What Did Trump Close Down Again

A detailed timeline of all the means Trump failed to respond to the coronavirus

The federal coronavirus response shows a president dead set on fugitive responsibleness for the pandemic.

President Donald Trump at the Rose Garden for a bill signing anniversary on June 5.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A week and a one-half ago, the U.s. coronavirus death toll surpassed 100,000 — the most in the world, and more the next three countries combined.

That number has only grown in the days since. And in the confront of that crisis, President Donald Trump has a message for the American people: It was Red china'due south error, and the simply reason the U.s.a. death toll isn't worse is because of his quick action in banning travel from China.

In fact, there are many reasons the Us death cost is and then high, including a national response plagued by delays at the federal level, wishful thinking by President Trump, the sidelining of experts, a pointed White House entrada to place the blame for the Trump assistants'southward shortcomings on others, and time wasted chasing downwards imitation hopes based on poor science.

Often every bit not, though, rather than argue the merits of its response at home, the Trump assistants has chosen to focus on its activity confronting China as a benchmark for success — and that'due south not accidental. In fact, Trump's quick pivot to blaming China is a deliberate strategy, supposedly backed up by internal Trump campaign polling and designed to obfuscate the details of the truly inadequate U.s. response. But in the early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Trump himself took a very dissimilar line on everything from China to the severity of the virus itself and how bad things might get in the US.

Though White Firm Coronavirus Job Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted every bit early every bit March that the virus could kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, Trump has had his own always-shifting goalposts for what counts as a successful response. On April twenty, he predicted 50,000 to 60,000 dead from Covid-19. A calendar week afterward, he revised his estimate to lxx,000. On May 4, it was 80,000 to 100,000 people, and nosotros now know it will proceed to climb past that marking.

Throughout the pandemic, even so, much of the Trump administration's spin — regarding Trump's own response, China's role, and more — has been misleading, if not outright untrue. Hither's what Trump and the federal government have — and have not — washed to reply to the virus.


2019

In late 2019, the coronavirus wasn't on much of the world'southward radar. President Trump was becoming the third president in U.s. history to exist impeached. We now know, notwithstanding, that the commencement cases of the virus were cropping upward every bit early on as November. Here'southward where things stood belatedly concluding year:

November 17: Although it was non diagnosed as such at the time, researchers have now identified the commencement confirmed Covid-xix case as having been seen on November 17 in China's Hubei province.

December 27: A man in French republic, who is now the kickoff known Covid-19 patient outside of China, goes to the emergency room with a fever and difficulty breathing. At the fourth dimension, Covid-nineteen was still unheard of outside of Mainland china.

December 31: The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reports the first cluster of cases of a "pneumonia of unknown cause," later identified as Covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, now called SARS-CoV-2.

January 2020

Though new discoveries — such as the December case in France mentioned above — proceed pushing the timeline of the virus back, much of the globe began to take note of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness in China in January 2020, which at the time was mostly centered in the Hubei province. On January 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a preliminary news item nigh the and then-unidentified illness; at the time, it was a relatively distant concern in the US, particularly given the country had all the same to see any confirmed cases.

But the coronavirus's threat was of business organisation to United states national security officials, who, as the Washington Post reported in March, were alert Trump of the global danger posed by the virus in daily intelligence briefings as early equally Jan.

Nonetheless, in public comments and tweets, the president consistently played downwards the fledgling pandemic even as the commencement US instance was reported in Washington state. He also applauded Communist china'due south handling of the virus at several points in January, before taking action to protect the US in the grade of a limited travel ban from China on January 31.

Here's what things looked like in January.

January 11: The kickoff death from a confirmed case of Covid-19 is reported in Cathay.

Jan 16: A researcher in Germany develops the outset coronavirus exam.

January 19: Human-to-man transmission of the coronavirus is confirmed by the Chinese government.

January 21: The commencement confirmed Covid-19 case in the United states is reported in Washington land.

