MoveOn: Americans still don't know how Trump has botched this crisis

Dear MoveOn member,

The United States is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with far more cases than any other country.¹

Dr. Anthony Fauci, our government's leading infectious disease expert, says that millions of Americans could get sick and "nearly a quarter-million people in the United States could lose their lives"—and that's if we now do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus.²

Now, the Federal Reserve is estimating that job losses due to the crisis could total 47 million and that the unemployment rate could hit 32%, higher than the Great Depression.³

It didn't have to be this way—but a majority of Americans don't know how badly Donald Trump and his administration have mishandled the national response.⁴ In fact, they give Trump positive marks for his handing of the crisis, and his approval rating is the highest of his presidency.⁵

We've put together a list of 10 key ways that Trump has botched the crisis so far (see below). We have to get this information out.

That's why we're aiming to launch and sustain a massive digital ad campaign focused on voters who approve of Trump to educate them about his part in creating this public health disaster. The ads will intensify public pressure for relief efforts that focus on the hardest hit people and communities—not big business bailouts—and will hold Trump accountable for his failures. We need to keep these ads up until Election Day, but we can only do it with your help. 

Will you chip in $5 a month to help us hold Trump accountable for his failures? 

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

Here are 10 key ways that Trump has let the coronavirus pandemic get out of control:

1. Refusing to take responsibility for his administration's response to the pandemic. Trump doesn't believe he's responsible for how he and his administration are dealing with the crisis. When asked by reporters about it, he said, "I don't take any responsibility at all."⁶
2. Shutting down the White House pandemic office. Trump closed the White House's National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense in 2018—despite official briefings starting even before his inauguration about the threat posed by pandemics.^7,8
3. Ignoring intelligence warnings. Trump ignored dire warnings in January and February from U.S. intelligence agencies about the coronavirus pandemic, downplaying the threat and blocking necessary preparations.⁹ He also stonewalled inquiries from Congress starting in early February.¹⁰
4. Failing to test. Trump failed to mobilize the government and private sector to establish testing early on to contain the spread of the virus.¹¹ Dr. Fauci calls the lack of early testing "a failing" of the U.S. response.¹² Now, we're left with lockdowns and intense social and economic disruptions to try to mitigate the harm.
5. Failing to procure medical supplies. Trump failed to marshal the powers of the federal government to procure the medical supplies and hospital beds needed to meet the scale of this public health crisis. For instance, if the Trump administration had reacted in February to the ventilator shortage, the shortage would have been resolved by mid-to-late April. Because the administration failed to react, we might have enough ventilators only in early June, at best.¹³
6. Spreading lies and misinformation. Early in the crisis, Trump said that the coronavirus would simply disappear. "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle—it will disappear."¹⁴ Then, he promoted a risky antimalarial drug as a treatment, with no evidence.¹⁵ He accused governors of not needing the personal protective equipment and ventilators they asked for, and he accused health care workers of stealing and selling masks.^16,17 And he still continues to spread lies and advance his own political agenda, boasting about his poll numbers and television ratings.
7. Appointing Mike Pence to run the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Pence has a history of skepticism and denialism around science and a record of poor response to public health crises as governor of Indiana.¹⁸
8. Blocking access to health care, which puts all of us at risk. Trump and his Republican lackeys in Congress refuse to pay for coronavirus and COVID-19 medical care—except for testing.¹⁹ But even the testing provision is full of loopholes, with reports that people are showing up at hospitals to get tested and then getting billed thousands of dollars because, while the tests are free, the emergency room visits are not.
9. Favoring governors who are political allies when distributing lifesaving medical supplies and pitting states against one another instead of distributing supplies based on most urgent need and fostering cooperation in this national emergency.²⁰
10. Failing to hire competent experts to manage this crisis. Trump and his administration are incompetent, and, as a result, people are needlessly dying. There is tremendous turnover in key administration positions, many positions are left unfilled, and people are often unqualified for their jobs. This results in horrifying incompetence in the best of times, and catastrophic inadequacy now.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg ...

Trump's political strategy is to falsely repeat over and over that the coronavirus is unprecedented, that no one saw it coming, and that his response has been "great."²¹

And the American public believes him. It's up to us to get the truth out and hold Trump accountable as the pandemic continues to ravage our communities.

Will you chip in $5 a month to help us get the truth out about Trump and keep these ads up all the way through Election Day?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

Thanks for all you do.

–Emily, Dan, Anne, Jayne, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count," The New York Times, accessed April 2, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119369?t=6&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

2. "Coronavirus May Kill 100,000 to 240,000 in U.S. Despite Actions, Officials Say," The New York Times, March 31, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119370?t=8&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

3. "Coronavirus job losses could total 47 million, unemployment rate may hit 32 percent, Fed estimates," NBC News, March 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119371?t=10&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

4. "President Trump's Job Approval Rating Up to 49%," Gallup, March 24, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119008?t=12&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

5. Ibid.

6. "Trump: 'I Don't Take Responsibility at All,'" New York, March 13, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119011?t=14&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

7. "I ran the White House pandemic office. Trump closed it." The Washington Post, March 13, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119372?t=16&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

8. "Before Trump's inauguration, a warning: 'The worst influenza pandemic since 1918,'" Politico, March 16, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119373?t=18&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

9. "U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic," The Washington Post, March 20, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119374?t=20&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

10. "Congress Wanted Answers From Trump on Coronavirus. He Blew Them Off." The Daily Beast, March 20, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119375?t=22&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

11. "The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to Covid-19," The New York Times, March 28, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119376?t=24&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

12. "Top health official Fauci: People in US not easily getting coronavirus testing 'is a failing,'" The Hill, March 12, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119377?t=26&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

13. "Slow Response to the Coronavirus Measured in Lost Opportunity," The New York Times, March 24, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119378?t=28&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

14. "All the President's Lies About the Coronavirus," The Atlantic, March 24, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119010?t=30&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. "Trump could help solve the mask problem. Instead he's making baseless attacks on New York nurses." Vox, March 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119379?t=32&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

18. "Mike Pence is exactly the wrong guy for this job," CNN, February 27, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119380?t=34&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

19. "He Got Tested for Coronavirus. Then Came the Flood of Medical Bills." The New York Times, March 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119361?t=36&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

20. "Governors plead for medical equipment from federal stockpile plagued by shortages and confusion," The Washington Post, March 31, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119381?t=38&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

21. "Trump said his coronavirus response has been a perfect '10.' Public-health experts say that it's 'abysmal' and that he needs to 'stop talking.'" Business Insider, March 17, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119382?t=40&akid=261362%2E3735812%2ElcDLJN

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?

Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.

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