Trump fired off more than two dozen tweets and retweets but was silent on coronavirus until a Wall Street nosedive halted trading.
As stocks plummeted and concern spread about the growing coronavirus global health crisis, President Donald Trump began his week at his seaside resort in Florida with online screeds about fake news, Barack Obama and the Democratic primary.
The president fired off more than two dozen tweets and retweets Monday morning but was silent on the coronavirus-caused economic turmoil until an early Wall Street nosedive triggered an emergency “circuit breaker” to temporarily halt trading within minutes of the opening bell. Trump dismissed the drop as mostly the fault of an oil dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
When he did comment on coronavirus, the president mostly patted his administration on the back and continued downplaying the virus, a day after health officials made clear the growing outbreak is beyond their ability to track or contain the virus. He said Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, is doing a “great job” and that travel restrictions imposed by his administration had “saved many lives.” And he accused the “Fake News Media” of working to “inflame” the crisis “far beyond what the facts would warrant,” even as his HHS Secretary on Fox News this morning said “nobody is trying to minimize” the seriousness of the coronavirus.
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But in between comments on the economy and coronavirus, Trump fell back on a smattering of familiar attacks, accusing his predecessor, without evidence, of being the “most corrupt Administration in the history of our Country” and complained about what he said were “very bad, sick people” trying to undermine him from within the government.
After beginning his day at Mar-a-Lago in South Florida, the president’s public schedule on Monday revolved almost entirely around travel to and from a closed-door fundraiser in Orlando. He will return to Washington after the fundraiser.
Pence’s public schedule, by comparison, consists of a noon conference call with governors about the outbreak, a medal ceremony, and a meeting with the coronavirus task force he leads along with an on-camera press briefing on the outbreak.
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Trump fired off more than two dozen tweets and retweets but was silent on coronavirus until a Wall Street nosedive halted trading https://t.co/9YUDYEY04z
— POLITICO (@politico) March 9, 2020
The same Surgeon General who went all North Korea and said that Trump is healthier than he himself is. https://t.co/K3JoOx8XTH
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 9, 2020
This tweet kind of has a Soviet collapse vibe to it. https://t.co/886fJ4fOQa
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) March 9, 2020
Twenty Fifth Amendment.
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) March 9, 2020
Trump's tweets this morning strike me as his most desperate yet. Nothing he can say will have any positive impact on anyone or anything — short of announcing that he is stepping down.
— Tony Schwartz (@tonyschwartz) March 9, 2020
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