Jan 22: While at Davos, Trump makes his first public comment on the coronavirus, downplaying the risk in comments to CNBC and CBS News contributor Paula Reid.

To CNBC: We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under command. It's — going to be just fine.

To CBS: We do have a plan and we recall it'due south going to be handled very well. We've already handled it very well … We're in very good shape and I retrieve China'south in very skillful shape also.

Jan 24: Trump praises China'south "efforts and transparency" and cheers Chinese President Eleven Jinping for his response to the virus.

January 29: Trump receives a briefing on the coronavirus, and asserts that the US is "on pinnacle of it 24/seven."

January 30: The WHO declares the coronavirus a global health emergency.

January thirty: Trump suggests that the coronavirus is under control in remarks at a manufacturing institute in Michigan:

Nosotros have very little problem in this country at this moment — 5 [cases]. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we're working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it's going to accept a very adept catastrophe for us.

January 31: Trump suspends entry to the U.s.a. for many — but not all — categories of people traveling from Prc, a move which some epidemiologists warned at the time was "more than of an emotional or political reaction" than a public health decision. The Department of Health and Man Services declares the coronavirus a public wellness emergency.

February 2020

February started with a State of the Marriage address on February 4, and the starting time US Covid-19 death followed on February vi in California'due south Bay Area. The majority of the coronavirus messaging coming from the White House, yet, connected to focus on downplaying the virus rather than bracing for the now-realized possibility that it could become a full-blown pandemic and a global public health crisis.

The Trump assistants did take a few steps toward crafting a federal response, requesting emergency funding from Congress and setting upwards a task strength with Vice President Mike Pence at its caput. Meanwhile, Trump — and Fox News — leaned hard into portraying the coronavirus as under control, and fifty-fifty equally a Democratic hoax.

As a result, February was by and big a lost calendar month: Delays in developing a test kit were followed by testing shortages, and both bug meant the coronavirus was able to spread undetected and unabated in many parts of the state.

Here'south what things looked like in Feb.

February 4: Trump gives the annual State of the Union address and briefly mentions the US response to the coronavirus in his oral communication.

We are analogous with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My assistants will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.

Feb 5: The Food and Drug Assistants issues an emergency use dominance for a Centers for Illness Command and Prevention (CDC) coronavirus test, clearing the way for it to be used in state labs.

Feb vi: The start death in the The states from a confirmed instance of Covid-19 is retroactively confirmed to have occurred in early February by the Santa Clara County medical examiner following an autopsy of the victim.

February 7: Trump over again praises Xi'southward response to the coronavirus.

February xv: The start death in Europe from a confirmed case of Covid-19 is reported in French republic.

February 23: Trump again claims that the coronavirus is "nether control" in an impromptu Due south Lawn press briefing with Marine One waiting to depart to Andrews Air Force Base ahead of a trip to Bharat.

We're very much involved. We're very — very cognizant of everything going on. We have it very much nether command in this country.

February 24: In a tweet, Trump reiterates his claim that the virus is "very much under control in the USA."

February 25: Trump requests $ii.v billion in coronavirus response funding from Congress for vaccine development, testing, PPE, and more.

February 26: The first instance of community spread in the United states is confirmed by the CDC.

February 26: Trump appoints Pence to atomic number 82 the coronavirus task force; during the same press conference, he once more downplays the virus.

And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 inside a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that'southward a pretty good chore nosotros've washed.

February 27: Trump predicts that the coronavirus will disappear "similar a miracle."

It's going to disappear. One twenty-four hour period it's similar a miracle, information technology volition disappear.

Feb 28: Trump refers to the coronavirus as the Democrats' "new hoax" at a rally in S Carolina.

The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus… One of my people came up to me and said "Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russian federation, Russia, that didn't work out too well. They couldn't do it. They tried the impeachment hoax that was on a perfect conversation. They tried annihilation, they tried it over and over, they've been doing information technology since you got in… And this is their new hoax."

March 2020

In March, the coronavirus for the first fourth dimension began to intrude on daily life in a major style. The NBA shut down on March 11, the same night Trump addressed the nation in primetime from the Oval Office, announcing a European travel ban and promising economic relief efforts.

