Trump administration communication during the COVID-19 pandemic

The White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing the media.

The administration under U.S. President Donald Trump has conducted various forms of communication during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, including via social media, interviews, and press conferences with the White House Coronavirus Task Force.^[1][2][3] Opinion polling has indicated that less than half of all Americans trust information provided by Trump regarding the COVID-19 pandemic; while local government officials, state government officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci were trusted more.^[4][5][6]

President Trump has been publicly optimistic through much of the pandemic;^[7] at times his optimistic messaging has diverged from that of his administration's public health officials.^[8] From January to mid-March, Trump downplayed the threat posed by the coronavirus to the United States, as well as the severity of the outbreak.^[9][10][11] He later explained this by stating that he wanted to "give people hope", as a "cheerleader for the country", although he "knew everything".^[12] From February to May, Trump continually asserted that the coronavirus would "go away".^[13][14] Meanwhile, the CDC waited until February 25 to first warn the American public to prepare for a local outbreak.^[15]

In March 2020, the Trump administration started conducting daily press briefings at the White House.^[16] Trump was the dominant speaker at the briefings.^[17] The New York Times analysed Trump's speeches from March 9 to April 17, concluding that self-praise was the most frequent goal of Trump's speeches.^[18] Trump has repeatedly uttered falsehoods regarding the pandemic.^[19] One theme of Trump's falsehoods is exaggerations of the reactionary measures taken by his government and the private sector.^[10] Trump has also understated the projected time to produce a vaccine, and promoted unapproved treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.^[10] In such instances, he was corrected by Anthony Fauci.^[20][21]

Trump has shied away from admitting mistakes in his handling of the outbreak, but has blamed many others.^[22] Around 15% of Trump's April 6 to 24 speeches were spent criticizing others, analysed The Washington Post; the most frequent targets of his criticism were Democrats, followed by the media, state governors, and China.^[17] Trump went from praising China in January regarding their transparency in response to the Chinese outbreak, to criticizing China in March for a lack of transparency, to criticizing the World Health Organization in April for praising China's transparency.^[23][24] Trump has often reversed his stances in his communication, giving mixed or contradictory messaging.^[25] He has sometimes denied his own public statements.^[26]

Severity and risk assessments

January 1 to February 24

The Washington Post described Trump's pronouncements as having "evolved from casual dismissal to reluctant acknowledgement to bellicose mobilization" over the course of the pandemic.^[27]

In January and February 2020, U.S. intelligence agencies delivered over a dozen classified warnings in the President's Daily Brief about the coronavirus, including its potential to inflict severe political and economic damage. President Trump typically does not read that daily brief and often has "little patience" when people summarize it orally, the Washington Post reported. The brief is also shared with other officials in the administration. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which produces the President's Daily Brief, denied that there were repeated mentions of the coronavirus.^[28]

On January 8, 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a health advisory regarding an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, which was being caused by a yet-unidentified virus. It issued a low-level travel notice for Wuhan with a reminder to practice "usual precautions". The CDC advised clinicians that U.S. patients with severe respiratory illnesses should be checked for travel history to Wuhan, and that health authorities should be immediately informed of cases meeting such criteria.^[29][30][31]

On January 17, the CDC conducted its first press briefing on the novel coronavirus.^[32]

On January 21, after the first U.S case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed, the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, stated that: "we do expect additional cases in the United States and globally ... The confirmation that human-to-human spread with this virus is occurring in Asia certainly raises our level of concern. But we continue to believe the risk of this novel coronavirus to the American public at large remains low at this time."^[33][34]

On January 22, Trump was interviewed by the media, in which he acknowledged that the CDC had briefed him on the sole known coronavirus case in the country. The interviewer asked Trump: "Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?" Trump replied: "No. Not at all. And, we're, we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine."^[35] He continued to claim that the outbreak was "under control" on January 30, February 23, February 24, and February 25.^[9][11]

On January 27, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted that "things are going to get worse before they get better".^[36] Three days later, Fauci stated that the COVID-19 outbreak "could turn into a global pandemic".^[36] Also on January 30, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that "the immediate risk to the American public is low."^[3]

On February 10, Trump stated that "a lot of people think that [the coronavirus] goes away in April with the heat ... Typically, that will go away in April" (later on April 3, he denied ever having given "a date" for the departure of the virus).^[13][26] On February 13, CDC director Robert Redfield contradicted Trump, saying that the "virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year".^[34] Redfield also predicted that it "will become a community virus at some point in time, this year or next year".^[37] On February 16, Anthony Fauci warned that it was not necessarily true that COVID-19 would "disappear with the warm weather."^[36]

February 25 to March 15

February 25 was the first day that the CDC first warned American public to prepare for a local outbreak.^[15] That day, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, head of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that "We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this is going to be bad." Messonnier predicted that "we will see community spread in this country", and it was only a matter of time. As a result, "disruption to everyday life might be severe". Messonnier stated that the CDC is preparing, and "now is the time for hospitals, schools and everyday people to begin preparing as well."^[38][39] Also on that day, Anthony Fauci declared that given how COVID-19 was spreading in other nations, it was "inevitable that this will come to the United States" as well.^[36] On February 26, CDC Director Robert Redfield said it would be "prudent to assume this pathogen will be with us for some time to come".^[3]

Meanwhile, on February 25, federal economic policy chief Larry Kudlow declared the coronavirus containment "pretty close to airtight".^[3] On February 26, Trump contradicted Messonnier, stating: "I don't think it's inevitable" that a U.S. outbreak would occur, "It probably will, it possibly will ... Whatever happens, we're totally prepared."^[40] Trump additionally declared that the number of infected was "going very substantially down, not up", but stated: "Schools should be preparing. Get ready just in case."^[41]

On February 26, speaking of the number of known infected in the country at the time, Trump predicted "the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero—that's a pretty good job we've done."^[13][40] He rejected the notion that the U.S. needed to produce more masks, stating: "Our borders are very controlled."^[36] On February 27, he said of the virus: "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. And from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows."^[13] Also on February 27, Trump declared that the risk to the American public from COVID-19 "remains very low".^[42]

On February 28, during a 2020 presidential campaign rally, Trump stated that around 35,000 people in America die from influenza each year. He compared it to the statistic that there were zero known deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. at the time, and concluded: "You wonder if the press is in hysteria mode."^[43]

On February 29, Trump said that "additional cases in the United States are likely", but "there's no reason to panic at all."^[34] When a reporter asked Trump: "How should Americans prepare for this virus?" Trump answered: "I hope they don't change their routine", before calling on CDC director Robert Redfield to answer the same question. Redfield replied: "The risk at this time is low ... The American public needs to go on with their normal lives."^[44]

On March 2, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, voiced his concern that in the next one to three weeks, the U.S. would "see a lot more community-related cases", due to the country already having identified "a number of cases" that have "been in the community for a while".^[3][45]

On March 4, Trump appeared on Fox News's Hannity by phone, where he claimed a 3.4% mortality rate projected by the World Health Organization (WHO) was a "false number", and stated his "hunch" that the true figure would be "way under 1%".^[46][47] Trump also predicted that many people infected with COVID-19 would experience "very mild" symptoms, "get better very rapidly" and thus they "don't even call a doctor". Thus, there may be "hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better." Trump used this to argue that there would be an under-reporting of cases and an over-estimation of the death rate.^[48]

