March 8th:
President Donald Trump has grown fixated on the number of novel coronavirus cases in the United States and has expressed that he wants them kept as low as possible, Politico reported Saturday evening.
Trump has been monitoring the daily counts of US cases and how they compare with other countries’, according to Politico.
As of Saturday, 17 people in the US had died after contracting the virus and more than 400 people had tested positive. But the actual number of coronavirus cases is most likely far higher given the US’s limited testing capacity.
Trump even publicly acknowledged wanting to keep a quarantined cruise ship offshore to keep the number of US coronavirus cases low.
“I like the numbers being where they are,” Trump said during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday. “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”
Politico, citing 13 current and former White House officials and people close to the Trump administration, reported Saturday that Trump had handled the coronavirus outbreak by rewarding those who bore good news and spurning those with bad news.
For instance, health officials have sought to appease Trump by emphasizing any positive news in briefings, according to Politico.
Other officials have also sought to keep a lid on other, negative information. For instance, the CDC hasn’t confirmed how many people in the US have been tested, Politico noted.
That was then, right? He’s learned since then how devastating this is.
Well:
“In a way, by doing all this testing we make ourselves look bad,” — Wednesday
He cannot learn anything. Ever.
Ironically, yesterday one of his valets showed up for work with symptoms and tested positive. CNN reports that Trump was irate to hear it. He and Pence were immediately tested and came back negative. How nice for them, right? In fact, that’s how we’d all like things to work but he doesn’t want any more testing because it makes him “look bad.”
Trump will not self-quarantine. He doesn’t need to. He can get tested any time he wants to. Nice for him. Too bad for everyone else.