Not long after that voice communication, California became the commencement state to implement a general stay-at-abode order on March 19.

Past the end of the month, more than than 30 states had washed the same, and those shutdowns — a public wellness necessity, in the opinion of nigh experts — brought the Us economic system to a screeching halt. As a result, information technology's maybe not surprising that Trump, who has previously tied his reelection pitch directly to the economic system, spent much of the month broadcasting an unwarranted optimism well-nigh the trajectory of the virus and promoting potential treatments like hydroxychloroquine — which the FDA has since warned against using for Covid-xix handling or prevention, noting information technology tin cause center problems.

The growing severity of the pandemic, withal, as well led to a mid-March social distancing push button from the White Business firm. Shortly after his primetime address, Trump announced a new slate of guidelines advising against discretionary travel and against congregating in groups of more than 10 people.

And toward the end of the calendar month, the growing death toll from the coronavirus — centered on New York, Trump's longtime home — appeared to accept an affect on the president. In a press conference, he acknowledged that the first half of Apr was "going to exist a rough two-week period" and walked dorsum previous statements downplaying the coronavirus past comparison it to the seasonal influenza.

Here's what things looked like in March.

March 5: Trump suggests that endmost the US to travel from Mainland china helped to go on the number of Covid-19 cases low.

March 6: At the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Trump says falsely that "everyone that wants a test can get a exam"; he also comments that he would rather have infected people who were trapped on a cruise send stay there to proceed the number of confirmed US cases low.

Anybody that wants a examination can get a examination ... they're making millions of more as nosotros speak. But every bit of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test — that's the important affair — and the tests are all perfect, like the alphabetic character was perfect. The transcription was perfect, right? This was not as perfect as that, but pretty skilful.

...

I like the numbers existence where they are. I don't need to accept the numbers double because of ane ship that wasn't our fault.

March ix: Trump compares the coronavirus to the mutual flu, a comparison which at that time had already been debunked by experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci.

March eleven: The WHO officially labels the coronavirus a pandemic.

March 11: Trump makes an error-ridden primetime accost from the Oval Office that coincides with Tom Hanks announcing his coronavirus diagnosis and the NBA suspending its flavor.

Testing and testing capabilities are expanding speedily, 24-hour interval by twenty-four hour period, nosotros're moving very speedily ... The vast majority of Americans, the gamble is very, very low.

President Donald Trump gives an address from the Oval Part on the federal government's response to the coronavirus.

March thirteen: Trump declares a national emergency in response to the coronavirus, freeing up billions in federal funding for the virus response.

March 16: Trump announces "fifteen Days to Stop the Spread" CDC guidelines, encouraging social distancing.

March 18: Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mutually close the US-Canada border; Trump officially invokes the Defence Production Deed (DPA) in gild to push domestic manufacturing industries to produce badly needed medical supplies.

March xix: Trump incorrectly claims that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine for treating Covid-19.

The overnice part is, it'due south been around for a long time, so we know that if things don't go as planned it's non going to impale anybody. When y'all become with a brand new drug, you don't know that that'southward going to happen. It's shown very very encouraging early results.

March xix: Trump labels the coronavirus the "Chinese Virus" in a press conference; photos show that he revised prepared remarks to add the xenophobic term.

March 20: Trump closes the US-Mexico edge, proverb:

[Unauthorized entries] threaten to create a perfect storm that would spread the infection to our border agents, migrants, and to the public at big. Left unchecked, this would cripple our immigration system, overwhelm our healthcare system, and severely harm our national security. We're not going to let that happen.

March 20: Trump touts hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug unproven every bit a Covid-19 treatment, at the White Firm Coronavirus Task Strength daily conference; in the same exchange, he attacks NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander as a "terrible reporter."

Let's see if it works. It might and it might not. I happen to feel proficient nearly it, but who knows, I've been right a lot. Allow's see what happens.

