Here’s a number Donald Trump will hate
“President” Donald Trump finally has a number above 50%, but he won’t be happy about it. The new Pew poll says that 65% of Americans believe Trump botched the response to coronavirus. Trump’s lies are catching up to him. He did nothing early on to slow the spread of coronavirus, and now, all he does is point his little fingers at everyone else. He even goes so far as to attempt to “muddy the waters” by bringing up other lies that have nothing to do with the coronavirus but are merely his attempts to use the media for free campaign opportunities.
CNN fact-checked Trump’s claims from his most recent press conference where he stands and tells the same lies he has told from day one of the virus. Trump claims that Democratic governors are refusing testing supplies while complaining about a shortage to make him look bad, as if he needs help. As usual with Trump, this is a lie. None of our governors are refusing supplies, and both Republican and Democratic governors have complained. Perhaps that’s why the Pew poll revealed that 53% of Republicans who consider themselves moderate to liberal admit that Trump acted too slowly on coronavirus. This number also includes Republicans living in areas with high death tolls.
One of Trump’s favorite lies about coronavirus is that “no one saw this coming.” While Trump continues to claim that other leaders say, “this is incredible the way you’ve done this so quickly,” he failed to name the leaders. Probably because they don’t exist. He then claims, “you know, we’re only talking about a few weeks since everybody knew this was such a big problem.” As CNN says, Trump is “on an island” with this ridiculous claim. According to CNN, multiple warnings about our vulnerability to pandemics have been circulating for several years, and Trump’s own people warned him in January about the pandemic we’re living through. He chose to ignore them because he was more focused on the impact the economy might have on his reelection chances. Trump will never see that he made the economy worse by trying to hide the inevitable.
Trump has no one to blame but himself for our current situation, as should we. While he didn’t cause the pandemic, he certainly helped its spread with his lies and head-in-the sand attitude. As Vox points out, the virus had already invaded our borders by January 31, and had Trump taken the necessary actions instead of downplaying the virus, it would have been slowed considerably. As of 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. was 762,496 with 40,478 deaths Yet, Trump is still talking about opening the economy, Florida has re-opened its beaches, and Texas is talking about lifting restrictions in less than two weeks. Trump’s reelection prospects don’t matter. Stopping the spread of this dangerous virus must take priority.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years