As the coronavirus pandemic surges in states that embraced his calls for aggressive early openings, President Donald Trump is mocking the very measures that might mitigate a crisis about which he is constantly in denial.

Trump said at his weekend rally that he had told his staff to slow down testing for the disease, which has now killed nearly 120,000 Americans, to hide the discovery of more cases. Claims by his advisers that he was joking hardly lessen the questionable motives behind the remark.

Trump has meanwhile also helped to turn the wearing of masks, which is proven to slow transmission of the disease, into a culture war issue. And his rally in Oklahoma on Saturday night was a rebuke of the notion of social distancing -- even though, ironically, his smaller-than-expected crowd would have made such practices possible. Health experts warn that spikes in infections in states like Florida and Arizona -- both of which recorded new highs in daily infection rates over the weekend -- are being driven by the public's waning willingness to avoid large gatherings and a reticence to wear masks.

The President's poor example represents a typical effort to divide Americans and highlight divisions over specific issues for his own political gain. But in the long run, apart from putting thousands of lives at risk, it is counterproductive, since a more stringent effort to avoid rises in infections as states open up would likely promote the fast economic recovery on which Trump is banking a reelection campaign that has slipped into trouble in recent weeks.

View Trump and Biden head-to-head polling

close dialog

Sign up for CNN's

MEANWHILE IN AMERICA

By ignoring or trying to talk away rising infections, the White House is effectively revealing that it has neither the plans nor the inclination to aggressively fight the worst public health crisis in a century, with the United States failing to see the sharp declines in infections after reaching its peak than other major industrialized nations have seen.

Yet another week begins with a White House in turmoil

The White House begins a new week in a typical storm of controversy, exacerbated by Trump's decision to hold a rally that could turn into a super-spreader event during a pandemic and his administration's move to fire Geoffrey Berman, a top prosecutor in New York, that sparked new concerns about its respect for the rule of law and the independence of the justice system.

A Trump adviser told CNN that Trump is "very" upset about the turnout at the rally Saturday night. Donors and friends of the President have been fuming Sunday in the wake of Trump's poorly-attended rally this weekend, a person involved with the re-election said.

Meanwhile, the virus is still raging, and the administration doesn't seem to be on the same page on whether there will be a second wave in the fall. Despite White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" that the White House is preparing, Vice President Mike Pence has blamed the media for inciting "panic" on that front.

The administration's sluggish efforts to ramp up coronavirus testing early in the pandemic worsened the disease's impact. And though the number of tests conducted has now reached 25 million, the figure is far below the millions of tests a week that health experts say are needed to identify the true spread of the disease and to trace and isolate those infected.

Share this: