54,161 dead. President of the United States: 
I don't think I can repeat too many times, so again: the White House response to Covid19 is not pandemic management but blame management—a strategy that can only be enacted by people indifferent to human life.
Trump just made manifest what has always been clear: the point of his pandemic briefings was never informing us—which is why they contained so much misinformation.
It was always about getting nonconfrontational questions from the press, and having it transcribed to his benefit.
It was always about getting nonconfrontational questions from the press, and having it transcribed to his benefit.
Monday he said he thought we'd end on 60,000 dead.
Ask Trump if 60,000 dead is a tragedy, he'd take it as a personal insult—it's less than 100,000!
100,000 die?—that's less than 200,000!
In February he said it would be 0.
We still have no nationally coordinated response.
Ask Trump if 60,000 dead is a tragedy, he'd take it as a personal insult—it's less than 100,000!
100,000 die?—that's less than 200,000!
In February he said it would be 0.
We still have no nationally coordinated response.
In truth, to Trump, 2 million dead and 0 dead are equal values.
The outcome was never the priority.
The narrative of Trump Greatness is the only thing he's managing.
The outcome was never the priority.
The narrative of Trump Greatness is the only thing he's managing.
2 million dead will mean the same thing to Trump and his party and his propaganda apparatus as 0 dead, which is that he is blameless, and did a perfect job, and any suggestion otherwise is mutiny.
The narrative of Trump Greatness, his sole focus during a time of grave crisis.
The narrative of Trump Greatness, his sole focus during a time of grave crisis.
A better person—which is to say any other person—would look at the fact that these pressers are being (accurately) reported as confusing, scaring, and harming the people they should be calming and unifying and informing, and take an opportunity to adjust and improve.
Nope.
Nope.
So: Good that he's ending the emotional terrorism of his pressers, which is what they are.
Don't forget, he's not ending them because they were actively harming people. They were, but he never cared.
He's ending them because he personally stopped getting anything out of them.
Don't forget, he's not ending them because they were actively harming people. They were, but he never cared.
He's ending them because he personally stopped getting anything out of them.
Not pandemic management; blame management.
