By Aaron Miller-
Donald Trump’s declaration to base his decision on ending the lockdown on a team of advisers he will announce next week reveals a president cautious of taking any blame for any errors of judgement relating to this pandemic.
The U.S president told a press conference on Friday that he would base his decision on when to reopen America on the advice of a council of business and medical leaders to help him with the “biggest decision I’ve ever had to make” . Trump who has been widely criticised for his initial slow response to the pandemic is now playing safe by leaving the big and risky decision to medical experts who will have to shoulder any consequences that arises from their professional judgement, instead of Trump. A disastrous outcome will not leave the world’s most powerful man without stain because his leadership includes his choice of experts.
The American president was very accommodating of reporters for the full duration of his two hour press briefing in which he expressed unflinching trust in the advice of medical experts, including the leading surgeon . Expressing regret about the about the unfortunate events from Covid-19 that has seen unprecedented deaths in the U.S. Trump asserted his authority to overrule any state governors he observes handling the pandemic inappropriately, whilst declaring his trust in their judgement to run their respective cities.
The World Health Organisation has warned that a premature lifting of lockdown restrictions could spark a “deadly resurgence.” Director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesis said that whilst the organisation was working with countries on ways to gradually ease lockdowns, doing so too quickly could be highly dangerous, Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“Lifting restrictions too quickly could lead to a deadly resurgence,” he added. The way down can be as dangerous as the way up if not managed properly.”
‘‘I’m going to have to make a decision, and I only hope to God that it’s the right decision,’ Trump said at the White House Friday, as U.S. deaths due to the coronavirus passed 18,000.
‘Without question it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make,’ said Trump.‘I don’t know if I’ve had a bigger decision than that, if you think, right? I mean think of that decision, somebody said, ‘It’s totally up to the president,’ and it is. I don’t know if I’ve had a bigger decision,’ Trump said.
Optimism
There were signs of optimism from the president and his team that they felt the spread of the coronavirus could be slowing and the final death toll lower than once projected. This had fuelled reports that Trump is set to shift focus and appoint an economic task force.
“This is beyond economic,” he told reporters. “I call it the ‘opening our country taskforce’ or ‘opening our country council’ so we don’t get it confused with Mike’s [Pence] taskforce, which has done so great.
“And we’re going to have the great business leaders, the great doctors, we’re going to have a group of people. We’ll probably do it by teleconference because we don’t really travelling in for their own purposes. I don’t think it would look good, also.”
Trump added: “I want to get it open as soon as possible. This country was meant to be open and vibrant and great… The facts are going to determine what I do. But we do want to get the country open.”He promised the council will be announced on Tuesday “with names that you have a lot of respect for, a lot of great names, different businesses, different people … I want their views on what they think”.
No Happy Talk
Trump scolded CNN’s Jim Acousta for suggesting the president was feeding the press with ”happy talk” as he accused the reporter of trying to push a narrative that fitted the broadcasting corporation he represented.
“Mr. President, we hear from a lot of people who see these briefings as sort of ‘happy talk’ briefings,” Acosta said.
“No happy talk today,” Trump quickly responded.
“Some of the officials paint a rosy picture of what is happening around the country,” Acosta continued. “If you look at some of these questions — do we have enough masks? No. Do we have enough tests? No. Do we have enough PPE [personal protective equipment]? No.””Why would you say no? The answer is yes,” the president responded. “Who said no to that?”
“This is not ‘happy talk.’ Maybe it’s ‘happy talk’ for you, it’s not ‘happy talk’ for me,” Trump told Acosta. “We’re talking about death. We’re talking about the greatest economy in the world — one day I have to close it off and we did the right thing because maybe it would’ve been 2 million people dying instead of whatever that final number will be… There’s nothing happy about it, Jim. This is sad talk. These are the saddest news conferences that I’ve ever had. I don’t like doing them. You know why? Because I’m talking about death.”