"It will probably get worse before it gets better. That’s something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is. It’s what we have.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who resumed his coronavirus briefings on Tuesday at the White House.
WASHINGTON—“It will probably get worse before it gets better,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the first White House coronavirus briefing he’s held since late April. “That’s something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is, it’s what we have.”
The last time the president held a briefing on the virus, he was bragging that his handling of the pandemic meant deaths in the U.S. would probably top out at “60,000, 70,000.” Since then, the death toll has risen to more than140,000 — more than 5,000 of those in the past week alone — as states that followed his demands to reopen early such as Florida and Texas are in crisis. His reelection poll numbers have plummeted. By Tuesday, the numbers were not all that had changed: reviving the media briefings in an apparent attempt to turn his campaign around, the president’s message was notably tweaked, acknowledging surges in the southwestern states that required a response and the prospects for things to get worse.
And perhaps most noticeably, encouraging people to wear masks. “Wear a mask,” he said. “Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact. They’ll have an effect. We need everything we can get.”
Trump’s past resistance to masks has fuelled a culture war in the U.S. over the face coverings recommended by public health authorities. Asked about his own use, he pulled one bearing the presidential seal out of his pocket and said that while he and others around him are tested often, lowering his danger level, he wears one in many situations. “I’m getting used to the mask,” he said. “It helps. It helps.”
Trump also urged people to avoid crowded bars and indoor situations where social distancing is difficult. He acknowledged there were things the U.S. could have done better, and said he’s willing to listen to doctors on the need to improve the availability of rapid-response testing.
Of course, not everything in Trump’s message had changed — he still called coronavirus the “China virus” and blamed that country for it; he still said his handling of the virus early on was made up of “tremendous moves” that saved thousands of lives; he still referred to statistics to portray the U.S. situation as good by international standards when in fact the country suffers among the highest death rates by population in the world.
(Trump used a chart showing America’s relatively low case fatality rate, a number many experts say is misleading for many reasons, including because its percentages are made small by the vast number of positive confirmed U.S. cases, and that the mass of deaths from the recent surge in cases are likely still weeks away.)
Yet for Republicans hoping to see Trump address dismal reviews for his handling the pandemic, the news conference likely accomplished some of its immediate goals. Many feared he’d go off the rails, in the freewheeling and often accusatory improvisational style that characterized his briefings in the spring, during which he often ad-libbed comments that directly contradicted the messages he and his advisers were delivering in prepared remarks. On Tuesday, Trump’s new message would be welcomed as progress, and he stayed on that message pretty much as closely as he ever does — at least, on the topic of coronavirus.
He raised eyebrows, however, when he was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been arrested following allegations that she collaborated with her late friend, Jeffrey Epstein, in the sexual abuse of teenage girls. Trump was asked if he thought Maxwell was likely to turn in any powerful men.
“I just wish her well frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is,” Trump said, claiming he hadn’t been following the case closely.
It’s a fair guess that best wishes for the defendant in the world’s highest-profile sex crimes prosecution wasn’t part of the preferred message. Soon after, he cut off questioning.
Trump ended by promising these revived briefings would be held regularly.
In the past, commentators have noted that at points where Trump appears to have changed message or adopted different tone, he often reverts to his previous form within hours or days.
If he continues to hold primetime briefings again as promised, Americans will soon see if his new mask message sticks — and if he’ll continue to read a script written to address problems as he did on coronavirus today, or veers off from it and creates new problems as he did on the question of Maxwell, and has so often in the past.