Because he doesn’t want to admit he was wrong when he compared the coronavirus to the flu.
James Hohmann of the Washington Post wrote:
Democrats want Trump to declare the coronavirus outbreak a national emergency. He’s hesitating.
President Trump declared a national emergency last February to divert billions that had been appropriated for the military to fund construction of his wall along the southern border. White House lawyers told Trump he could reprogram that money without the declaration. But the president was determined to announce a national emergency, we reported at the time, for fear of looking weak if he didn’t.
Thirteen months later, Trump has appeared afraid of looking weak if he does declare a national emergency to respond to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. He’s resisted a growing chorus of pleas from local leaders, as well as congressional Democrats, to declare a national emergency. Under the 1988 Stafford Act, this would enable the Federal Emergency Management Agency to take disaster-level action and free up billions in assistance for states and municipalities on the front lines of the pandemic.
Trump remained noncommittal when asked Thursday in the Oval Office whether he will declare a national emergency. “Well, we have things that I can do,” he replied. “We have very strong emergency powers under the Stafford Act. … I have it memorized, practically, as to the powers in that act. And if I need to do something, I’ll do it. I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.”
Trump added that he may invoke the Stafford Act “at some point” but suggested that things are not yet bad enough to do so. “It may be some of the more minor things at this point,” he said. “But, you know, look, we’re in great shape. Compared to other places, we are in really good shape, and we want to keep it that way. That’s why I did the ban with respect to Europe.”
Trump’s reluctance to claim executive power amid the gravest crisis of his presidency, when he’s had a penchant for doing so in less dire circumstances, is one of the more puzzling elements of what has been his administration’s muddled and confused response to the outbreak. There are now more than 1,600 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States and at least 41 deaths. The Dow plummeted 10 percent on Thursday, posting its largest one-day point loss in history. In percentage terms, it was the worst day for the markets since Black Monday in October 1987, despite the Federal Reserve – which Trump doesn’t control – announcing it would pump $1.5 trillion into the short-term lending markets.
This has made for a surreal reversal of roles. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) used the word “emergency” 10 times during a 16-minute speech about the coronavirus. “We are dealing with a national emergency, and the president should declare one now,” said Sanders, who helped champion the unsuccessful effort in the Senate last year to overturn Trump’s border-wall emergency. “The number of casualties may actually be even higher than what the Armed Forces experienced in World War II.”
Three dozen Senate Democrats signed an open letter urging Trump to invoke the Stafford Act and declare a national disaster. “Why he hasn’t done it is a mystery,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. “We need him to do it and do it now.”
Part of Trump’s hesitation to declare a national emergency has seemed to be about saving face. Just last week, for example, he said it would be unnecessary. “I don’t think you’ll need that because I really think we’re in extremely good shape,” he said. Declaring an emergency after making comments like that would put in stark relief the flat-footed nature of his initial reaction.
“Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is pushing for the designation. But Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump tapped to lead the administration’s coronavirus response, is wary it could trigger an economic tailspin,” Politico’s Anita Kumar reported on Wednesday. “There’s no deadline for a decision, but one of the people familiar with the talks said Trump’s aides will not give the president a final verdict until Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, talks to relevant parties and presents his findings to the president.” The story quotes an unnamed “Republican who speaks to Trump” saying: “The president isn’t persuaded because [an emergency declaration] contradicts his message that this is the flu.”
CNN reported Thursday that Trump has decided he’s willing to invoke the Stafford Act, but the declaration is going through legal review at the White House “as officials navigate how broad it can be.”
There are consequences to the delay. The FEMA Disaster Relief Fund has $42.6 billion. Trump declaring a national emergency would give the administration access to that pool of money to help manage the fallout from the spread of the virus, including setting up mobile hospitals and transporting the infected. Perhaps more importantly, it would open a gusher of money to states, counties and cities that may soon be overwhelmed by a surge in cases. An emergency declaration means that the federal government picks up 75 percent of the cost of eligible protective measures so long as the state picks up the other 25 percent.
The New York Times’s editorial page, in urging Trump to declare a national emergency, acknowledges the irony: “This editorial board is not inclined to grant the president more executive power, given his track record. But this crisis demands such quick action in the interests of the American people that we can only hope he will set his more selfish impulses aside and rise to the moment.”
