Trump tells states not to rely on Govt
US President Donald Trump for weeks dismissed the danger of the novel coronavirus. He distracted himself by stoking feuds and nursing grievances. He shared little concrete information about the pandemic, and much of what he did share was false.
Meanwhile governors and mayors, as well as business leaders, have stepped into the leadership vacuum to make difficult decisions affecting their constituents, employees or customers. In the absence of unambiguous guidance from the president for the citizens he was elected to lead, the frustration of governors boiled over.
And then yesterday, nearly eight weeks after the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States, it seems he at last recognised the magnitude of the crisis.
Trump and his team of public health experts yesterday laid out detailed guidance for state and municipal leaders, as well as for individual families. They recommended closing schools, restaurants, bars, gyms and other such venues, and limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people.
The president — who six days earlier promised “it will all go away”, and as recently as Monday advised Americans to “just relax” — suggested the outbreak could last until July or August.
Earlier he told the governors they should not rely on the federal government to provide respirators, ventilators and other equipment to aid the infected, and that states should work on obtaining their own.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam compared the comment to being at war and said, “We just heard our leader say you all need to get your own weapons at the state level to defeat this”.
Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state has become an epicentre of coronavirus cases, decried the “hodgepodge” of efforts in various states to mitigate the spread, which he blamed on an absence of presidential leadership.
“This is a national problem, and there are no national rules,” Cuomo said. “If the federal government isn’t going to do what it should do, then the states have to try their best.”