During a March 22, 2020 COVID-19 press conference Trump was told that four US Senators were in isolation, including Utah US Senator Mitt Romney. He replied, “Romney’s in isolation? Gee, that’s too bad.”
Romney was the sole Republican Senator to vote to impeach Trump earlier in the year.
During a Fox News virtual town hall meeting, Trump said, “I think we’re doing very well, but you know, it’s a two way street. They have to treat us well also. They can’t say, oh gee we should get this, we should get that. We’re doing a great job.”
During a Fox News virtual Town Hall in which he claimed that America would suffer more deaths from economic closures than COVID19, Trump also attacked Cuomo for failing to purchase 15,000 ventilators. The remarks came amid the governor’s remarks that the state would need 30,000 more, which Trump said he didn’t believe.
Trump explained, “We’re building them hospitals, we’re building them medical centers, and he was complaining about – we’re doing probably more, definitely more for him than anybody else, and, uh, he was talking about the ventilators, but he should’ve ordered the ventilators. And he had a choice, he had a chance because right here, I just got this out that he refused to order 15,000 ventilators. I’ll show this to Bill, take a look at that, Bill, what does that say?” The host he was passing it to, Bill Hemmer, declined to take the paper, remarking, “Is this social distancing, here?”
Trump was referencing far-right conspiracy blog Gateway Pundit. However, there was never any option or suggestion to purchase 15,000 ventilators. The New York Department of Health reported in 2015 that the state would have a shortage of about 15,000 ventilators if a pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu arose, and also noted that this would be largely due to supply shortages across the country.
Cuomo explained, There is no state in the United States that bought ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The federal government did not buy ventilators for the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Nobody in the world bought ventilators in preparation for a 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.”
During a virtual town hall on Fox News, Trump said about business closures without evidence that “more people are going to die if we allow this to continue.”
He went on to say, “We have to open this country up. We can socially distance ourselves and go to work, and you’ll have to work a little bit harder and you can clean your hands five times more than you’re used to. You don’t have to shake hands anymore with people. We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu – we never turn the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We don’t call up automobile companies and say ‘stop making cars.”
Trump suggests going back to work during a pandemic is really no big deal because lots of people die from the flu and car accidents pic.twitter.com/pRTjmLH7xo
He seemed to indicate that the only reason he allowed such measures in the first place was because of criticism if he hadn’t. “If I would have not done it, we would’ve been unbelievably criticized for not doing it. Somehow the word got out that this is the thing we’re supposed to be doing.”
Trump planned to reopen the economy nationwide by Easter. At the time, the United States had over 65,000 confirmed cases.
The remark was amid a press conference on the COVID19 pandemic. When asking reporters if there were any questions for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said, “I’d like him to go back to the State Department, or as they call it, the Deep State department – if you don’t mind – I’d lie to have him go back and do his job.”
The deep state is a conspiracy theory Trump has commonly employed, which references a secret cabal within the government.
It prompted an incredulous reaction from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Trump called into Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to counter New York’s request for more ventilators amid the COVID19 outbreak. New York governor Andrew Cuomo had previously called for the equipment in preparation for an expected surge in cases, and that the only way they could procure more was from the federal government. At the time of Trump’s remarks, the state of New York had over 37,000 confirmed cases and 300 deaths.
Blagojevich was convicted of a pay to play scheme where he tried to sell one of Illinois’ US Senate seats, and was sentenced to 14 years. Blagojevich, who had appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, had served 8 years.
Trump alleged that the sentence was unfair because of its length, and because the investigation was conducted under FBI leadership that also investigated Russian election interference, saying, “It was a prosecution by the same people — Comey, Fitzpatrick — the same group.”
JUST IN: Pres. Trump says he has commuted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's sentence, calling it a "tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence," and claiming "it was a prosecution by the same people, Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group." https://t.co/HH71d2cc41pic.twitter.com/03011c270V
In the book A Very Stable Genius, the two Washington Post and Pulitzer prize winning authors recount a meeting between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump remarked, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border,” which prompted “shock and concern” from the PM, which turned to “resignation.” The border between India and China, called the Border of Actual Control, is over 2,500 miles long. The two countries have multiple border disputes and have engaged in three conflicts between 1962 and 1987.
Trump made the announcement during the 2020 State of the Union address. Limbaugh, a far-right radio host, had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Limbaugh is notorious for his wide array of conspiracy theories and other debunked claims, including the assertion that nicotine had been proven to not be harmful or addictive. He has also made remarks like that Columbus saved the Indians from themselves, that Obama was paying lesbians to become farmers in rural states, and called 12 year old Chelsea Clinton “a dog,” among various other racist remarks.
Trump justified a strike on a senior Iranian official and escalated tensions by claiming that he represented an imminent threat, possibly targeting up to four US embassies. At a briefing for Congressional representatives those present reported that they weren’t given any meaningful information, despite asking multiple times about the nature of the imminent threat. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah described it as “the worst briefing” he’d ever seen on a military issue.
When asked about this, Trump in typical fashion replied some people said that it actually the “best presentation they’ve ever seen.” He provided little further information on the nature of the imminent threat.