The internal debate about whether to declare an emergency highlights Kushner’s growing role in the White House’s response to the coronavirus. “Even Trump — a man practically allergic to admitting mistakes — knew he’d screwed up by declaring Wednesday night that his ban on travel from Europe would include cargo and trade, and acknowledged as much to aides in the Oval Office as soon as he’d finished speaking,” Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey report. Kushner “reassured Trump that aides would correct his misstatement, four administration officials said, and they scrambled to do just that. … Trump — who believed that by giving the speech he would appear in command and that his remarks would reassure financial markets and the country — was in ‘an unusually foul mood’ and sounded at times ‘apoplectic’ on Thursday as he watched stocks tumble and digested widespread criticism of his speech …
“The speech was largely written by Kushner and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who were still making tweaks to the text until moments before Trump delivered it … Thirty minutes before Trump appeared live on camera, a final draft of his remarks still had not circulated widely within the White House … And senior health experts in the administration did not review a final draft of the remarks, according to a senior administration official. … ‘Everyone usually gets [Trump] where he needs to be within a couple of days,’ one official said. ‘The problem is we don’t have a couple of days.’”
“This was the most expensive speech in history,” Luca Paolini, chief strategist at Pictet Asset Management, told the Financial Times after the markets tanked because Trump’s Oval Office address make investors more jittery. “Investors are voting with their feet, and I can’t blame them.”
“After feeling besieged by enemies for three years, Mr. Trump and some of his advisers view so many issues through the lens of political warfare — assuming that criticism is all about point scoring — that it has become hard to see what is real and what is not,” Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman report in the New York Times. “Even when others with Mr. Trump’s best interests at heart disagree, they find it hard to penetrate what they see as the bubble around him. Thomas P. Bossert, a former homeland security adviser to Mr. Trump, has tried repeatedly in recent days to be patched through to the president or [Pence] to warn them just how dire the coronavirus pandemic really is, only to be blocked by White House officials … Among the advisers who share the president’s more jaundiced view is [Kushner], who considers the problem more about public psychology than a health reality, according to people who have spoken with him.”
Trump is a National Security Threat.
Trump is also trying to MAKE $$$$$ off of this pandemic.
He really needs to be IMPEACHED.
He’s also afraid of stirring up his “base” of racists, religious zealots and gun nuts. These people are already claiming that this is a hoax that the Dem Party has made up to make trump look bad. Unfortunately, these will be the same people who will get this virus and spread it around the most at their big rallies and gun fests. I don’t wish this virus on anyone, but it would be a Karmic event if it happened.
It was reported last night that the NRA convention in Nashville had been cancelled. Huge economic drain on the Nashville economy. The irony.
Maybe that means that his “base” is starting to wake up and smell the coffee?…probably not. People need to use common sense and walking around in a closed area with hundreds of other unknown people is not very sensible right now.
Most Trump supporters are also Hannity/Limbaugh fans and they handed their brains over to those “ditto masters” a long time ago. I actually listened to Limbaugh soon after he was syndicated in 1988 and heard him say to his fans they were his ditto heads and he would do their thinking for them.
He also challenged any doubters to fact check him. Since I wasn’t letting Limbaugh do my thinking for me, I took Limbaugh’s challenge, discovered how much of a liar he was, and stopped listening to him.
Lloyd Lofthouse: As I’ve said before, my brother told me to listen to Hannity and Rush Limbaugh to ‘learn something’.
Quite frankly, I don’t want to learn the hatred, lies and fear that they spew.
Rush L now possesses the highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. All one has to do is tell Trump continuously how fantastic he is and you will be rewarded.
For those that have open minds and refuse to let anyone else think for them, all that listening to Hannity and Limbaugh does is turn those listeners into fact-check experts with high blood pressure.
Has anyone done a study to discover of Hannity and Limbaugh die-hards (that turned over their thinking to the two liars) have shorter life spans?
I wonder if Rush is upset about Trump proclaiming a national emergency since Rush says the virus is just the common cold.
@Lloyd….I think Limbaugh needs to go roaming around in very populated places to “prove” to his base that this is a “hoax”. My guess with his lung cancer, he doesn’t want to die sooner than later…he will stay isolated inside his studio and away from the population but keep spewing the lies.
I wonder if the “base” of zealots thinks that if it is hoax now that all major sports teams have canceled, and other nations are engaged in rigorous testing (as we are not).
Baseball’s spring training has been postponed. Are they too part of the “hoax”?
It’s a sad day for the Mudville Nine!
We’re so screwed.
No seriousness. No seriousness at all.
