Trump blasted for spreading lies — then declaring ‘today is a national day of prayer’

Trump blasted for spreading lies — then declaring ‘today is a national day of prayer’
Image via Shutterstock.
David Badash
and
 The New Civil Rights Movement
March 15, 2020

President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed is a more accurate reflection of his positions and beliefs than his White House press briefings. Since the very beginning of the coronavirus crisis the President has made clear he doesn’t believe it is a crisis, has worked to minimize the amount of testing that can be done, and worked to spread falsehoods and outright lies in an attempt to make Americans believe the pandemic is not a massive health emergency. It is.

So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Sunday morning Trump kicked off the day with a lie. He retweeted this absolutely false claim by his re-election campaign’s national press secretary. No legitimate health expert would oppose testing as many people as possible to help slow the spread of coronavirus, if there were enough tests. But the Trump administration made sure there aren’t.

But McEnany’s tweet isn’t just bluster, it’s a lie.

There are not one million or four million coronavirus tests available, that can be processed. There are tests that don’t work, there are tests the CDC created, sent out, then directed the medical community to not use because they are invalid. Bottom line: The U.S. has reportedly performed less than 20,000 tests as of Saturday.

Trump’s next tweet showed what he actually cares about:

Then he shared this lie. Student loan interest is not being waived, as The New York Times reports. Student loans still have to be paid, and even the amount due isn’t changing. The only difference is the amount of the payment will now, temporarily, be applied to the principal – the amount borrowed – and not to pay off interest accrued. One caveat:

“When borrowers pause their monthly payments because of a hardship — a status known as forbearance — the interest normally continues to pile up until they can start paying again,” the Times notes. “Now, no interest will accrue as long as the waiver is in effect. This is true both for people already in forbearance and for those who may be soon.”

Trump posted several tweets praising Trump, then this one showing the right wing war against Hillary Clinton is thriving:

And then, finally, this atrocity:

Given the coronavirus crisis, the intentional mishandling of the pandemic by President Trump, his administration’s daily inept actions making the disaster even worse, and Trump’s politicization of, well, everything, many were furious when he spewed lies, threw partisan grenades, then tried to hide behind a shield of religion – one that he himself constructed.

Report typos and corrections to: feedback@alternet.org.

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