“He got it right away”
What changed that blob of vanilla pudding known as Trump’s “mind”?
Pictures, and graphs, and the fact that people he actually knows have the virus.
“We’re thinking that around Easter that’s going to be your spike. That’s going to be the highest point we think, and then it’s going to start coming down from there,” Trump said Monday on “Fox & Friends.” “The worst that can happen is you do it too early and all of a sudden it comes back. That makes it more difficult.”
Yes, but people were telling him that all along, and he ignored them.
The bleak forecasts were carried into the Oval Office by Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, who displayed to Trump projections that, on the low end, could yield 100,000 American deaths from COVID-19. One model showed that deaths could have soared past 2 million had there been no mitigation measures.
“We showed him the data. He looked at the data. He got it right away. It was a pretty clear picture,” Fauci told CNN on Monday.
No, he didn’t get it right away. This past weekend is not “right away.” Right away would have been weeks ago, not three days ago.
Trump mused to reporters Saturday about a quarantine of New York, as well as parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, blindsiding their governors and raising questions about federal authority.
Even if the measure was unenforceable, Trump thought it could be a signal to supporters elsewhere that he was walling off a virus hot zone comprised of three Democratic states. But Fauci and other advisers persuaded him that it would accomplish little except ignite worry.
Aw too bad. It would have been so awesome to see “Democratic states” consigned to doom while “Republican states” flourished like the green bay tree.
The spike won’t be Easter. That is when NY is going to peak. All the states that have done almost nothing until now to stop it are going to be the spike, probably in mid-May.
Yeah, but Fauci has to flatter Trump. He’s figured out the secret formula, and is now wearing the secret Trump decoder ring.
Probably, but then we fact-checkers get to come along behind him and clean up.
Absolutely. Fact-checking is important. Truth matters. And there is no reason we have to flatter Trump. (I doubt he reads B&W).
@iknklast B&W has too many big words for starters. :-)
On behalf of my clients, the Vanilla Pudding Insititute of Defence (VAPID), I must protest the comparison of Mr Trump’s brain to our esteemed members. It is, as all the world knows, blancmange, which is a quite different and inferior product.
Ahem: tapioca. Blandest of the bland.
Hey! I like tapioca. (Confession: I also eat Velveeta. But, yes, I do know about that delicious thing called cheese, and am extremely fond of many varieties of same. I was brought up poor, and we alternated between Velveeta and American. I had to get married and move out before I discovered all the marvelous cheeses out there. I never eat American cheese any more, but I occasionally do still eat Velveeta.)
Holms, I’ll see your tapioca and raise you semolina.