We need tests, now, enough for us to be able to establish containment zones. A short list of some things we need to be doing now, until we have enough tests and testing becomes ubiquitous:
close all schools
ban all public gatherings and close all places where people meet in groups–restaurants, bars, theaters, gyms, sporting event venues, museums, libraries, etc.
massively ramp up production of masks, oxygen tanks, hazmat suits, sanitizers , etc
use the military to set up field hospitals in every city
massively increase production of tests and number of testing centers
pass legislation to put an indefinite moratorium on evictions
train medial paraprofessionals, perhaps from among our national guard and other military services, to work under doctors and nurses
urge all businesses that can do so to have employees work from home
equip delivery people with protective gear
establish delivery services for food to poor children and elderly
cancel all in-person visitation to elder care facilities, prisons, jails, and detention centers, except by essential personnel (e.g., doctors, meal delivery people)
pass emergency economic legislation to provide sick leave pay for all workers
cancel all nonessential flights, bus travel, train travel
pass emergency economic legislation to provide free means-tested testing and treatment for coronavirus
establish cordon zones for all viral hotspots, with no travel in or out, and ready the military to enforce these
pass emergency economic legislation to compensate small businesses that have to close
establish price controls on essential items
requiring employers to give extended family units (Mom, Dad, grandparents, self-designated extended families consisting of separate families working together) power to assign two people at-home childcare provider status, allowing them full pay for half-time work
It is extraordinarily doubtful that we shall do these things. And as a result, in a few weeks’ time, we’ll look like Northern Italy.
This is not a time to have idiots in charge.
Yep. In fact, given our lack of concern, I will be surprised if we don’t surpass Northern Italy in misery within only a few weeks.
We may not need to test everybody, yet… However we do need to test a large enough sample in different areas of the country to know what’s going on, and that’s a lot of random tests, not just on people who ‘exhibit symptoms’. So far, none of this is being done. Our ‘leaders’ (and I mean business owners as well as politicians) seem like little kids sticking their fingers in their ears and shutting their eyes so they don’t have to see and hear reality.
No leadership yet. We’ll see. This is going to get very serious very quickly.
The American people should implore their representatives to immediately vote one article of impeachment against Donald J. Trump for criminal negligence. His dishonesty, misdirection, denial, obfuscation and inhibiting of urgent action is inarguably criminal negligence. His behavior, apart from all other dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis, will lead to thousands, if not tens of thousands, of otherwise preventable deaths.
A definition of criminal negligence: “Recklessly acting without reasonable caution and putting another person at risk of injury or death (or failing to do something with the same consequences)”
The articles could be voted within hours and a Senate trial could remove him from office within days.
Election tampering, corruption and obstruction of justice weren’t enough. Do we have the will to remove a man whose incompetence and sociopathy will kill our fellow citizens?
Because he’s a fool with no moral compass!
Trump just declared a national emergency.
Yes, and that was before an announced press confeence at 3 or 3:30 pm today. Trump is more concerned about the broken economy, shoring up his candidacy, and blaming Obama policies than the health of citizens. I wonder who will get the “helluva job” allocades for a belated opportunity ti use FEMA funds.
Trump to Declare National Emergency to Speed Virus Response
by Jennifer Jacobs, Saleha Mohsin and Jenny Leonard
President Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency on Friday over the coronavirus outbreak, invoking the Stafford Act to open the door to more federal aid for states and municipalities, according to two people familiar with the
Stafford Act lets president give federal aid to states, cities
Democrats say it will unlock more than $42 billion in funding
matter.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/trump-to-declare-national-emergency-to-speed-virus-response
Do not be surprised if Trump thinks declaring a national emergency means he can call up the National Guard in every state, declare martial law and order the troops to shoot any suspected victims of COVID-19 on the spot; then burn their bodies and houses to destroy all evidence that they ever existed.
He will also proclaim that anyone contracting COVID-19 is an illegal alien since the virus came from China.
This is really a response to Lloyd’s comment….
Yes, Lloyd, I had these same thoughts about the danger of a ‘National Emergency’ in the hands of Trump. Both Trump and the people who run him are as scary as any villain in a grade ‘B’ horror movie could ever be. In many tinpot countries, a ‘state of emergency’ is an excuse for ‘postponing’ elections.
One thing that this crisis makes clear is that our ‘rulers’, those with wealth and power, haven’t gained their position because they are intrinsically ‘brilliant’. The number of sociopaths in this ruling group far exceeds the National average, and expecting them to ‘watch over us’ is almost masochistic.
