For a few moments in the Rose Garden, the coronavirus pandemic is a bucking bronco with President Donald Trump on its back. His arm swings an invisible rope. He seems to be hanging on for dear life.
“Ride it like a cowboy,” he growls. “Just ride it. Ride that sucker right through.”
This rodeo riff came during the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing, where science meets all things Trump.
It’s where the teetotaling president serves a 5 o’clock cocktail of public-health policy, twisted facts, invented achievements, performance art, hectoring, cheerleading, erraticism, improvisation, self-praise, pet theories and a dash of eloquence. Shaken not stirred. Late in starting, finished when he feels like it…
Fauci and other public-health authorities had told him 100,000 to 200,000 people could die in this country from the virus if not enough is done to mitigate the pandemic….
The president then invokes a far grimmer number, 2.2 million, an estimated death toll if no steps were taken to fight the pandemic…
Why introduce an even starker scenario than the already scary one?
Because if 100,000 to 200,000 end up dying, Trump still wants history — and voters in the fall — to judge his effort a success. If the toll is in that range, he says, “We all, together, have done a very good job.”….
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