TRUMP GROWS MORE AND MORE IRATE OVER CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

TRUMP GROWS MORE AND MORE IRATE OVER CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

 

President Donald Trump has grown more and more irate as his attempts to contain the political fallout of coronavirus — much less the health crisis itself — continue to fall short, people close to him said.
Trump watched angrily from the West Wing Thursday as stock markets tumbled to their worst percentage loss since the 1987 Black Friday, casting blame on the Federal Reserve for what he increasingly believes is an attempt to ruin his presidency.
Hours earlier, Trump griped at a presidential-style address delivered by his likely election year rival, Joe Biden, complaining that Democrats won’t band together to help him pull the nation from the brink.

That morning, aides were forced to inform the President that a person he’d come into contact with over the weekend — a senior Brazilian official — had tested positive for coronavirus, a revelation that led to two Republican senators entering self-quarantine.
The confluence of events has led to a sense of growing crisis inside the White House, even as Trump and his top officials continue to project calm.
He announced on Twitter Friday morning that he would have a 3 p.m. ET news conference. He is likely to announce an emergency declaration, a move that would free up more federal resources to combat coronavirus, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Trump administration’s efforts outmatched by the virus
His Wednesday evening address from the Oval Office was meant to be the “my fellow Americans” moment Trump hoped would end harsh questions about his ability to confront coronavirus.
Instead, the President’s address — laden with errors and misstatements — caused only more doubts about his administration’s grasp of the crisis.
The product of Trump’s own insistence on dramatic steps to display his command of the situation and his top advisers’ entreaties to convey more seriousness, Wednesday’s speech required multiple clarifications from top officials and Trump himself.
Administration officials are now continuing to search for steps that could help mitigate a worsening outbreak, including haggling with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a package of economic measures and inching closer to declaring a major disaster.
As nearly all Americans are now experiencing interruptions to everyday life, the pandemic that is consuming the White House is also inching closer to Trump himself.
By Thursday, it had become clear to administration officials their previous insistence that life would continue as normal would no longer be viable in the age of coronavirus. A political event scheduled only a day earlier in Wisconsin was scrapped, all of the President’s upcoming travel was canceled and tours of the executive mansion were suspended.
On Thursday, officials were also grappling with how to handle the revelation Trump came into contact with a Brazilian official who tested positive for coronavirus. The White House remained insistent that Trump does not require testing or self-isolation.
Republican politicians — including Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott — went into self-quarantine after interacting with the same officials.
One of the leaders Trump spoke with by phone on Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was self-isolating after his wife tested positive for coronavirus.
After publicly flouting recommendations he stop shaking hands and convening crowds of people, Trump also seemed to acknowledge, perhaps too late, it was time to alter his behavior.
“It’s a very strange feeling,” he said of a joint decision to abstain from shaking hands with the visiting Irish Taoiseach, in town for annual St. Patrick’s Day diplomacy.
And while Trump held out the possibility a rally in Florida might proceed later this month, a source close to the President said he is concerned about coming into contact with people who have contracted coronavirus.

-CNN