And, in turn, this points out a basic flaw in our society that needs to be corrected. How do we put ‘public spirited’ folks in charge of a country wallowing in a sea of commercial media?
“How do we put ‘public spirited’ folks in charge of a country wallowing in a sea of commercial media?”
Add an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that requires anyone worth more than 2.5 million dollars to donate all of their wealth to a fund for the public schools or toward paying down the national federal debt, including any property they own, before they can run for and hold an elected office.
They never get that wealth back.
The New York Times is reporting that according to the CDC, between 160 million and 214 million American could be infected over the course of this epidemic, between 2.4 and 21 million could require hospitalization, and between 200,000 and 1.7 million could die. A week and a half ago, Trump said that because he imposed a ban on entry from China, the number of cases would soon be down to around 5.
Watch Out! Trump may now take further emergency action to delay the 2020 elections indefinitely. You can never be too cautious to protect the American public — and we don’t know how long the danger of the virus can go on…. perhaps, for years.
And don’t forget: “May God Bless America!!!”
The risk of a State of Emergency declaration is that Trump gets almost unlimited powers. The benefit is that it unlocks billions of federal dollars to help people and communities in need.
Something tells me Trump cares more about the former than the latter.
Diane: “The benefit is that it unlocks billions of federal dollars to help people and communities in need.”
Where does the money come from since the government deficit is in trillions? We don’t have a hidden storage place filled with BIG BUCKS!
Who decides where that money is going? I don’t trust the Republicans to use it wisely since poor people don’t deserve free handouts.
WaPo:
Apr 9, 2018 The federal government is on track to have a $1 trillion deficit in 2020
My husband said the same thing. Trump may try to postpone the 2020 election “in the public interest, of course.”
A very frightening possibility. Who will stop him?
Who will stop Trump from canceling the 2020 elections?
Not the Supreme Court
Not the U.S. Senate
But COVID-19 might stop Trump … permanently as he continues to lie and pretend that he is the healthiest, smartest, most successful individual and greatest U.S. President throughout recorded human history.
“Trump is breaking his own agency’s coronavirus guidelines by not self-quarantining
The president has been moderately exposed to Covid-19.”
“If President Donald Trump listened to his own administration’s advice, he would self-quarantine to curb the spread of Covid-19. Instead, experts say he’s putting others and himself at risk by continuing to work normally despite having been exposed to the novel coronavirus. …”
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/12/21177182/coronavirus-covid-19-trump-exposure-quarantine
Trump lied again when he said, “I have it memorized”
Have you seen how long that act is?
Trump would not be able to memorize a Haiku poem and recite it correctly, let alone the Stafford Act.
Haiku vs Stafford Act:
A Haiku has three lines. There must be 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third.
vs.
the 113 pages of the Stafford Act:
Click to access stafford_act_fema_592_june_2007.pdf
Now, now, don’t you think you are being a bit harsh on the tRump?
Yes, I have been too harsh on tRump. I’m sure his rump could memorize it while sitting on one of his gold-plated toilet seats.
Here; we all need this:
This doesn’t sound a bit good. Indiana may have 67,000 people infected and the official count is 12. This is Trump country. Surely that can’t happen here./s
…………………………………..
[NWI Times] Top state health official suggests tens of thousands of Hoosiers already may have coronavirus
Mar 13, 2020 Updated 16 min ago
Indiana’s top public health official suggested Friday that tens of thousands of Hoosiers already may be infected with the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, even though her agency only has confirmed 12 cases statewide.
During a Statehouse interview, Dr. Kristina Box said she agreed with the Ohio health commissioner, who said Thursday up to 1% of Ohioans likely already have the virus, based on data of confirmed and presumed cases and knowledge of how the virus spread in other countries.
Box said: “We’d probably be close to that” in Indiana.
If accurate, 1% of Indiana’s population of 6.7 million people means 67,000 Hoosiers already might have COVID-19.
At the same time, Box said state and county health officials so far have been able to trace back the initial infection point for the dozen ISDH [Indiana State Department of Health]-confirmed coronavirus cases, as well as follow where those people went, and who they might have infected, in Indiana.
Box expects the ability to trace every case no longer may be feasible if the number of confirmed cases grows significantly…
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/top-state-health-official-suggests-tens-of-thousands-of-hoosiers/article_c034d024-501c-5337-a5cd-d5cff9c72cab.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
Wow