Donald Trump was in a hurry to leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center—where he’d been taken on October 3 owing to COVID-19.
So on October 6—just three days after being hospitalized, and still highly infectious—he demanded that he be returned to the White House.
Once ensconced in the Executive Mansion, Trump proceeded to make two deadly mistakes.
Mistake #1: He tweeted a one-minute long video from the White House balcony, saying he “learned so much about coronavirus,” and believed that he was possibly immune to the disease.
“One thing that’s for certain: Don’t let it dominate you,” he said of COVID-19. “Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment, we have the best medicines, all developed recently. And you’re going to beat it.
“We’re going back, we’re going back to work,” Trump said. “We’re going to be out front. As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there’s danger to it, but I had to do it..”
Coronavirus
Trump’s upbeat message about COVID-19—“Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it”—alarmed and angered many infectious disease experts.
“It’s an unconscionable message,” said Dr. Sadiya Khan of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “I would go so far as to say that it may precipitate or worsen spread.”
“We have to be realistic in this: COVID is a complete threat to the American population,” said Dr. David Nace, an expert on infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
“Most of the people aren’t so lucky as the president,” with an in-house medical unit and access to experimental treatments, he added.
Especially outraged by Trump’s comment was Amanda Kloots, who lost her husband, Broadway actor Nick Cordero, to the virus.
Nick Cordero
“Unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to spend two days in the hospital,” she tweeted, referring to Trump’s short stay for COVID-19 treatment. “I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love. It IS something to be afraid of.”
Mistake #2: Always wanting to appear in command, Trump ordered his negotiators to halt talks over a new economic stimulus package, after House and Senate Republicans had struggled for months to reach a deal.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
Donald Trump
Trump’s message stunned lawmakers. The decision is a major blow to Americans still struggling with the fallout from the pandemic and endangers an economic recovery that for months was driven by a $2.2 trillion stimulus passed by Congress in the spring. That money has been largely spent.
Among those stunned by Trump’s move: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
At the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics, Powell warned: “Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses.”
Powell said that government support—expanded unemployment insurance payments, direct payments to most households and support for small businesses—has prevented a recessionary “downward spiral” where job losses would reduce spending, forcing businesses to cut even more jobs.
Jerome Powell
A far smarter move by Trump would have been claiming that Republicans were vigorously pursuing a stimulus package—but were facing roadblocks thrown up by spendthrift Democrats.
That would have allowed Trump to play the part of the self-pitying underdog. And it would have put the blame squarely—if inaccurately—on the Democrats.
But Trump’s ego demands that he be the one seen to take decisive action. On December 11, 2018, it neatly tripped him up.
Nancy Pelosi—then House Minority Leader—and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, met with Trump in the Oval Office. And, true to his love of publicity, Trump made sure the meeting was televised live on TV.
Trump quickly demanded $5.6 billion to create a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.
When Pelosi and Schumer refused to budge, Trump said: “And one way or the other, it’s going to get built. I’d like not to see a government closing, a shutdown. We will see what happens over the next short period of time.”
SCHUMER: “Twenty times you have called for, ‘I will shut down the government if I don’t get my wall.’ None of us have said—you’ve said it.”
TRUMP: “Okay, you want to put that on my—I’ll take it. You know what I’ll say: ‘Yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other…I will shut down the government. Absolutely.’”
Trump did shut down the government. And because he had threatened to do so—on nationwide TV—he, not the Democrats, was blamed for it. Thirty-five days later, he caved to public pressure and reopened the government.
With the 2020 Presidential election less than a month away and himself behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the polls, it appears that Trump’s ego has once again neatly tripped himself up.
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TRUMP AND COMPANY: LET US PREY: PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on April 9, 2019 at 12:20 amDonald Trump feels comfortable with men who abuse women.
One was Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News from 1996 to 2016. He resigned in disgrace after seven women publicly accused him of extorting sexual favors from them and other Fox employees.
Immediately after leaving Fox, he became an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, assisting with debate preparation.
