March 17, 2020

The New York Times dives into how Trump's chaotic and capricious management methods virtually guaranteed the disaster that is his coronavirus pandemic response. But one of the biggest factors was his decision to give preening peacock Jared Kushner, The World's Smartest Man Ever©, a larger role in the policy:

Mr. Kushner’s influence was immediately felt. He urged his father-in-law to go ahead with a ban on some travel from Europe and to declare a national emergency, after Mr. Trump had dithered and second-guessed himself for agreeing to it. He got executives at several pharmaceutical corporations to agree to help with mobilized testing efforts, and has pushed for an increase in medical supplies to hospitals.

But after Mr. Trump delivered an error-ridden Oval Office address last week, the president followed it with an appearance Friday in the Rose Garden in which he said Google had developed a coronavirus testing website that did not exist. Mr. Kushner was deeply involved in both efforts, and had sold his father-in-law on the website as a smart concept.

By Sunday evening, Mr. Trump was raging to aides that the press coverage was terrible after the promised national website failed to materialize. And on Monday, after Mr. Pence had been praised for his calm demeanor, Mr. Trump decided to answer questions from reporters himself.

According to various reports, Kushner told him the virus was no biggie, and advised Trump it was merely a PR problem. (You can see why Ivanka likes him!)

Now we have reports that the Obama team thoroughly prepped Trump staffers on pandemic planning -- but most of them don't work there anymore:

And of course Trump filled the Christmas lists of every wingnut donor who asked:

Don't worry, he'll take care of his pals before he worries about the rest of us:

Let's get this human wrecking ball out of there.

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