March 22: As the economical bear upon of coronavirus lockdowns becomes more apparent, Trump shies away from a prolonged shutdown following a historically bad mean solar day for the Dow Jones stock alphabetize the previous week.

March 24: Trump floats Easter Sunday, April 12, as a potential reopening date.

I would love to take it open by Easter. I volition — I will tell you that right at present. I would love to take that — it's such an important 24-hour interval for other reasons, merely I'll make information technology an important day for this likewise. I would love to have the country opened up and only raring to become by Easter.

March 26: The United states of america hits ane,000 reported Covid-nineteen deaths.

March 27: Trump attacks General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Twitter over ventilator manufacturing amid a desperate shortage of the machines, and threatens to "invoke 'P'" — the Defense Product Human activity — to compel the visitor to make more, the kickoff of many such threats made confronting companies producing essential materials.

March 27: Trump signs a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package that includes direct cash payments to Americans, additional funding for hospitals, and some $500 billion in loans for companies.

March 29: Trump extends CDC social distancing guidance through April 30; in the Rose Garden, he too says he believes his administration volition accept "done a very good job" if the The states avoids the worst-case 2.two million deaths predicted by London's Imperial Higher.

March 31: Trump drops his comparing to the flu, saying the coronavirus is "fell":

It's not the flu. It'south brutal. When you transport a friend to the hospital, and you retrieve to find out how is he doing — it happened to me, where he goes to the hospital, he says adieu. He'south sort of a tough guy. A little older, a little heavier than he'd similar to be, frankly. And you call up the next mean solar day: "How's he doing?" And he'southward in a coma? This is not the flu.

April 2020

For all that Trump spent Jan and February praising China's response to the coronavirus, Apr saw his White House execute an about-face as the man and economic toll of the pandemic in the U.s. mounted. The president began to blame Mainland china, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and the WHO for bug with America's Covid-19 response. And Democratic governors, like Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who maintained lockdown orders and criticized the Trump administration'southward response to the crunch, became targets of his ire.

Here'due south what things looked like in Apr.

April 2: Trump employs the DPA to direct 3M and other companies to manufacture masks and ventilators:

Moments ago, I directed Secretary Azar and Interim Secretarial assistant Wolf to use whatever and all bachelor authority under the Defence force Production Act to ensure that domestic manufacturers take the supplies they demand to produce ventilators for patients with severe cases of C-O-V-I-D 19. Yous know what that is, correct? Become a very famous term: C-O-Five-I-D — COVID.

April iv: Trump again invokes the DPA to combat the hoarding of medical supplies by "wartime profiteers."

Apr 6: The US hits x,000 reported Covid-19 deaths.

April 9: The Trump campaign releases a misleading ad attacking Biden'due south record on Communist china.

Apr 13: Trump claims to have the legal right to overrule governors' shelter-in-place orders, asserting at a press briefing that the president's "authority is total."

April fourteen: Trump announces plans to halt funding to the WHO, accusing the organization of "severely mismanaging and covering upward the spread of the coronavirus."

April xv: The Us hits 25,000 reported Covid-19 deaths.

Apr 16: The Trump assistants releases its reopening guidelines:

Every state is very different. They're all beautiful. We love them all. But they're very, very dissimilar. If they need to remain closed, we will allow them to do that. And if they believe it is time to reopen, nosotros will provide them the freedom and guidance to attain that chore — and very, very quickly — depending on what they want to do.

Apr 17: As small groups of — sometimes armed — protesters demonstrating against shelter-in-place orders begin to receive media coverage, Trump calls on his supporters, including those who attended these protests, to "liberate" Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia, all of which have Democratic governors.

April 17: Trump attacks Biden and the Obama administration's handling of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

April 22: Trump, who has spent the last few days promoting reopening, announces that he opposes Georgia reopening.

I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities which are in violation of the phase one guidelines for the incredible people of Georgia ... I call up it'due south too before long.