When Trump learned that Ailes was facing a sexual harassment lawsuit by former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson, he stated: “I think they are unfounded just based on what I’ve read. Totally unfounded, based on what I read.”
Roger Ailes
Ninian Reid [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D
Another Trump buddy was Robert Porter, who served as White House staff secretary from January 20, 2017, until February 7, 2018. Then his two former wives accused him publicly of battery—and he resigned his position.
It meant nothing to Trump that an FBI background check found the allegations credible and unearthed a restraining order. As far as he was concerned, Porter–not his two battered ex-wives—was the victim:
“He also, as you probably know, says he’s innocent, and I think you have to remember that. He said very strongly yesterday that he’s innocent, so you have to talk to him about that.”
Then there’s former Fox News host Bill O”Reilly.
In April, 2017, the New York Times revealed that O’Reilly and Fox News had settled five sexual harassment lawsuits totaling $13 million. Embarrassed, Fox News then fired O’Reilly.
Trump’s response? “He is a good person.” Calling O’Reilly “a person I know well,” Trump said he shouldn’t have settled: ‘“I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.”
Donald Trump
This is hardly surprising.
By October, 2016—less than a month from Election Day—no fewer than 12 women had publicly accused Trump himself of making sexually inappropriate advances toward them.
Trump’s reaction: “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never.”
For “proof,” he attacked their physical appearance.
Of one accuser, Natasha Stoynoff, he said: “Take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I don’t think so. I don’t think so.”
Of another accuser, Jessica Leeds, Trump said: “Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you. Whoever she is, wherever she comes from, the stories are total fiction. They’re 100% made up. They never happened.”
In short: They were too ugly for Trump to consider them worth sexually harassing.
And he threatened: “All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”
To date, Trump has not filed a single lawsuit for defamation.
As of April, 2019, the total number of women accusing Trump of making improper advances has risen to 23.
So there’s no reason to be surprised at his choice of businessman Herman Cain for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. During Cain’s short-lived run for the Presidency in 2011, he was accused by multiple women of making aggressive and unwanted sexual advances.
Herman Cain
Yet Cain was not without his supporters. Among these: Rush Limbaugh, the Right-wing radio propagandist.
On November 7, 2011, Limbaugh attacked Sharon Bialek, one of Cain’s accusers. Calling Bialek a “babe” and “the blonde bombshell,” he joked about Cain’s attempt to extort sexual favors via her need for a job.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha,” laughed Limbaugh. “That’s it. Cain decided to provide her with his idea of a ‘stimulus package.’”
But Limbaugh wasn’t through: “Get this now. I have been wrong in pronouncing the fourth Cain accuser’s name as “Be-allek.” Gloria Allred [Bialek’s attorney] says that her name is pronounced ‘Bye-a-lick,’ as in ‘Buy a Lick.’”
To drive home his point, he made crude slumping noises over the microphone.
Rush Limbaugh
Actually, the woman’s name is pronounced “By-a-Lek.”
But even the venom of America’s most toxic Right-wing broadcaster couldn’t save Cain.
Cain’s longtime wife, Gloria, chose to stand by him. But millions of female voters chose other candidates to vote for.
On December 3, 2011, he dropped out of the race, before any actual votes were cast.
Another Rightist who had only praise for Cain was the notorious serial adulterer, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives.
In 1998, while he was railing against the “immorality” of President Bill Clinton’s tryst with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Gingrich was having his own fling. His being married to his second wife didn’t prevent him from committing adultery with Callista Bisek, who would become his third.
Gingrich was himself running for President in 2012 So he hoped to inherit Cain’s supporters, not alienate them. Thus, as soon as Cain dropped out, Gingrich offered this salute: “I am proud to know Herman Cain and consider him a friend and I know he will continue to be a powerful voice for years to come.”
The endorsement didn’t help Gingrich; he lost the 2012 Republican nomination to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Who lost the election to President Barack Obama.
While Cain and Trump share an affinity for abusing women, they also share mega-watt egos that demand constant attention. Thus, the odds of Cain’s long remaining a part of the Trump administration remain highly unlikely.
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