On March 6, CDC director Robert Redfield again said that the risk to the American public was "low", asserting that there were not "hundreds and hundreds of clusters" of COVID-19 cases in the country, and declaring that "we're not blind where this virus is right now in the United States". On March 7, Redfield encouraged Americans to continue their travel, even take a trip to Disneyland (within one week, Disneyland parks were closed in the country).^[44] On March 9, Redfield repeated that the risk to the American public was still "low".^[49]

From March 6 to March 12, Trump stated on four occasions that the coronavirus would "go away".^[13] On March 10, Surgeon General Jerome Adams stated that "this is likely going to get worse before it gets better."^[3]

March 16 to April 24

On March 16, President Trump admitted for the first time that the coronavirus was not "under control", and the situation was "bad" with months of impending disruption to daily lives, and a recession possible.^[50]

On March 17, Trump argued that he "felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."^[51] A fact-check by the Associated Press of this statement of Trump's concluded that Trump was "revising history"; the claim "doesn't match his rhetoric over the last two months", where Trump never described the outbreak as a pandemic before the World Organization did so on March 11.^[52]

Trump has repeatedly compared COVID-19 to influenza, despite Fauci estimating COVID-19 to have a mortality rate around ten times higher. On February 26, he contrasted it with Ebola stating: "This is a flu. This is like a flu". On March 9, Trump compared the 546 known U.S. cases of COVID-19 at the time and the 22 known deaths at the time to the tens of thousands of U.S. deaths from flu each year. On March 24, Trump argued that: "We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu ... But we've never closed down the country for the flu." On March 27, he stated: "You can call it a flu. You can call it a virus. You know you can call it many different names. I'm not sure anybody even knows what it is." On March 31, Trump changed his stance: "It's not the flu ... It's vicious".^{[53][54][55][56]}

On March 24, Trump declared that "we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel"; a day later the U.S. surpassed 1,000 COVID-19 deaths.^[57] On April 5, Trump continued to use the same phrase, by that day, the U.S. had close to 10,000 COVID-19 deaths and over 330,000 known COVID-19 cases.^[58] Meanwhile, on April 5, Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned that the next week is "going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives", comparing it to the attack on Pearl Harbour or the 9/11 attack.^[59]

From March 30 to April 7, Trump stated on four occasions that the coronavirus would "go away".^[13]

When Trump was asked by the media on March 31 if his initial dismissive comments on the virus had misled Americans, he replied: "I want to give people a feeling of hope. I could be very negative ... You know, I'm a cheerleader for the country." Asked further if he knew the situation would turn out so severe despite stating that it was under control, Trump replied: "I thought it could be. I knew everything. I knew it could be horrible, and I knew it could be maybe good."^[12] On April 1, Mike Pence told the media: "I don't believe the president has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus ... I think he's expressed confidence that America will meet this moment". Pence proceeded to describe Trump as "an optimistic person".^[60]

In an interview by the Washington Post published on April 21, Redfield warned that “there's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," as it could coincide with seasonal flu.^[61][62] During that day's briefing, Trump criticized the story's headline, "CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating", as being "fake news", and accused media outlets of having "totally misquoted" Redfield. Redfield clarified that "I didn’t say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more complic- — or more difficult and potentially complicated."^[63][64] Trump followed up, by saying that "we may not even have corona coming back, just so you understand." Later in the briefing, Fauci said that he was "convinced" that the United States "will have coronavirus in the fall", but the country would be "much, much better prepared".^[65][66]

April 25 to June 15

In late April, White House officials delivered upbeat messages about the future of the country. Vice President Mike Pence predicted that "by Memorial Day weekend we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us." White House adviser Jared Kushner predicted that "a lot of the country should be back to normal" by June and "really rocking again" by July. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted that the American economy would "really bounce back" in the months of July, August and September.^[7] Meanwhile, Trump was repeating his assertion that the coronavirus "is going to go away".^[13]

On April 27, with over 55,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S., Trump stated that the U.S. was "probably heading to 60,000, 70,000" deaths.^[67] Less than one week later, on May 1, with over 63,000 total deaths, Trump said: "Hopefully we're going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost".^[68]

On May 8, Trump predicted that COVID-19 is "going to go away without a vaccine", "eventually". Just five days earlier, he had instead said: "this country needs the vaccine". Asked to explain his May 8 prediction, Trump claimed: "I just rely on what doctors say". However, weeks earlier, senior health official Anthony Fauci had stated that the outbreak was "not going to be over to the point of our being able to not do any mitigation until we have a scientifically sound, safe and effective vaccine."^[14] Later on May 12, Fauci explained that COVID-19 would not simply vanish from the U.S. because it was too "highly transmissible".^[69]

On May 12, Fauci testified to the Senate that the actual death toll for COVID-19 in the U.S. was "almost certainly higher" than the official death toll. He argued that there would be unrecorded deaths in areas where hospitals were very strained, with people dying in their homes, who would not be counted as COVID-19 deaths.^[70] Fauci also warned that "we don't know everything about this virus, and we really had better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children", pointing to examples of children developing an inflammatory syndrome which is similar to Kawasaki syndrome.^[71]

On June 9, an interview of Fauci aired where he said that COVID-19 was his "worst nightmare" realized, given that it was "highly transmissible", he further warned that "it isn't over yet".^[72]

June 16 to present

On June 16, the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Fauci, where he commented that the United States is "still in a first wave" of infections for the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci also stated that the increasing percentages of positive tests in many states "cannot be explained by increased testing".^[73] Also that day, Vice President Pence, in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, criticized the media for warning against a "second wave" of infections, stating that "such panic is overblown". Pence declared that "we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy".^[74]

On June 17, Trump declared that the outbreak was "dying out" and that COVID-19 is "fading away". On June 23, Fauci stated that the United States is "now seeing a disturbing surge of infections", reiterating that COVID-19 would not "disappear".^[75]

On July 3, NBC reported that Trump administration officials were planning a communications strategy that would portray the virus as having a low mortality rate and that would highlight possible therapeutic drugs. The officials were reportedly aware of the reality that, with only four months until the election, COVID-19 would present an ongoing public health concern for voters.^[76] During his Independence Day address the next day, Trump commented that 99% of U.S. COVID-19 cases were "totally harmless"; the comment was disputed by FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn and mayors of several southern cities.^[77]

In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Trump disputed Wallace's statement (based on John Hopkins University numbers) that the U.S. had the seventh-highest mortality rate in the world from COVID-19, stating that "we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world", and presenting Wallace a White House-produced chart (claimed to be sourced from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) in support of this statement. He again downplayed the threat, arguing that "many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day [...] they have the sniffles and we put it down as a test."^[78]

Mitigation measures and policies

Implementing restrictions

In his first comment on the coronavirus in a major address, Trump in his February 4 State of the Union pledged that his "administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat".^[79] On February 28, Trump stated that "we are doing everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering the country. We have no choice."^[80]

