Analysis: US to hit 200K dead, with no regret by Trump over failure in handling COVID19

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As the coronavirus pandemic began bearing down on the United States in March, President Donald Trump set out his expectations. 

The number of US deaths from Coronavirus is to hit 200, 000 , with no regret by president Trump over his failure in handling the virus . With coronavirus is still raging, Trump and Dr Antony Fauci (L) are reportedly no longer speaking. The President has taken to openly criticizing him on television. Fauci has been expressing disbelief at some of Trump’s claims. Fauci admits earlier Covid 19 mitigation efforts would have saved more American lives

If the U.S. could keep the death toll between 100,000 to 200,000 people, Trump said, it would indicate that his administration had “done a very good job.” 

In the coming days, the number of U.S. deaths is set to clear the outer band of the president’s projections: 200,000, according to the official tally, though the real number is certainly higher. The virus continues to spread and there is currently no approved vaccine. Some public health experts fear infections could spike this fall and winter, perhaps even doubling the death count by the end of the year.

Yet the grim milestone and the prospect of more American deaths to come have prompted no rethinking from the president about his handling of the pandemic and no outward expressions of regrets. Instead, Trump has sought to reshape the significance of the death tally, trying to turn the loss of 200,000 Americans into a success story by contending the numbers could have been even higher without the actions of his administration. 

“If we didn’t do our job, it would be three and a half, two and a half, maybe 3 million people,” Trump said Friday, leaning on extreme projections of what could have happened if nothing at all were done to fight the pandemic. “We have done a phenomenal job with respect to COVID-19.”

Trump’s reelection prospects will hinge in part on whether enough voters agree with that assessment. The challenge he faces in making his case, with just over six weeks before the Nov. 3 election and voting already underway in some states, is clear. 

Just 39% of Americans approve of the president’s handling of the pandemic, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly one-quarter of Republicans say they don’t approve of Trump’s stewardship of the public health crisis, though his overall backing among GOP voters sits at a comfortable 84%. 

There’s also little doubt that the death toll in the U.S. has soared past where Trump repeatedly assured the public it would be. In February, when the first coronavirus cases were detected in the U.S., the president said the numbers would be “down to close to zero” within day s. In early April, when U.S. officials estimated at least 100,000 people would die from the pandemic even if all conceivable steps were taken against it, Trump suggested the numbers would be lower, saying: “I think we’re doing better than that.”

He’s shifted again in recent days, saying that the U.S. remains a success story because some models showed the nation could have 240,000 deaths — a threshold that appears likely to be eclipsed by the end of the year. 

Well aware of his sluggish standing with voters on the pandemic, Trump has spent recent weeks trying to refocus his race against Democrat Joe Biden on other issues, including promising white suburban voters that he would keep crime in liberal cities from encroaching on their neighborhoods. 

Trump will now campaign in particular on the courts, given Friday’s death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, seeking to lure back Republican voters who may have turned on him during the pandemic, with the promise of more conservatives on the high court. 

Though the Supreme Court vacancy does significantly jolt the White House race, Biden still wants to keep much of the focus on the coronavirus. He strengthened his standing through the summer by hammering what he calls the Trump administration’s failures to take the virus threat seriously and to provide consistent guidance to the public, including around the effectiveness of wearing face masks. 

After revelations in a new book from journalist Bob Woodward that Trump intentionally played down the seriousness of the virus earlier this year, Biden said of a president’s responsibilities: “You’ve got to level with the American people — shoot from the shoulder,” adding, “There’s not been a time they’ve not been able to step up.”

Trump has insisted he wasn’t downplaying the severity of virus when he compared it with the seasonal flu and undercut public health officials who pushed for more stringent mitigation efforts. Yet he’s repeatedly flouted his own administration’s safety guidelines, rarely wearing a mask himself and holding large campaign events with little evidence of social distancing among his crowds. 

With the death toll continuing to climb, Trump has also repeatedly passed up opportunities to serve as a unifying force for communities and families grieving the loss of loved ones. Instead, he’s effectively discounted the deaths of Americans who live in Democratic-leaning states, suggesting he has little responsibility for the well-being of those who don’t support him politically. 

“If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at,” Trump said this past week about the death toll. “Some of the states, they were blue states and blue state-managed.” 

It was a jarring statement from an American president, yet one in keeping with Trump’s handling of the pandemic and his presidency. He’s long taken a transactional approach to his office, and he spent the opening weeks of the pandemic feuding with Democratic governors in hard-hit states, challenging them to lift restrictions that he deemed harmful to the strong economy he’d hoped to ride to a second term. 

“He sees everything, including the implications of this terrible virus, in terms of his own political and personal success — ‘How does it affect me and my electability and my popularity,’” said Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history and political science at Syracuse University. 

The question looming over his presidency now, as Americans mourn 200,000 lives lost, is what the effects of his handling of the pandemic will be on his political future. The answer will come soon enough from his fellow Americans.

ASOCIATED PRESS

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11 responses to “Analysis: US to hit 200K dead, with no regret by Trump over failure in handling COVID19”

  1. I still can’t believe that Trump thinks he can be re-elected with this kind of attitude
    His attitude is what is 200,000 dead Americans ?
    As far as he is concerned could have been in the millions too … who cares
    This number means nothing to him
    It is just a number
    God help USA
    if this guy is ever re-elected

    1. Yeh and Biden is better. Q to Biden, hey Biden what colour is the sky. A. I can’t read the answer, please lift the teleprompter.
      Trump might be a clown in the way he talks, but look at the record to what he has done for economy and black unemployment, prison reform and on and on. When Trump closed the country down in late January, what did the Democrats call him.? Biden called him every name under the sun and with the support of all the lefties and Democrats never supported a closure until they saw the numbers in late March, that would have made the number 1 million if we listened to the Democrats.
      If Trump saved the universe and gave $1 million each, the Radical Marxist lefties would hate him…..

