Trump tries to use fake 'good' news to spin deaths from coronavirus
President Donald Trump speaks Sunday night during Fox News' virtual town hall at the Lincoln Memorial. Credit: Pool / EPA / Oliver Contreras
President Donald Trump, who famously wails about "fake news," keeps trying to sell "good" news in the belief that it boosts him. But the good news he peddles on coronavirus keeps proving fake, while the bad news he tries to dispute or suppress comes up all too real.
The constant good-news happy talk adds up to nothing relevant. Body counts climb. According to the latest official estimate, 3,000 Americans per day will be dying of COVID-19 by June 1. Full resumption of normal life seems far off.
Trump falsely proclaims good news week after week. First the nation was to "reopen" with packed church pews by Easter. Warmer weather in April would kill the virus, the president said. Even late last week, he said: "It's gonna go, it's gonna leave, it's gonna be gone, it's gonna be eradicated. It might take longer, it might be in smaller sections. It won't be what we had."
Everyone would like to believe his magical chants, but nobody has factual grounds to do so. The death toll — 66,000 and rising — surpasses the number Trump earlier pushed. His health officials for weeks have predicted 100,000 to 250,000 coronavirus fatalities nationwide.
Trump on Sunday night returned to promoting antimalaria drugs for treating COVID-19, despite all the warnings about uncertain results and side effects. When the president says "what have you got to lose" by taking it, he may really be asking what he has to lose if another treatment doesn't come along.
Then there are his dodgy hints of good news on vaccines. “I met with the heads of the big companies. These are great companies. I think we're going to have a vaccine much sooner than later.” He suggested a vaccine could arrive by the end of the year, although few if anyone in the health world believe that. Maybe he was just trying to goose the stock market, which plunged Monday at the opening before rising later in the day.
Repeatedly through February, Trump trumpeted the "good news" that China and the World Health Organization, capable and cooperative, had a handle on the virus. This was fake news in the form of multinational propaganda. Now the president acts as if he never said it.
Suppressing and denying real news is the flip side of this happy-talk habit. On Friday, Trump moved to replace a Department of Health and Human Services official whose report described supply shortages and coronavirus testing delays at hospitals around the U.S. Nothing about the survey report was secret, or political, or unavailable from other sources. Actually, it was a rather routine document meant to help bureaucrats navigate problems.
On Feb. 25, Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, stated matter-of-factly what already was clear to those following the outbreak: “It’s not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses." Trump was so angry he reportedly wanted to fire her.
That day, the administration announced that the virus was "contained" in the U.S. All this spin suggests the White House considered adult American citizens unworthy of hearing the truth. Think of the presidents who promised peace with honor, prosperity around the corner and a war to end wars.
No matter what Trump & Co. say, the real news is not good. The disease lives, with the economy severely damaged and a future date to resume normal activity hard to see. For those in the White House, quarantining in a bubble of fake news seems more appealing than confronting the big ugly reality.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