On March 11, 2020, after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, President Trump delivered an Oval Office address. In his speech, Trump stated that his administration was "marshaling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people". He announced that the United States was "suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days", except travel from the United Kingdom, and including "the tremendous amount of trade and cargo". Trump also listed several economic policy proposals designed to provide tax relief for workers, aid small businesses, and fight the spread of the virus. Trump declared that insurance companies "have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments". After the speech, America's Health Insurance Plans clarified the waivers were only for tests, not for treatments, but by March 10 treatment was also covered. Trump also clarified that said trade was still approved under the travel restrictions, and administration officials clarified that American citizens or legal permanent residents or their families were not affected.^[81] Trump praised his administration's response to the "foreign" virus while stating that "a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe." He closed the speech by calling for less partisanship during the pandemic and praising Americans' response to adversity.^[82][83]

On March 16, President Trump and the Coronavirus Task Force released new recommendations based on CDC guidelines for Americans, titled "15 Days to Slow the Spread". These recommendations included physical distancing and hygienic instructions, as well as directions to the states in dealing with school closures, nursing homes, and common public venues.^[84][85]

On March 28, Trump raised the possibility of placing a two-week enforceable quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and "certain parts of Connecticut" to prevent travel from those places to Florida.^[86] The federal quarantine power is limited to preventing people reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease from entering the country or crossing state lines.^[87] Later that day, following criticism from the three governors, Trump withdrew the quarantine proposal. Instead, the CDC issued a travel advisory advising residents of the three states to "refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately".^[88]

On April 2, Anthony Fauci stated: "I don't understand why" some states still had yet to implement stay-at-home orders. By April 3, the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota had not implemented any such orders, while the states of Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming had implemented stay-at-home orders in some regions of the states, but not state-wide.^[89]

Lifting restrictions

On March 22, Trump indicated a desire to scale back physical distancing measures: "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself." A day later, he argued that economic problems arising from physical distancing measures will cause "suicides by the thousands" and "probably more death" than coronavirus itself. He declared that the United States would "soon, be open for business", in a matter of weeks.^[90][91] On March 24, Trump expressed a target of lifting restrictions "if it's good" by April 12, the Easter holiday, for "packed churches all over our country".^[92] A survey of prominent economists by the University of Chicago indicated abandoning an economic lock-down prematurely would do more economic damage than maintaining it.^[93] Law and economics scholars have argued that the lockdown is justified based on a cost-benefit analysis.^[94][95] On the March 26 episode of Hannity, Trump stated that there were plans to classify states by COVID-19 risks, possibly allowing for measures to be lifted on a regional basis.^[96]

Despite stating in a previous briefing that he preferred to have mitigation measures be controlled by individual states because it was compatible with the Constitution, Trump claimed at the April 13 briefing that he had the ultimate authority to order the end of restrictions, saying "the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots."^[97] Three days later, Trump backtracked on his assertions, and assured governors that they would be able to "call [their] own shots."^[98]

On April 17, Trump made posts on Twitter reading "LIBERATE MICHIGAN", "LIBERATE VIRGINIA" and "LIBERATE MINNESOTA", in support of protests over responses and stay-at-home orders issued by the Democratic governors of these states (including the Lansing, Michigan protest). The posts were made after Fox News's America's Newsroom aired a segment that covered these protests, implicating that he was reacting to it in real-time (as he has with other Fox News programs, such as Fox & Friends).^[99][100] Later that day, a reporter asked whether he thought those states should end their stay-at-home orders. He replied, "No, but elements of what they've done are too much." When Trump was asked if he was worried that protester gatherings would inadvertently spread the coronavirus, he replied that the protesters "seem to be very responsible people".^[101] A day earlier, Trump commented: "They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion is the same as just about all of the governors. They all want to open. Nobody wants to stay shut, but they want to open safely. So do I."^[102]

On April 17, the White House released their "Opening Up America Again" blueprint. Later on May 13, the Associated Press reported that the CDC had also written guidance on lifting restrictions, which was not released to the public. The difference between the CDC and the White House's recommendations was that the CDC's recommendations were more specific and more restrictive than the White House's recommendations. The White House plan recommended that "non-essential travel can resume" after 28 continuous days of decreasing COVID-19 cases, whereas the CDC plan stated that resuming non-essential travel will only be under "consideration" after 42 consecutive days of decreasing COVID-19 cases. The CDC plan recognizes that COVID-19 cases will likely surge when restrictions are lifted, and local authorities would need to stringently monitor their communities, but the White House plan does not. The White House plan offers non-specific recommendations to protect "workers in critical industries" and "the most vulnerable", whereas the CDC plan recommends using demographic information to find out where COVID-19 cases are more likely to increase faster.^[103]

On April 20, Fauci warned that the protests against stay-at-home orders may "backfire" if a spike in cases follows an early lifting of restrictions. Fauci argued against the protests, stating that "unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not gonna happen."^[104] On May 1, Trump described Michigan protesters against stay-at-home orders as "very good people" who are "angry". Some of those protesters had brought rifles into the Michigan State Capitol. Trump called on Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to "make a deal" with the protesters.^[105] On May 3, White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx stated that it was "devastatingly worrisome" that some protesters across the U.S. were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. She warned that these protesters may "go home and they infect their grandmother or grandfather who has a comorbid condition".^[106]

The CDC developed more than 60 pages of step-by-step guidelines for reopening businesses, including "decision trees" to help business owners decide whether it was safe to reopen. It sought White House approval to publish the guidelines, anticipating a publication date of May 1. The document was called the "Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework." However, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) told the CDC they could not publish it. The White House asked for the document to state more directly "when" to reopen and "how" to safeguard health; they did not want the decision trees that addressed whether to reopen. Part of the CDC's document (17 pages)^[107] was leaked on May 7, and the rest was identified on May 8.^[108][109]

After Anthony Fauci warned against reopening schools too fast, President Trump responded on May 13 that he was "surprised" by Fauci's comments, stating that "it's not an acceptable answer". He accused Fauci of wanting "to play all sides of the equation". Trump declared that "schools are going to be open", while "the only thing that would be acceptable" is to delay the return of older educators for a few weeks. Trump declared that students were "in great shape" and the statistics for them regarding COVID-19 were "pretty amazing". Trump acknowledged that "something" may happen to students, but asserted that: "You can be driving to school and some bad things can happen too."^[110][111]

On July 8, Trump declared an intent to pressure state governors into ensuring that schools are open to in-person classes for the next semester and "cut off funding" if they don't, alleging that Democrats wanted to keep schools closed for political reasons going into the election. Trump also criticized the CDC's guidelines for schools as bring "very tough and expensive". During the day's briefing, Mike Pence subsequently announced that the CDC would "[issue] a new set of tools, five different documents that will be giving even more clarity on the guidance going forward." The next day, CDC director Robert Redfield stated that these documents would be supplemental to its existing guidelines, denying accusations that they were to be modified outright due to pressure from Trump.^{[112][113][114]}

Mask wearing

On April 3, after the CDC issued a recommendation that the general public wear non-medical face coverings to help reduce propagation of the respiratory droplets that spread COVID-19, Trump stated in that day's briefing that he would not personally do so, and emphasized that this was merely a recommendation.^[115]