      1. Why Putin-Huilo is better smarter nicer friendlier understandlier then Trump? No embassy move to Jerusalem!

        1. It’s called politics. Nicer in front of your face, while in the background they sleep with your wife take your house and send you the bill. Putin nicer, yeh right, look at his record on how he treats his people not much difference to Iran. Look at the Lebanese politicians who give you $5 and take a million to shut u up. Trump is hated because he tells it how it is.
          Quote…. people hate you for speaking the truth……………. Putin speaks the truth ,,,LOL
          Just because you have a viewpoint does not mean you are right……..
          It’s Putin Khuilo……

          1. I think God created Trump and Putin and then broke the mould .
            2 of a kind
            I don’t hate anybody , I just despise Trump for his bullying and Putin too( for bullying and poisoning his rivals)
            I think no body has ever downgraded the White House and the American values as much as Trump did.
            America is being run like a corrupt third world country under Trump. No president has practiced as much nepotism as Trump did
            As Woodward said ” Trump is the wrong man for the job
            By the way He didn’t do the job he claimed for the economy
            Look at Dow when he took over and look at it today
            And look at the Dow when Obama took over and see how much better he was on the economy in both terms
            By the way I am independent, but like to tell it as it is

          2. Man I clearly gave you facts last time about the Dow than and under Trump and clearly the factual numbers clearly show better under Trump. Not my number real numbers and you never answered back with your side of the FACTS, not a view point. But I will do it again for you

            Really your comparing the 2008 financial crisis with the covid-19 crisis. Let’s look at real facts by numbers

            1. November 8 2008 when Obama was elected, Dow was 8,945 points. In 8 years NOT 3 years like Trump.
            In 2016 highest for Obama was 17,888 Dow

            2. November 11, 2016 when Trump was elected Dow 17,888 and in one week spiked 1000 point. February 20 2020 Dow was 29,551. I repeat 29,551 points highest and never seem before.

            3. Compare 8 years under Obama 8,945 Dow gain. Under Trump Dow gain in 3 years 11,663.
            Please don’t say it’s 25,000 point and second this crisis is 1000% worse than 2008 and almost like 1987 crash.

            4. Unemployment rate under Obama 4.7% under Trump 3.5% December 2020, lowest level in nearly half a century 1969 same level.
            5. Unemployment for blacks under Obama was 8.2% under Trump 5.4% in 2019.
            Tell me FACTS who really has done better. These are recorded FACTS, not my view point.
            Yes as a person he can be a clown, but for economy he has done better than a lot of others.
            Quote… those who act as themselves are hated, those that lie and pull the wool over peoples eyes are lifted up high.
            Give me FACTS please not because you dislike someone.
            By the way I don’t vote never voted and never will. My father was one of those political people in the 50s in Lebanon and could not teach me better not to trust a politician on all sides.
            But yes I’m giving you Facts, not sides.

          3. I appreciate what you are trying to say
            but you usually report the performance from the day a president takes office till the other president takes office

            When President Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 7,949.09
            On January 19, 2017, the day before Trump took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 19,804.72
            In other words it increased during Obama ‘s 8 years 249 % 0r 124.5% per each 4 year term
            The Dow is today 27288 which makes the increase 137 % over what it was when trump took office , but no one at this stage knows exactly what is going to happen between now and jan 20 so we have to wait till Jan 19 evening to determine who did better , but as you can tell they are close

            I have a feeling the market is going to be gyrating like crazy between now and after the elections , because the numbers now don’t favor trump and may make it difficult for Biden if he loses ,

            Unemployment
            When President Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, the unemployment was was 7.8 %
            On January 19, 2017, the day before President Trump took office, the unemployment was 4.8 %
            Unemployment today is 8.4 % thanks of course to Coronavirus and the way it was mishandled
            again no one knows how much it is going to be in Jan 19 2021
            Lets revisit in January if we are still around

            On January 19, 2017, the day before Trump took office, the unemployment was 4.8 % President

          4. Yes let’s visit again God willing.
            But you can twist numbers anyway you want. They say if you say it enough times it will come true.

            Check this Fact from 2019 under Trump, lowest unemployment rate for 50 years. Not my facts but real facts.
            That number is 3.7% unemployment rate, lowest number for over 50 years.

            Job growth falls short of expectations as August payrolls rise just 130,000
            Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 130,000 in August, in large part to the temporary hiring of Census workers.
            The increase fell short of Wall Street estimates for 150,000, while the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7%, as expected.
            July and June job figures were also revised lower.
            Average hourly earnings increased by 0.4% in August and 3.2% over the year, better than expected.

            Excluding government hiring, private payrolls grew by just 96,000, the lowest pace since February.

            Jeff Cox | @JeffCoxCNBCcom
            Published 8:30 AM ET Fri, 6 Sept 2019 Updated 10:42 AM ET Thu, 21 Nov 2019

            Take care

          5. Es gibt kein Normalität mehr Avatar
            Es gibt kein Normalität mehr

            I think God created Trump, Putin and Netanyahu and then broke the mould .
            3 of a kind. ?

          6. Dear master09, may be i am not modest, i have viewfield, not point
            I am happily capable 75% control my own stupidity, chauvinism etc. BS
            And kudos, respect to You for Your good comments)

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