**Trump’s Terrible Week of Failure**
Trump Faces Skyrocketing Unemployment, Death Toll; Plummeting Poll Numbers; Experts Pointing the Finger at White House For Shut Down and Deaths
Despite Trump declaring victory over the coronavirus on Monday, the events over the next five days highlight why his claim that the United States had “prevailed” is so laughable by week’s end.
The death toll, unemployment figures, polling and experts from this week tell a story of failure, not victory:
Trump’s Approval on Handling the Coronavirus Has Reached a New Low and Americans Don’t Trust His Him as a Source of Information About the Virus
- A Majority Of American Believe That The Government Is Not Doing Enough To Address The Growing Death Toll, Access To Testing And Preparing For A Second Wave. “Four-in-10 Americans say that they personally know someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus, a figure that has nearly doubled in the last month. And most say the government is not doing enough to address the growing death toll (56%), the limited availability of testing (57%) or the potential for a second wave of cases later this year (58%).” [CNN, 5/12/20]
- Trump’s Approval Numbers Are Only Getting Worse — 55% Disapprove Of His Handling Of The Coronavirus, Up From 48% In March And 52% In April. “But at the same time, the President’s numbers for handling the coronavirus outbreak have worsened (55% now disapprove, up from 48% in early March and 52% last month), and only 36% say they consider Trump a trusted source of information about the outbreak.” [CNN, 5/12/20]
The U.S. Death Toll Increased by More Than 1,500 Each Day Even After Trump Claimed the U.S. Had “Prevailed”
- Trump Claimed That The United States Had “Prevailed” On Testing And The Nation Would “Transition Into Greatness”, Despite The Coronavirus Death Toll In The United States Surpassing 80,000 And Experts Warn That Virus Is Not Under Control. “Trump declared Monday that the United States had ‘prevailed’ on testing, saying the nation will ‘transition into greatness.’ ‘We have met the moment and we have prevailed,’ Trump said. Just two weeks ago, in another press conference, the president said that while his administration had made significant progress in scaling testing, it still had work to do. Monday’s announcement seems to indicate that the president thinks his team did all it needed to on testing in the last 14 days. On Monday night, the nation’s coronavirus death toll had surpassed 80,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.” [The Daily Beast, 5/11/20]
Trump’s Botched Coronavirus Response Caused Unemployment Claims to Soar to 36.5 Million, While His Advisors Predict More Job Losses in the Future
- 3 Million More Americans Filed For Unemployment, Bring The Total Claims To 36.5 Million Since Mid March. “New filings for unemployment claims totaled just shy of 3 million for the most recent reporting period, a number that while still high declined for the sixth straight week, according to Labor Department figures Thursday. The total 2.981 million new claims for unemployment insurance filed last week brought the coronavirus crisis total to nearly 36.5 million, by far the biggest loss in U.S. history. The count announced last week count was revised up by 7,000 to 3.176 million, putting the weekly decline at 195,000 between the two most recent reports. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting the latest count of new claims to be 2.7 million.” [CNBC, 5/14/20]
- The Unemployment Rate Reached 14.7%, The Highest Unemployment Figures Since The Great Depression. “The Labor Department reported a loss of 20.5 million jobs in April that brought the unemployment rate to 14.7%, both post-World War II highs.” [CNBC, 5/14/20]
- Trump’s Economic Advisers Predict That Unemployment Will Jump To 20% in June. “Two of President Trump’s top economic advisers projected Sunday that unemployment will climb as the coronavirus pandemic continues its sweep across the United States, with one official predicting that the unemployment rate will jump to 20 percent by next month. The statements from White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin came three days after the Labor Department reported its highest unemployment figures since the Great Depression, and as the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 79,000.” [Washington Post, 5/10/20]
