Amid rising coronavirus deaths, Trump paints a rosy picture of America’s present and future

Washington Post logoPresident Trump painted a wishful view Wednesday of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, in which existing treatments can almost cure patients flooding hospitals, all schools will safely reopen this fall, and the country’s soaring cases are confined to a handful of states.

But the rosy assessment he issued at a White House news briefing — alone at the lectern without any top public health experts — was undermined by the alarming reality that on Wednesday, almost every metric showed just how badly America is losing its fight against the virus.

The number of daily deaths on Wednesday surpassed 1,100, the first time that mark had been reached since May 29. And total deaths in the United States since the start of the pandemic increased to more than 140,000. Continue reading.

‘Like a junkie needs a fix’: Trump mocked after White House cancels coronavirus briefing then quickly adds it back

President Donald Trump hasn’t held a coronavirus task force briefing since Friday, when he abruptly ended it after 21 minutes and took no questions – clearly not wanting to have to answer for his dangerous disinfectant “injection” remarks.

The President’s daily schedule for Monday, released Sunday, included a coronavirus task force briefing which the White House subsequently canceled Monday morning.

It’s back on. Continue reading.

Freed of briefing duty, wounded Trump airs full collection of grievances on Twitter, retweeting claim of ‘coup attempts’

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s first tweet Sunday came unusually late, popping up a few minutes after noon — hours behind schedule for a president who is often awake and tweeting as the sun rises.

“Happy Birthday to Melania, our great First Lady!” Trump tweeted at 12:06 p.m.

The celebratory tweet kicked off a long day of tweeting and retweeting that really ramped up at around 2 p.m. when Trump observed, in response to a recent New York Times article, that those who know him regard him as “the hardest working President in history.” Continue reading.