Whether you actively tune into Donald Trump’s White House press briefings and related coronavirus addresses or not, it’s likely you’ve heard some of the absolutely bizarre, dangerous statements he’s made, especially as the nation scrambles in the face of a global pandemic. For example, Trump’s dangerous musing about injecting disinfectant went viral, as did his hypothesizing about chloroquine as a possible treatment. According to one widow, hearing these remarks inspired one couple in their 60s to ingest chloroquine phosphate (used to treat fish), thinking it would protect them from developing the virus. The man in the couple reportedly died from doing so.
In a thorough, in-depth feature from The New York Times, several journalists worked together to track what words, precisely, Trump uses and just how often. The Washington Post also has a new, thorough review that breaks down how many minutes were dedicated to a number of Trump's chief topics of conversation.
According to the Times, Trump has congratulated himself more than 600 times, blamed other people more than 100 times, mentioned past administrations 30 times, including former president Barack Obama, about 10 times. Unsurprisingly, these were mostly negative. The Times also confirmed what many of us pick up on with just a quick listen to Trump speaking; compared to how often he pats himself (and his top people) on the back, he expresses empathy for others only a small quarter as often. The Post reports that Trump mentioned coronavirus victims in just eight briefings.
And how much has he been talking? A whole lot. The Post reports that based on the analysis of press briefings transcripts since March 16, Trump has spoken 28 hours in 35 separate occurrences. That was about 60% of the total speaking time for all involved officials, says the Post. Dr. Anthony Fauci, for example, got about two hours of speaking time, and Dr. Deborah Birx got about six. The Post also reports that a full 47 of Trump’s minutes have been filled with “factually inaccurate comments.”
On Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to essentially throw a hissy fit and threatened to stop holding press conferences because of the way the media treats him. On Monday, the White House did, in fact, briefly cancel the daily coronavirus briefings, only to almost immediately reschedule them.
Trump loathing the press is absolutely nothing new. Whether he’s lobbing insults at reporters instead of answering questions, mocking reporters with disabilities, or berating a reporter and telling her to be “nice,” his behavior is consistently horrifying. He’s even lashed out at Fox News, though he has a penchant for snubbing and excluding CNN.
Make sure you check out the full report over at the Times as well as at the Post.