Apr 23: Trump signs an executive society blocking green cards for most categories of prospective immigrants; at a daily printing conference, he also floats bleach as a potential coronavirus treatment:

And and then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is in that location a way we can do something similar that, by injection inside or nearly a cleaning. Because you lot encounter it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.

Apr 24: The Us hits 50,000 reported Covid-19 deaths.

April 28: The US hits ane million confirmed Covid-19 cases.

April xxx: The Trump administration allows federal "Stay at Home" guidelines to expire, ceding the field to state efforts.

May 2020

If April was focused on shifting the blame, May was the month the president pivoted to denying there was anything to exist blamed for. Although the US decease toll passed 100,000 on May 27, Trump still insisted that the Us response had "met the moment." The US began to lead the globe in Covid-19 cases and deaths.

And the president continued his efforts to reframe recent events to cast himself in a favorable light. For example, in May, Trump attributed his decision to limit travel from China as the major factor in avoiding a death toll numbering in the millions, though near of the coronavirus cases at the epicenter of the Usa outbreak — New York Urban center — take been shown to originate from Europe.

And equally states began to reopen nonessential businesses — despite experts warning premature reopening could lead to a 2nd moving ridge of infections — Trump also looked to put the crisis behind him. The president made multiple trips to battleground states in May, and his entrada is reportedly examining plans to resume holding Trump's signature rallies.

Hither's how things looked in May.

May 3: Trump again revises his gauge on the number of Covid-19 deaths the United states of america will suffer and predicts 85,000 to 100,000 fatalities during a Fob News virtual boondocks hall.

Expect, we're going to lose anywhere from 75, eighty to 100 one thousand people. That'due south a horrible affair. We shouldn't lose one person over this. This should have been stopped in China. It should accept been stopped. But if we didn't do information technology, the minimum we would accept lost is a 1000000-two, a million-four, a million-five. That's the minimum. We would have lost probably higher than — it'south possible higher than 2.two.

May seven: The United states hits 75,000 reported Covid-nineteen deaths; the New York Times reports that the Trump administration elected to shelve detailed reopening guidelines from the CDC.

May 8: Trump claims that the US is "the earth leader" in responding to the coronavirus.

May 9: Although many states have however to meet the minimum requirements for reopening based on the White House's guidelines, Trump continues to push for the reopening of nonessential businesses, using the slogan "TRANSITION TO GREATNESS!"

May 10: Trump once again goes afterward the Obama administration's response to the 2009 swine flu pandemic, falsely calling it a "disaster." As the Washington Mail service has explained, "some flaws in the system were discovered" in the Obama assistants's treatment of the H1N1 pandemic, "simply overall the government was praised for its response."

May eleven: Trump says that the United states has "met the moment and we have prevailed" in responding to the coronavirus.

May xviii: Trump tells reporters that he is taking hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that has been linked to an increased risk of expiry when used to care for coronavirus patients.

May 21: Trump claims falsely that he was "so early. I was earlier than anybody thought" in response to a Columbia Academy study suggesting that 36,000 lives could accept been saved in the U.s.a. alone by implementing social distancing measures merely a week earlier. Every bit noted above, the president reportedly ignored security briefings on the coronavirus for weeks and did not roll out a social distancing campaign until mid-March.

May 22: Trump at a press conference announces he is labeling churches as "essential" and calls for governors to let their reopening, as well as threatening — without authorisation — to "override" any governors who fail to do so.

May 23: For the get-go fourth dimension since March, Trump hits the links at his ain golf game course in Sterling, Virginia, equally the Us death toll edges toward 100,000.

May 24: Trump bans non-US citizens traveling from Brazil from inbound the country.

May 26: Trump again favorably compares the decease toll to an Purple College project that estimated the decease cost had the US taken no steps to stop the spread of Covid-19, tweeting that "if I hadn't done my task well, & early, we would have lost i 1/2 to ii One thousand thousand People."

May 27: The U.s. hits 100,000 reported Covid-xix deaths.

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Source: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/8/21242003/trump-failed-coronavirus-response

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