The White House announced on Monday that Donald Trump will be resuming his coronavirus briefings on Tuesday afternoon. That announcement seemed to catch members of Trump’s coronavirus task force by surprise, with Dr. Anthony Fauci learning about it in the middle of an interview and saying that he “expected” to be part of such briefings … though admitting he knew nothing about it.
As it turns out, Dr. Fauci need not concern himself. CDC Director Robert Redfield can also stay home, as can the disturbingly fawning Dr. Deborah Birx. Even Mike Pence can apparently grab a chair and watch. Because Trump is doing this briefing solo. Meaning that America can expect to get a briefing on the most critical items of the deadly crisis: The need to defend racist statutes, why polls are all fake news, and just where is Hunter anyway?
The last time America joined Donald Trump for a multi-hour rally substitute, it was to ponder the deep questions of whether injecting bleach, or putting sunlight inside people, could take care of COVID-19. The biggest difference between that event and what the nation can expect on Tuesday is that there will be no one for Trump to turn to and ask if his sudden inspirations just happen to be deadly ignorance.
According to CNN, not everyone at the White House is exactly thrilled at the idea of Trump stepping back in front of the camera for the kind of low energy, disjointed ramble he displayed day after day in his original briefings. The more Americans saw of Trump, the lower his handling of the crisis went, and White House aides spent weeks talking Trump off that ledge to get his appearances cancelled in the first place.
Now, with Trump falling ever further behind Biden in the polls and his attempts to restart his rallies ended in embarrassment—and outbreaks—a portion of the White House staff feels it’s critical that Trump get back out there and pretend to care about the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Americans currently infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the millions threatened by COVID-19. Even Trump wasn’t all that keen on getting back at that podium after listening to the months of jokes that resulted from his last off the cuff suggestion on internal disinfectants.
So the White House made a deal—Trump can talk about whatever he wants, not just the pandemic that threatens every family in the nation. That’s right. What’s being sold to the networks as a coronavirus briefing is really just Free Airtime for Trump to lie about anything he likes. China. Antifa. Obama. You can absolutely bet it’s going to all be there.
The best suggestion for a coronavirus briefing that only features Trump, is that Trump is also the only one who should be watching it.