In May 2020, Trump did not publicly wear a mask during press appearances at a Honeywell factory producing masks,^[116] nor at a Ford Motor Company plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan on May 21. At the Ford plant, Trump did wear a mask, but took it off before appearing for the media; he argued that he "didn't want to give the press the pleasure" of seeing him wearing a mask.^{[117][118][119]}

Following the visit, the state's Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she would issue a warning to Ford for violations of Michigan health orders, which require the wearing of masks in all enclosed public spaces. She also criticized Trump on Twitter, calling him a "petulant child", and arguing that he was a bad role model for the country, and had endangered the factory's workers. In response, Trump chastised Nessel for "taking her anger and stupidity" out on Ford, and suggested that the company "might get upset with you and leave the state, like so many other companies have — until I came along and brought business back to Michigan."^[120][121]

On May 26, Trump said that it was "very unusual" for Joe Biden to wear a face mask during a public appearance at a Memorial Day ceremony, because he was "standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather". Trump also said that "that was fine" and that he "wasn't criticizing" Biden.^[122] Trump also shared a Twitter post ridiculing the outfit by Fox News commentator Brit Hume. In an interview, Biden responded by saying that "Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine."^[123][124] Also that day, Trump asked a journalist to remove his face mask while asking a question. The journalist refused, saying he would talk louder. Trump reacted by accusing the journalist of wanting "to be politically correct."^[125]

In an interview with Fox Business on July 1, Trump stated he was "all for masks" and would wear one in public if social distancing was not possible, although arguing that he would not usually be in such a situation, and questioned whether a nationwide mandate for wearing masks in public would be effective, since it would apply in "places in the country where people stay very long distance" already.^[126][127] On July 14 in an interview with CBS News, Trump similarly urged Americans to wear masks "if it's necessary".^[128] On July 20, Trump posted a photo of himself wearing a mask on Twitter, stating that "many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance".^[129]

Testing

On February 21, Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases denied that there was a "lag time for testing." Similarly, Health Secretary Alex Azar, in his testimony to the Senate on February 25, denied that the CDC-developed COVID-19 test was faulty (which it actually was), instead boasting that the CDC's response has been "historic".^[44]

On March 4, Trump inaccurately blamed the Barack Obama administration for making "a decision" that delayed COVID-19 testing by the Trump administration, stating that his administration "undid that [rule] a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion to more quickly provide diagnostic tests to the American people." Also that day, CDC director Robert Redfield inaccurately claimed that the Obama administration had modified policy to start regulating laboratory-developed tests. In actuality, the policy in question had never been modified by the Obama administration, despite plans to do so. The policy's overall legal roots date to 2004, before the Obama administration. Under the umbrella of Emergency Use Authorizations, the old policy stated that laboratory-developed tests "should not be used for clinical diagnoses without FDA's approval, clearance, or authorization during an emergency declaration". However, this policy was historically treated as a recommendation and generally unenforced, with no clear legal authority of the FDA in this area. The Trump administration continued to require laboratories to apply to the FDA for approval, but allowed the laboratories to test while the FDA processed the applications.^[130][131]

On March 5, Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of the coronavirus response team, acknowledged that "we don't have enough tests" to meet the predicted future demand; this announcement came only three days after FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn committed to producing nearly a million tests by that week.^[132] The next day, Pence was contradicted by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who said that: "There is no testing kit shortage, nor has there ever been".^[133] Also on March 6, Trump over-promised on the availability of COVID-19 testing in the United States, claiming that: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test." Firstly, there were criteria needed to qualify for a test; recommendations were needed from doctors or health officials to approve testing. Secondly, the lack of test supplies resulted in some being denied tests even though doctors wanted to test them.^[134][135]

On March 13, when Trump was asked if he took responsibility for deficiencies in the country's testing response, he replied: "I don’t take any responsibility at all".^[136]

On March 30, Trump claimed that his administration "inherited a broken test" for COVID-19. "That wasn't from us. That's been there a long time," he said. The claim was illogical because no previous administration could have prepared a test for a disease which had yet to emerge. COVID-19 emerged during Trump's presidency, at the end of 2019. The test was designed in 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control under the Trump administration.^[137] Trump repeated the false claim on multiple occasions: saying, for example, that the "CDC had obsolete tests" (to OANN on April 19)^[138] and that "the tests were broken" (to ABC News on May 5).^[139]

In early April, the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report describing that U.S. hospitals in late March reported that "severe shortages of testing supplies", including "nasal swabs, viral transfer media, and reagents used to detect the virus". The hospitals also reported "frequently waiting 7 days or longer for test results".^[140][141]

On April 21, Trump stated that COVID-19 testing in the United States "is good in some cases, and in some cases it’s not."^[25] On May 1, Trump boasted that his administration has "solved every problem ... quickly", including "the testing".^[142]

On May 6, Trump said that if the United States "did very little testing, we wouldn’t have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad."^[143] Also that day, Trump met with a group of nurses. The group did not wear masks or practice social distancing, because they said they all had been tested negative for COVID-19. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany argued that day that it "is just simply nonsensical" that "everyone" in the U.S. "needs to be tested". She introduced a straw man argument that "we'd have to retest them an hour later, and then an hour later after that."^[143][144]

On May 8, when Katie Miller, one of the West Wing's senior staff, tested positive for COVID-19, Trump used her as an example to claim that "the whole concept of tests aren't necessarily great". He went on: "The tests are perfect, but something can happen between a test where it's good and then something happens and all of the sudden. She was tested very recently and tested negative, and then today I guess for some reason she tested positive."^[145]

On May 11, Trump claimed during a press conference that the country's testing capacity was "unmatched and unrivaled anywhere in the world, and it’s not even close". When Chinese-American CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang accused Trump of attempting to treat the number of tests conducted as a "competition", despite the U.S. death toll, Trump replied, "well, they're losing their lives everywhere in the world, and maybe that’s a question you should ask China". When accused by Jiang of having specifically said that with her in mind, Trump replied, "I am not saying it specifically to anybody. I am saying it to anybody who would ask a nasty question like that."^{[146][147][148]}

On June 4, CDC director Robert Redfield urged those who participated in the George Floyd protests, especially those who protested in metropolitan areas, to undergo COVID-19 testing.^[149]

During a rally on June 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump argued in his speech that increased testing was responsible for a rise in U.S. cases. He also claimed that he had asked officials to "slow down the testing, please", so that case numbers could be lowered. White House advisor Peter Navarro stated following the speech that the remark was meant to be "tongue-in-cheek".^[150] Asked about the statement by a reporter on June 22, Trump replied that "I don't kid, let me just tell you." In an interview with CBN News aired later that day, Trump stated that the remark was "semi tongue-in-cheek", and denied that he had ordered the government to reduce testing. However, Trump stated that he did discuss with "my people" the possibility of doing so. He said that reducing tests would make the U.S. look like it was "doing much better", but added that "I wouldn't do that, but I will say this: we do so much more [testing] than other countries it makes us, in a way, look bad but actually we're doing the right thing."^[151] Following the rally, Trump continued to claim that increased testing was responsible for the increased number of cases.^[152][153]

Vaccines and treatments

Vaccine development

On March 2, Trump told the media that he had heard that a COVID-19 vaccine would be available in "a matter of months", with "a year [being] an outside number", after Trump attended a discussion where Fauci told him this process would take "a year to a year and a half" (at a minimum, Fauci later said). During that discussion, Trump repeatedly quizzed the leaders of pharmaceutical companies on the time needed to produce vaccines, stating "I like the sound of a couple of months better". The length of time required is due to regulatory bodies requiring multiple rounds of tests before vaccines being approved for the public's use.^[20]

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine

It has been suggested that portions of this section be split out into another page titled Use of chloroquine and hydrochloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 . (Discuss) (June 2020)

After learning about a French clinical study which implied a 70% cure rate in 20 patients versus 12.5% in the control group,^[154] Trump promoted the drugs chloroquine (also known as chloroquine phosphate)^[155] and hydroxychloroquine as potential treatments "by prescription" for COVID-19 on March 19. He noted the drugs showed "tremendous promise" and said he was working together with Governor Cuomo to begin quickly studying and treating coronavirus patients with the drugs in New York. He also remarked on their long-term usage as medicines in the United States saying, "the nice part is, it's been around for a long time, so we know that if it—if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody."^[156][157] Fatal overdoses of these drugs have occurred, and potential side effects are also known.^[158] Also during the briefing, Trump claimed that chloroquine had already been "approved very, very quickly" by the FDA as a treatment for COVID-19 (leading the FDA to clarify that it had not yet approved any COVID-19 treatments^[159] but was now allowing chloroquine under compassionate use guidelines).^[160][161]

Within days of this briefing, a shortage occurred for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in the United States, while panic-buying occurred overseas in Africa and South Asia.^[162][163] In the state of Arizona, a man died, with his wife in critical condition, after they ingested fish bowl cleaner, which contained chloroquine phosphate. The couple believed the chemical cleaner could prevent them from contracting COVID-19, although the chloroquine phosphate in fish bowl cleaners is not the same formulation found in the medicines chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine.^[164]

After Trump discussed chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, Fauci stated in March that the success of those drugs were still "anecdotal. It was not done in a controlled clinical trial, so you really can’t make any definitive statement about it."^[21] In April, after Trump again promoted hydroxychloroquine during a press briefing, a reporter asked Fauci a question on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. Trump stopped Fauci from answering the question, stating: "He's answered that question 15 times".^[165] On April 21, the results of a study were released in which treatment with hydroxychloroquine was linked to higher rates of death than those in a control group who did not receive any drug treatment.^[166]

On May 18, Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine, and again promoted it: "What have you got to lose?" Fox News television host Neil Cavuto reacted to Trump's comments by stating that studies showed that people taking hydroxychloroquine risked losing their lives. Cavuto also said that hydroxychloroquine "will kill" those who are "vulnerable". Trump responded to Cavuto on Twitter by retweeting criticisms of Cavuto: "idiot", "foolish", "gullible" and "an asshole." Trump also declared that Fox News had "more anti-Trump people, by far, than ever before".^[167]

On May 31, the U.S. federal government donated two million doses hydroxychloroquine to Brazil, for prophylactic and therapeutic use.^{[168][169][170]}

Light and disinfectants

During the April 23 briefing, DHS Science and Technology Directorate William N. Bryan presented preliminary findings from lab experiments conducted by the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, which found that COVID-19's half-life in saliva droplets on a non-porous surface was shorter when exposed to heightened heat or humidity, and considerably shortened in ultraviolet light (such as direct sunlight). Bryan noted that this evidence could help "support practical decision-making" (such as having governments encourage more outdoor activity by residents), but that "it would be irresponsible for us to say summer will kill the virus".^[171] It is currently unproven if there are any correlations between warmer climates and COVID-19's spread.^[171]

Trump subsequently proposed a treatment that would involve "[hitting] the body with a tremendous [light]" that could be "[brought] inside of the body" through the skin or "in some other way". He asked response coordinator Deborah Birx if heat or light could be used as a treatment, to which Birx stated she had not seen any treatments of such a nature in use.^{[172][171][173]}

File:NEXT- Today's press briefing with the Coronavirus Task Force. april 23 2020.webm In response to another statement by Bryan on research of disinfectants that could kill the viruses on surfaces, Trump also openly wondered if disinfectants could be used on humans "by injection" or as "almost a cleaning, sterilization of an area", stating that it would be "interesting to check". Trump attributed both of the above ideas to him being "a person that has a good you-know-what".^{[175][172][173][176]}

The Guardian reported that a few days before Trump had made his comment on disinfectants, advocates of Miracle Mineral Supplement (MMS), a form of bleach, had sent a letter to the president with information about what is fraudulently touted as a "miracle cure" for a wide range of diseases. It is unknown if Trump was aware of the letter.^[177]

Trump's suggestion involving the injection of disinfectants faced strong criticism from health experts, who stated that doing so would be dangerous and lethal. Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of Lysol, issued a warning against use of its products internally.^{[178][176][172]} During an interview with NPR the following morning, Senate minority leader Charles Schumer described Trump as having become a "quack medicine salesman", and argued that "we need real focus in the White House on what needs to be done. Instead of talking about disinfectant the president should be talking about how he's going to implement testing. Which every expert says is the quickest path to get us moving again."^[179][180]

On April 24, the White House accused the media of taking Trump's words "out of context", while Trump stated that he was actually being "very sarcastic" the previous day when talking about disinfectant. Trump went on to say that disinfectant "would kill [the virus] on the hands, and that would make things much better."^[181] However, applying disinfectants on skin has the potential to cause irritation or chemical burns.^[182]

After Trump's comments, "hundreds of calls" were made to the Maryland health department emergency hotline "asking if it was right to ingest Clorox or alcohol cleaning products — whether that was going to help them fight the virus", according to Republican governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan. He called for the White House to communicate "very clearly on the facts", because people "certainly pay attention when the president of the United States is standing there giving a press conference".^[183] Other increases in calls to poison control centers were reported in the New York City , and the states of Michigan, Tennessee , and Illinois. The state of Illinois also reported incidents where people have used detergents for sinus rinses, and gargling with a mixture of bleach and mouthwash.^[183][183] Officials of the state of Kansas stated on April 27 that a man drank disinfectant "because of the advice he'd received", but did not clarify the source of the advice.^[184] When Trump was asked by a reporter about "a spike in people using disinfectant after your comments last week", Trump interrupted the question, stating: "I can't imagine why." The reporter continued by asking: "Do you take any responsibility?" Trump replied: "No, I don't."^[184]

Medical supplies

Around late February, Stephen Hahn, the head of the FDA, warned of national medical supplies being disrupted due to the outbreak.^[3]

On March 16, Trump told state governors that for medical equipment including respirators and ventilators, "We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves."^[185] On March 24, Trump said state governors who wanted help from the federal government "have to treat us well, also", because "it's a two-way street"; he warned against governors arguing "we should get this, we should get that."^[186] Trump said the Governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, "shouldn't be relying on the federal government"; Inslee replied that the President should enact a "national mobilization of the industrial base in this country" to produce medical supplies.^[187]

On March 27, Trump said governors should be "appreciative" of himself, his administration, the Vice President, FEMA, the Army Corps, and several other agencies. Trump said "These people are incredible. They're working 24 hours a day. Mike Pence—I mean, Mike Pence, I don't think he sleeps anymore." Trump said he had advised Vice President Mike Pence, "If they don't treat you right, I don't call," adding "Mike, don't call the governor of Washington. You're wasting your time with him. Don't call the woman in Michigan. All—it doesn't make any difference what happens." Trump added that Pence would call them anyway.^[188] Governor Whitmer of Michigan, who had previously argued that "the federal government did not take this seriously early enough," responded that her state still needed personal protective equipment, ventilators, masks and test kits.^[189] On March 29, Trump denied that he had told Pence not to call certain governors: "I don't stop" Pence, he said.^[26]

On the prevalence of medical supplies, Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that "many of the states are stocked up,", with certain hospitals "holding ventilators, they don't want to let 'em up."^[190] Trump has also questioned the exponential increase in mask demand during the pandemic and suggested that the reason for the shortage was masks "going out the back door".^[190][191] As evidence, the White House pointed to an early March call by Cuomo to investigate people who steal medical products.^[192] While there have been reports of small-scale thefts of hand sanitizer, gloves and masks around the country, Cuomo and New York hospitals rejected Trump's claims.^[192]

On April 3, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser, stated regarding medical supplies that "what you have all over the country is a lot of people are asking for things that they don't necessarily need at the moment ... you have instances where in cities, [ventilators are] running out, but the state still has a stockpile [of ventilators]. And the notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile; it’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use."^[193][194]

At the time that Kushner made his remarks, it was contradicted by the Department of Health and Human Services website, whose description of the federal stockpile was as follows: the "Strategic National Stockpile is the nation's largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency."^[193][194]

After Kushner made his remarks, the website description was changed after journalists reported on the contradiction. The new description stated: "The Strategic National Stockpile’s role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available."^[193][194]

In April and continuing into May,^[139] Trump made multiple false claims that the Obama administration left him a "stockpile with a cupboard that was bare" or "empty". The Strategic National Stockpile for medical supplies was reported by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2016 to have around $7 billion worth of products, of which there were over 900 kinds. An NPR reporter, Nell Greenfieldboyce, visited a Strategic National Stockpile warehouse in June 2016, describing "shelves packed with stuff stand so tall that looking up makes me dizzy". In November 2019, the director of the stockpile at the time, Greg Burel, stated that the stockpile was worth $8 billion. After his retirement in January 2020, Burel stated that the stockpile "didn't receive funds to replace those masks, protective gear and the anti-virals" used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic in the United States. Due to limited funds, Burel said that the stockpile instead chose to "invest in those lifesaving drugs that would not be available from any other source, in the quantity needed, and in time". The Trump administration itself "largely waited until mid-March" 2020 to start buying large quantities of face masks, ventilators, and other medical equipment, reported the Associated Press.^{[138][195][196]}

Also in early April, the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report describing that U.S. hospitals in late March reported that long patient stays due to long waits for tests results were putting a strain on other resources, such as hospital beds, personal protective equipment and staffing. There were "widespread shortages" of personal protective equipment, and "shortages of critical supplies, materials, and logistics", including intravenous therapy poles and food.^[140][141]

On May 1, Trump bragged that his administration has "solved every problem ... quickly", including "the masks and all of the things", and "ensured a ventilator for every patient who needs one".^[142]

Evaluation of U.S. response

On February 26, Trump judged the United States as "very, very ready for this, for anything", even "a breakout of larger proportions".^[197] On February 28, Trump accused Democrats of attempting to politicize the outbreak, stating that criticism of his administration's response was "their new hoax", drawing a parallel with the Russia investigation and his impeachment.^[80] In mid-March, when asked by a journalist to "rate your response to this crisis" on "a scale of 1 to 10," Trump replied that he'd give himself a "10."^[198][199]

Fauci acknowledged on March 12 it was "a failing" of the U.S. system that the demand for coronavirus tests was not being met;^[200] Fauci later clarified that he believed the private sector should have been brought in sooner to address the shortfall.^[201]

In late March, Trump stated: "I don't think I would have done any better [on responding to the outbreak] if I had not been impeached. I don't think I would have acted any differently, or I don't think I would have acted any faster."^[202] In early April, Trump stated: "I couldn't have done it any better", even if he did not see a January memo from his adviser, Peter Navarro, warning about the threat of the outbreak.^[22][203]

In early April, Trump claimed that a federal government report that hospitals reported shortages in medical supplies was "wrong". He went on to describe the report as "Another Fake Dossier". Trump pointed out that the author of the report, Christi Grimm, "spent 8 years with the Obama Administration" (Grimm had joined the office in 1999, meaning she had also worked for the two administrations before Obama's). Trump insisted the report was Grimm's "opinion" despite being told that the office had interviewed 323 hospitals in producing the report.^[140][141] Grimm was performing the duties of an acting inspector general of health, as the post of the inspector general of health was vacant.^[204] In May 2020, Trump nominated Jason Weida to be the permanent inspector general, pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate. According to a department spokeswoman, Grimm will remain in her original position as principal deputy inspector general of health.^[205]

In mid-April, Fauci stated that if the administration "started mitigation earlier", more lives could have been saved, and "no one is going to deny that." However, Fauci explained that the decision-making for implementing mitigation measures was "complicated", and "there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then."^[206] Fauci's comments were met with a hostile response from former Republican congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine. Trump retweeted Lorraine's response, which included the call to "#FireFauci", drawing public alarm. As a result, the White House denied that Trump was firing Fauci, and blamed the media for overreacting.^[207][208] Nonetheless, Fauci dialed back his television appearances in May.^[209] On July 1, Trump retweeted an unscientific social media poll by the organization ACT! for America in which Twitter users, given the binary choice, had claimed to trust Trump over Fauci.^[210]

In late April, Trump's adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, declared that in response to the pandemic, "the federal government rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story." Kushner's claims were ridiculed by officials of previous administrations, who stated that the roughly 60,000 U.S. deaths at the time could not be called a success. In other remarks, Kushner stated that people should not be questioning why the testing system took so long to set up, but rather ask: "How did we do this so quickly?"^[211]

Also in late April, Trump was asked if he had ignored warnings about COVID-19 in January and February from his intelligence advisers. Trump defended his own response to the pandemic by falsely claiming that Dr. Anthony Fauci in late February said the coronavirus outbreak was "no problem" and was "going to blow over". In fact, Fauci had on February 29 said that "this is an evolving situation", "now the risk is still low, but this could change ... when you start to see community spread", and that "this could be a major outbreak".^[212]

In late May, Trump was interviewed about a Columbia University study that concluded that nearly 36,000 deaths in the U.S. could have been prevented with earlier social distancing measures or earlier lockdowns. Trump said that he "saw that report", describing it as a "disgrace", and claimed that the Columbia University was a "liberal, disgraceful institution to write that because all the people that they cater to were months after me", citing his travel restriction on foreigners coming from China.^[213] Also in late May, Trump wrote in the same tweet that there were simultaneously "no credit" and "great reviews on our handling" of COVID-19.^[214]

Emphasis on travel restrictions related to China

Trump expressed a focus on the number of U.S. cases in the initial stages of the outbreak, citing the relatively low number of confirmed cases as proof of success of his travel restriction on foreign nationals arriving from China.^[215] Commenting about cruise ship Grand Princess, he stated his preference that infected passengers not disembark as he did not want "to have the [U.S. case] numbers double because of one ship".^[215] Trump explained in his March 25 briefing that "if I didn't do it, you'd have thousands and thousands of people died—who would've died—that are now living and happy".^[216]

On the March 26 episode of Hannity, Trump accused Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden of saying the travel restrictions were xenophobic and racist; Biden's campaign said that the comments were in reference to Trump's racial views in general, and Biden's deputy campaign manager later stated that he supported travel restrictions "guided by medical experts, advocated by public health officials, and backed by a full strategy".^{[217][218][219]}

In late March, Trump, in defending against claims that the early response to the outbreak was mishandled, claimed that his decision to implement travel restrictions on China "was weeks early", and that "doctors — nobody wanted to make that decision at the time". He also claimed: "Everybody thought it was just unnecessary to do it." In early May, Trump stated that when he implemented the travel restrictions on China: "I was criticized by everybody, including Dr. Fauci ... When I closed the border to China, he disagreed with that." Trump's claims are false, according to the Associated Press and Slate: health secretary Alex Azar said on February 7 that the travel restrictions on China were recommended by the administration's health officials, specifically naming Fauci as one of them. Azar said that he and Trump had accepted the recommendation. According to reporting by The New York Times, Fauci and Robert Redfield had agreed to the travel restrictions on January 30, while according to the Wall Street Journal, Trump was "reluctant" to implement the restrictions, and had to be persuaded by Azar.^[36][220]

On April 1, Trump claimed that the United States had taken action "far earlier than anyone would have thought and way ahead of anybody else"; at least 11 countries had already imposed travel restrictions on China before the United States announced its restrictions on January 31 (one day after the WHO declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern), but they did not take affect until February 2. By then, at least 46 countries and territories had implemented some form of travel restriction affecting China.^[217][218]

New York Times article and April 13 video

On April 12, The New York Times published an article detailing the government's slow response to COVID-19, including accusations that Trump repeatedly ignored warnings by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. As no briefing was scheduled that day due to the Easter holiday, Trump criticized the article on Twitter—arguing that it was "a fake, just like the paper itself", and claiming that he was being "criticized for moving too fast when I issued the China Ban, long before most others wanted to do so", and that "[Azar] told me nothing until later".^{[221][222][223]}

During his briefing the next day, Trump screened a compilation of footage defending his early response, including a montage from the aforementioned March 26 Hannity showing guests on other news programs downplaying COVID-19's threat with the headline: "The media minimized the risk from the start", audio of New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman stating that the travel restrictions toward China were "probably effective, because it did actually take a pretty aggressive measure against the spread of the virus", as well as positive comments made by New York and California's governors Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom. The video contained few references to Trump's optimistic remarks and inaction through January and February, and the Haberman audio was abridged to remove a sentence that followed, where she said that the travel restriction was "one of the last things that [Trump] did for several weeks".^{[25][224][225][223]}

When asked by CBS News correspondent Paula Reid about his lack of action and the downplaying of February from the video, Trump asked, "how do you close down the greatest economy in the history of the world when, on January 17, you have no cases and no deaths?". He also argued that "we did a lot [in February]", and told the reporter "Look, you know you're a fake. You know that the whole network, the way you cover it is fake."^[223][226] In an interview with MSNBC, former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines described the video as "one of the astonishing acts of disinformation we’ve seen from a White House since the Vietnam era and the 5 o'clock follies of the Lyndon Johnson administration."^[223]

International matters

China and the World Health Organization

On January 22, Trump was asked by the media a question on regarding allegations of a lack of transparency regarding the outbreak in China: "Do you trust that we're going to know everything we need to know from China?" Trump answered: "I do. I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi."^[23] On January 24, Trump wrote on Twitter: "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!"^[24]

On February 7, when Trump was asked by the media if he was "concerned that China is covering up the full extent of the coronavirus" outbreak in their country, Trump replied: "No, China's working very hard ... and I think they're doing a very professional job ... It's a tough situation. I think they're doing a very good job."^[24][227] On February 13, when Trump was asked by the media, "Did the Chinese tell the truth about this?" He responded: "Well, you never know", then praised China for having "handled it professionally".^[23]

On February 26, while Trump was visiting India, he stated: "China is working very, very hard."^[24] On February 27, during a press conference, he stated that China's President Xi Jinping "is working very, very hard."^[24]

On March 21, Trump spoke at a press conference, criticizing China for being "very, very secretive". When asked about his own comments on January 24 praising China's transparency, Trump answered that China was "transparent at that time", but "they could have been transparent much earlier than they were."^[23]

On April 7, Trump declared that the United States was "going to put a very powerful hold on" funding to the World Health Organization. Less than 20 minutes later, when he was asked about his announced decision, he denied his statement: "I'm not saying I'm going to do it, but we're going to look at it".^[25][26]

On April 14, Trump criticized the World Health Organization for failing to "call out China's lack of transparency", stating that the WHO "willingly took China's assurances to face value ... even praising China for its so-called transparency."^[23][24] He made this criticism in spite of his own similar behavior in January and February 2020.^[23][24]

On April 27, Trump lamented: "There has been so much unnecessary death in this country. It could have been stopped and it could have been stopped short, but somebody a long time ago, it seems, decided not to do it that way. And the whole world is suffering because of it. 184 countries, at least."^[228]

International cooperation

In his February 4 State of the Union speech, Trump stated that his administration was working together with the Chinese government on the outbreak in China.^[79]

On March 26, President Trump spoke on the phone with China's President Xi Jinping, and they pledged to cooperate in fighting against the pandemic. It signaled a fresh détente between the two countries after weeks of rising tensions.^[229] On the same day, after a video call summit with the other G20 leaders, Trump stated the United States was working with international allies to stop the spread of the coronavirus and to increase rapid information and data sharing.^[230]

Terminology

On March 16, Trump began referring to COVID-19 as "the Chinese virus" and was criticized for creating a potential stigma. Trump disagreed with the criticism, saying "it comes from China" and that "China tried to say at one point—maybe they stopped—that it was caused by American soldiers. That can't happen."^[231][232]

On March 23, Trump stopped using the "Chinese virus" term, citing the possibility of "nasty language" towards Asian-Americans.^[233][234]

On March 25, the foreign ministers from the countries of the Group of Seven held an online conference. The group could not come into agreement on releasing a joint statement on the global outbreak because U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted on calling COVID-19 the "Wuhan virus". The previous day, the finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 had released a joint statement that referred to COVID-19.^[235]

COVID-19's origins

On April 30, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated that the U.S. intelligence community "concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified." It also stated that U.S. intelligence agencies were investigating whether the outbreak started from "contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan".^[236]

