to go through a very tough two weeks,” Trump said, striking a more somber tone than he has at previous briefings. “This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks.”

There will be“light at the end of the tunnel,” he added. We are going to see things get better “all of a sudden” like a “burst of light.”

No we’re not. It’s not going to be sudden or like a burst of light at all.

Early mitigation slowing the spread of disease in California and Washington state is “gives us great hope,” said Dr. Deborah Birx.

I’m doing my best.

The White House has predicted 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the US from coronavirus pandemic, even with mitigation measures. This isn’t the first time that the task force scientists have presented these grim projections.

Cheery.

“All of our major cities modeled like New Yor is what gets us into trouble,” Birx said. “California and Washington state reacted very early to this.”

“For whatever reason, New York got off to a very late start,” Trump added. “And you see what happens when you get off to a late start.”

We do. We got off to a late start because of Trump and his taking a flamethrower to what he calls “the deep state.” Many thousands will die prematurely because Trump is a lying hack.

The Guardian fact checks:

Though Trump is seeking to blame states for a delayed response to the coronavirus crisis, the president consistently downplayed the concerns of public health officials who raised early alarms.

In late January, at the Davos conference, Trump said, “It’s going to be just fine.”

In February, after the WHO announced more than 25,000 cases worldwide, Trump said that it “looks like, by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

And earlier this month, Trump tweeted this:

But please do tell us more about those other places that got a late start.

Then he got back into his pick fights with everyone mode.

“This is really easy to be negative about. But I want to give people hope, too,” Trump said, abandoning the quiet, somber tone he used earlier in the briefing.

“I’m not about bad news,” Trump said. “I want to give people hope. I want to give people the feeling that we all have a chance.”

As he has during previous briefings, the president then became combative, attacking reporters and dismissing what he called “stupid questions”.

The briefing has been going on for more than two hours now.

5 Responses to “Such a surplus”