Donald Trump’s Handling of the Coronavirus Pandemic (What he knew and when he knew it.)
- Peter Navaro (Director Office of Trade) memos warned in January 29 and again February 23
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/492361-health-secretary-twice-warned-trump-about-coronavirus-threat-nyt
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/07/trump-peter-navarro-coronavirus-memos-174237 - Alex Azar (Secretary of Health and Human Services) told him in January
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/492361-health-secretary-twice-warned-trump-about-coronavirus-threat-nyt - Red Dawn widely circulated email beginning of January 28 had scientist’s dire warnings
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6879-2020-covid-19-red-dawn-rising/66f590d5cd41e11bea0f/optimized/full.pdf
Congressmen who were briefed sold stocks in January.
Why did the Trump try to keep the stock market up?
To let those in the know sell, while your 401K took the loss.
JAN 30 “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. 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 have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.” — Donald Trump
FEB 24 “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. … Stock market starting to look very good to me” — Donald Trump
FEB 25 “You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are … getting better. They’re all getting better. … As far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.” — Donald Trump
FEB 25 “We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight. We have done a good job in the United States.” — Larry Kudlow
FEB 26 “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — Donald Trump
FEB 28 “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” Donald Trump
MARCH 2 “We had a great meeting today with a lot of the great companies and they’re going to have vaccines, I think relatively soon.” — Donald Trump
MARCH 6 “Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.” — Donald Trump
MARCH 12 “It’s going to go away. … The United States, because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point … when you look at the kind of numbers that you’re seeing coming out of other countries, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.” — Donald Trump
MARCH 17 “I’ve always known this is a real — this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” — Donald Trump
100 Days of Deadly Coronavirus Denial
Mother Jones has great coverage of how Trump handled the pandemic from January-April. You can even filter Trump’s comments by category: downplaying risks, magical thinking, self-praise, blaming others, and testing problems.
Check out the interactive timeline here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/trump-coronavirus-timeline/