On May 3, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed in an interview that there existed "a significant amount of evidence" that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. After Pompeo also claimed that the "best experts so far seem to think [COVID-19] was man-made", the journalist informed Pompeo that he had contradicted the U.S. intelligence agencies' stance (as written above). Pompeo then changed his stance, stating that he had "no reason to disbelieve" the agencies.^[237]

In an interview published on May 4, Anthony Fauci stated that the scientific evidence "is very, very strongly leaning toward" that the evolution of COVID-19 "could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated".^[238]

Personal health

On May 21 in an interview on the South Lawn, Trump used confusing wording to describe the result of his most recent negative test for the virus, explaining that he had "tested very positively in another sense", as in "positively toward the negative".^[239][240]

Daily press briefings

In March 2020, the Trump administration started conducting daily press briefings at the White House.^[16] At the end of March, Trump boasted of the high "ratings" of his press briefings.^[16] Particularly controversial comments about sunlight and disinfectants were made on April 23; the next day, the press briefing was noticeably shorter and had no question period. Axios subsequently reported that there were plans for the briefings to be downsized and no longer feature Trump on a regular basis.^[241][242]

On May 1, new White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany reinstated the traditional White House press briefings, which had not been held in over a year.^{[243][244][245]}

On June 26, the Coronavirus Task Force held its first briefing since April, addressing a major spike in cases in California and other southern states. The briefing was held from the Department of Health and Human Services rather than the White House, and led by Pence. Trump (who was preparing for an unrelated press appearance at the White House) was absent from the briefing.^[246]

Accuracy

Trump was criticized for making exaggerated and inaccurate statements at these briefings, including about U.S. efforts to control COVID-19, promotion of his political positions and platform, and attacks on the media. Critics described the briefings as more akin to "propaganda" that were supplanting public rallies for his 2020 re-election campaign. There were calls for broadcasters to refuse to air the briefings live and instead to allow for fact-checking and vetting of remarks before airing the briefings.^{[247][248][249][250][251]}

Analysis

Trump himself began delivering briefings from March 13; he spoke almost every day, noted Buzzfeed News on April 14.^[252] From mid-March to early April, the press briefing lengths increased from 61 minutes to 105 minutes, while Trump's speaking time per session increased from 20 minutes to 53 minutes.^[253] On April 10, he spoke to reporters for 133 minutes straight.^[252] On April 26, The Washington Post reported that Trump had taken up 60% of the time of the press briefings since March 16.^[17]

The New York Times analysed over five weeks worth of Trump's speeches from March 9 to April 17, amounting to over 260,000 words. The most common pattern found was Trump's "self-congratulations", with around 600 instances. His self-praise was "often predicated on exaggerations and falsehoods", of which The New York Times found over 130 instances. Trump praised others over 360 times, and blamed others over 110 times. There were around 100 instances of "appeals to national unity", and around 60 instances of "empathy". He made many more remarks lamenting the pandemic's economic damage than its human cost.^[18]

The Washington Post analysed three weeks worth of Trump's briefings from April 6 to 24, for over 13 hours of Trump speaking. He spent a total of 2 hours on criticizing others, with the most targeted groups being Democrats, the media, state governors, and China. He spent 45 minutes praising himself and his administration, while taking a total of less than 5 minutes in offering condolences. He spent 9 minutes promoting hydroxychloroquine. When questions were posed to other members of his team, Trump gave an answer more than 33% of the time, including when the other official had already answered the question. In nearly 25% of his comments or remarks, Trump offered false or misleading information, analysed The Washington Post.^[17]

Broadcasts

Some broadcasters have re-evaluated their approach to covering the briefings: by late-March, CNN and MSNBC had become more cautious in their broadcasts, especially towards remarks by Trump that veer too far from the topic of public health, or during situations where the briefing had become unreasonably long.^[254][255] During the April 13 briefing, CNN cut away in the middle of the aforementioned video, with anchor John King arguing that "[playing] a propaganda video at taxpayer expense in the White House briefing room is a new — you can insert your favorite word here in this administration", and MSNBC cutting away following the video, with Ari Melber describing it as "some kind of backward-looking edited video propaganda".^[256][223]

The practice has, in turn, faced criticism by those who feel they should be broadcast in their entirety due to their importance; deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere tweeted that it was "pretty disgraceful" for the two networks to cut away from the March 23 briefing early, and thanked Fox News for "keeping Americans informed".^[254] In response, Washington Post media writer Erik Wemple remarked that "... keeping Americans informed requires editing this president. A lot."^[255]

Accessibility

The Coronavirus Task Force briefings do not offer interpretation in American Sign Language. This has been criticized by the National Association of the Deaf, because not all deaf viewers are able to fully understand written English (as used by closed captioning). Most state-level briefings have utilized interpreters.^{[257][258][259][260]}

Suppressing mention of COVID-19

A June 22 internal memo from the National Marine Fisheries Service banned employees from mentioning "anything COVID-related" in official actions without executive approval, and recommended euphemisms like "in these extraordinary times" if reference to the pandemic was necessary.^[261][262]

Public response to communication

A poll conducted from March 11 to March 15 by the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that President Trump was trusted to provide reliable information on the coronavirus by 46% of Americans (19% among Democrats and 88% among Republicans). The CDC was trusted to provide reliable information on the coronavirus by 85% of Americans (85% among Democrats and 90% among Republicans). Trump had an overall lower trust regarding this topic compared to the news media, local government officials, state government officials, and the World Health Organization. The CDC had the highest overall trust.^[4]

A poll conducted from April 16 to April 20 by the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago estimated that President Trump was a source of information on the pandemic for 28% of Americans. In terms of trust in Trump for information on the outbreak, 23% have a high amount of trust, while 21% have a moderate amount of trust. Americans used state or local officials more as a source of information, and also trusted them more than Trump.^[5][263]

A poll conducted from May 7 to May 10 by SRSS for CNN, concluded that only 36% of people in the U.S. trusted President Trump on information about the COVID-19 outbreak. 4% of Democrats trusted information from Trump, while around 80% to 81% of Democrats trusted information from Dr. Anthony Fauci or the CDC. 84% of Republicans trusted information from Trump, this was higher than their trust in information from the CDC (72%) or Fauci (61%).^[6]

A poll conducted on May 20 and 21 by Yahoo News and YouGov found that a plurality of U.S. adults (33%) felt that the top source of misinformation about COVID-19 was the Trump administration. This was a higher figure than the following sources: the mainstream media, social media, local news, state officials, family and friends. 56% of Democrats stated that the Trump administration was top source of misinformation about COVID-19, while only 11% of Republicans agreed. Despite Trump downplaying the threat from COVID-19 over 40 times, 51% of Republicans believe that Trump had always viewed COVID-19 as a very serious threat, while 8% of Democrats agreed. Despite the U.S. intelligence agencies, public health experts, and Trump administration officials warning of the possibility that such a serious pandemic would happen, 52% of Republicans thought that such a pandemic was "something nobody thought could happen", as did 36% of Democrats.^[264]

A poll conducted July 12-15 by the Washington Post and ABC News found that 38% of Americans approved of Trump's handling of the crisis. This had dropped from the 51% approval recorded the previous March.^[265]

See also

• Right-wing antiscience

References

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