Navigating Coronavirus — April 11

5 min readApr 11, 2020

It’s been 45 days since President Trump said we’d soon have zero cases in the U.S. We now have 502,000 cases and 18,747 deaths — more cases than any other country in the world.

IF YOU ONLY READ ONE SECTION…

1 in 5 Americans now know someone with coronavirus. That number has doubled in two weeks (from 10% to 21%).
Trump’s corruption is making this crisis worse. From firing independent watchdogs to dealing out ventilators to political allies, his actions are more focused on himself than helping the country.

THE LATEST

Message guidance on the latest developments with President Trump’s handling of the crisis.

Saturday Spotlight: Trump’s corruption is making this crisis worse.

This week, as we saw our highest number of deaths yet in the U.S., Trump showed he is more focused on himself and his own personal interests than the country.

Trump is dealing out ventilators to political allies, instead of making decisions based on need and guided by experts. A Colorado congresswoman “said that while she wants the state to get every ventilator it can — after initially requesting 10,000 — the process employed by the White House shows that the President appears to be doling out the ventilators to his allies at a time when the virus is affecting people of all political persuasions.” (CNN)
Denver Post Editorial: “President Donald Trump is treating life-saving medical equipment as emoluments he can dole out as favors to loyalists. It’s the worst imaginable form of corruption — playing political games with lives. For the good of this nation during what should be a time of unity, he must stop.”
Trump is firing the independent watchdogs who oversee his actions. After already stating his intent to ignore Congress’ oversight of his coronavirus response, early this week Trump fired the inspector general overseeing the $2 trillion coronavirus response, but he isn’t stopping there: he’s attacking IGs critical of his administration’s handling of the outbreak and may fire even more. It is a coordinated “attack on accountability,” all so he can use this crisis to help his political allies.

Trump continues to fail to get the testing we need.

VOX: “To end social distancing, we need mass testing. America is not there yet.”
CHAOTIC + DISHONEST >> Trump admits we are not going to have widespread testing across the country even as he lies about how much testing we’re doing.
INCOMPETENT >> Gov. Cuomo is still begging Trump and the federal government to use the Defense Production Act to actually get broad testing in place quickly.

The only way to be able to reopen the economy safely and for the long-term is to implement stronger testing now — but Trump refuses to do so, putting lives and livelihoods further at risk.

NEW NAVIGATOR DATA >> By 12 points, Americans remain more worried about the virus’ impact on people’s health over the economy (56–44%).

Trump and his political allies continue to ignore experts when it comes to ending social distancing.

The rightwing continues to push an end to social distancing, despite “new federal projections showing a spike in infections if shelter in place orders are lifted at 30 days.” (NYT)

Trump, Friday: “We have to get our country open.” Asked how he’d make that decision, he pointed at his head.
Trump’s rightwing media allies on Fox News like Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson keep urging him to give up on social distancing.

Experts are directly contradicting them:

Surgeon General Jerome Adams, Friday: “Most of the country” will not be able to open by May 1.
Dr. Fauci, Friday: “It’s important to remember that this is NOT the time to feel…that we need to be pulling back at all.”
Dr. Birx, Friday: “We have not reached the peak.”

NEW NAVIGATOR DATA >> 54% of Americans are seriously concerned that Trump has ignored health and medical experts, and Americans trust Dr. Fauci on coronavirus (66%) by 18 points more than Trump (48%).

NEW NAVIGATOR TRACKING NUMBERS …

Americans are still more worried about their health, but concerns about personal finances are ticking up. Over the last week, the number saying they’re more worried about their financial situation than their health has ticked up 7 points.

Vast majority still believes the worst is yet to come. As Trump flirts with relaxing guidelines, Americans still are 53 points more likely to say the worst is yet to come than that it’s over.

NEW >> READ THE FULL NAVIGATOR POLLING DECK HERE AND DAILY TOPLINES HERE

ECONOMIC CRISIS IN CONTEXT

The latest on how the economic crisis sparked by coronavirus is actually fueled by years of President Trump’s conservative economic policies, focusing today on Trump’s stock market cheerleading amidst a devastating crisis.

President Trump wrapped up a horrific week for the vast majority of Americans by bragging about stock market increases and pushing for more tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

As unemployment surges, coronavirus deaths continue to rise, and people across the county struggle to keep their heads above the water, Trump shows once again that he is wildly out of touch with the concerns of the vast majority of workers and families.
While Trump is fixated on Wall Street corporations and wealthy shareholders, the vast majority of workers and small business owners haven’t seen a penny in relief.

This was a week when we found out that nearly 17 million people have filed for unemployment in the last three weeks, making it clear that, despite what Trump will have us believe, the stock market is not the economy and what is good for Wall Street is not what is good for America.

Here is the reality: The best way to measure economic prosperity is to look at how the people who make up the economy are actually doing — not simply the wealthy and well-connected. And by that measure, Trump has absolutely failed.

Congress must push aside Trump’s attempts to juice the stock market with corporate tax cuts and bailouts and focus upcoming legislative efforts on reversing Trump’s economic failures and building a resilient economy by meeting the needs of workers and families.

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