- 100,000 Small Businesses Have Closed Permanently. “The White House and Congress have made saving small businesses a linchpin of the financial rescue, even passing a second stimulus for them late last month. But already, economists project that more than 100,000 small businesses have shut permanently since the pandemic escalated in March, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University and the University of Chicago. Their latest data suggests at least 2 percent of small businesses are gone, according to a survey conducted May 9 to 11. The carnage has been even higher in the restaurant industry, where 3 percent of restaurant operators have gone out of business, according to the National Restaurant Association.” [Washington Post, 5/12/20]
Dr. Fauci Corrected Trump’s Lies — and Highlighted That Reopening Too Early Would Lead to New Outbreaks and More Death
- Fauci: Opening Too Early Will Lead To New Outbreaks And More Death. Dr. Fauci said: “My concern [is] that if some areas, city, states, or what have you, jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks.” [NBC News, 5/12/20]
- Fauci: Official Coronavirus Death Count Likely Higher Than Reported, Contradicting Trump’s Baseless Claim Deaths Are Being Overreported. Dr. Fauci said of the death toll: “I think you are correct that the number is likely higher. I don’t know exactly the percent higher but almost certainly it’s higher.” [Twitter, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, 5/12/20]
- Fauci Corrected Trump’s False Claim That The Virus Would Just “Disappear” On Its Own, Saying “That Is Just Not Gonna Happen.” Dr. Fauci said: “When you talk about ‘will this virus just disappear’ — and I’ve said publicly many times, that is just not gonna happen because it’s such a highly transmissible virus.” [Twitter, Aaron Rupar, 5/12/20]
Dr. Rick Bright Shed Light on the Trump Administration’s Early and Continued Coronavirus Failures, Saying Because of Their Failures “Lives Were Lost”
- Bright Warned That “Without Better Planning, 2020 Could Be The Darkest Winter In Modern History.” “If we fail to improve our response now based on science, I fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged,’ he said, warning that ‘without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.’” [Wall Street Journal, 5/14/20]
- Bright Said The Trump Administration Had Not Prepared America To Deal With The Coronavirus And Criticized Leadership For Ignoring Early Warning Signals And Pages From The Pandemic Playbook. Dr. Bright said: “Initially, our nation was not as prepared as we should have been — as we could have been. Some scientists raised early warning signals that were overlooked and pages from our pandemic playbook were ignored by some in leadership.” [Twitter, Craig Caplan, 5/14/20]
- Bright: “We Still Do Not Have A Standard Centralized Coordination Plan To Take Our Nation Through This Response… We Could Have Done Better.” “‘The window is closing to address this pandemic because we still do not have a standard centralized coordinated plan to take our nation through this response,’ Rick Bright said at a House Committee on Energy and Commerce health subcommittee hearing, adding that ‘I believe we could have done better.’” [Wall Street Journal, 5/14/20]
- Asked About The Consequence Of The Three Month Delay In Procuring N95 Masks, Bright Said “Lives Were Endangered, And I Believe Lives Were Lost.” “‘Lives were endangered, and I believe lives were lost’ because of unheeded warnings, Bright went on, alleging that government officials— particularly in the Department of Health and Human Services—ignored his requests to ramp up production of medical equipment such as masks.” [Forbes, 5/14/20]
- Bright Blasted Trump And His Administration For Downplaying The Threat Of Coronavirus, Noting That Forewarning People And Training them To Social Distance Could Have “Saved More Lives.” Dr. Bright said: “We did not forewarn people. We did not train people. We did not educate them on social distancing and wearing a mask as we should have in January and February. All those…could have…saved more lives.” [Twitter, Yamiche Alcindor, 5/14/20]
Harvard’s Dr. Ashish Jha Made Clear That the Trump Administration’s Failure to Test Was the “Fundamental Failure That Forced Our Country to Shut Down.”
- Harvard Global Health Institute Faculty Director Dr. Ashish Jha: “Testing Was The Fundamental Failure That Forced Our Country To Shut Down.” Jha said: “Every expert on the left, right, and center agrees that we had to shut our economy down because the outbreak got too big because we didn’t have a testing infrastructure that allowed us to put our arms around the outbreak. And so testing was the fundamental failure that forced our country to shut down.” [Twitter, Coronavirus War Room, 5/13/20]