This @axios report is ominous. It confirms that Trump white house is indeed pivoting from its never-very-enthusiastic efforts to contain the virus to a new happy-talk "take the punch" strategy. axios.com/white-house-co… 1/x
@axios I first wrote about the Trump White House "take the punch" strategy here theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… 2/x
@axios And thanks to @AriMelber who gave me time to describe the implications of "take the punch" on his MSNBC air here 3/x
I laid out some of the communications context of "take the punch" in this (long, sorry) thread last week
But key point: Trump is consciously choosing to risk higher virus casualties in Q2 in hope of jolting the economy into revival in Q3 to save his re-election in Q4. It's a desperate gamble to save himself by sacrificing others. It's also not very likely to work. 4/x
Many leaders would be daunted by the human costs of Trump's desperate re-election plan. But ...
