Trump administration communication during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Donald Trump administration communicated in various ways during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, including via social media, interviews, and press conferences with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Opinion polling conducted in mid-April 2020 indicated that less than half of Americans trusted health information provided by Trump and that they were more inclined to trust local government officials, state government officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.

President Trump was publicly optimistic through much of the pandemic; at times his optimistic messaging diverged from that of his administration's public health officials. From January to mid-March 2020, Trump downplayed the threat posed by COVID-19 to the United States, as well as the severity of the outbreak. He later explained this as an attempt to "give people hope" and serve as a "cheerleader for the country" even though, he claimed, he "knew everything". Trump did, however, place restrictions on travel from China on January 31. From February to May, Trump continually asserted that COVID-19 would "go away". The CDC waited until February 25 to first warn the American public to prepare for a local outbreak of the virus.

In March 2020, the Trump administration started conducting daily press briefings at the White House. Trump was the dominant speaker at the briefings. ''The New York Times'' analysed Trump's speeches from March 9 to April 17, concluding that self-praise was the most frequent goal of Trump's speeches.

Trump repeatedly uttered falsehoods regarding the pandemic.
He took messaging advice from Fox News hosts like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs, both of whom he dialed into Oval Office meetings. One theme of Trump's falsehoods was exaggerations of the reactionary measures taken by his government and the private sector. Trump also understated the projected time to produce a vaccine, recommended uncontrolled transmission in pursuit of herd immunity until a vaccine was developed, and promoted unapproved treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. In such instances, scientists including Anthony Fauci, Michael Osterholm, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (director-general of the World Health Organization) publicly countered his message with correct information. The day before Trump's presidential term ended, Fauci said that Trump's utterances had "so obviously" placed them in "factual conflict" that often he felt obligated to correct Trump, which "has not been an easy thing to do" and was something in which he took "no pleasure".

Trump shied away from admitting mistakes in his handling of the outbreak, but instead blamed others. Around 15% of Trump's speeches given April 6–24 were spent criticizing others, analysed ''The Washington Post''; the most frequent targets of his criticism were Democrats, followed by the media, state governors, and China (where the virus originated). Trump went from praising China in January regarding their transparency in response to the Chinese outbreak, to criticizing China in March for a lack of transparency, to criticizing the World Health Organization in April for praising China's transparency. Trump frequently reversed his stances in his communication, giving mixed or contradictory messaging. He sometimes denied his own public statements.

In October 2020, Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19. The outbreak affected many people affiliated with the White House, including his wife Melania Trump, former Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway, and Presidential Counselor Hope Hicks. Trump declared on television on October 11 that he was now "immune" to further infection. When he tweeted a similar statement, Twitter placed a warning label on it, saying the information was "misleading and potentially harmful." He was eventually vaccinated in January 2021 while still in office but did not publicly reveal it (it was reported over a month later), and he did not reveal the type of vaccine until October 2021. The next month, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows alleged that Trump had tested twice, and had received a negative and a positive result, before debating Biden on September 29, 2020.

Severity and risk assessments in 2020

January 1 to February 24

In January and February 2020, U.S. intelligence agencies delivered over a dozen classified warnings in the President's Daily Brief about COVID-19, including its potential to inflict severe political and economic damage. President Donald Trump typically does not read that daily brief and often has "little patience" when people summarize it orally, ''The Washington Post'' reported. The brief is also shared with other officials in the administration. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which produces the President's Daily Brief, denied that there were repeated mentions of COVID-19.

On January 8, 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a health advisory regarding an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, which was being caused by a yet-unidentified virus. It issued a low-level travel notice for Wuhan with a reminder to practice "usual precautions". The CDC advised clinicians that U.S. patients with severe respiratory illnesses should be checked for travel history to Wuhan, and that health authorities should be immediately informed of cases meeting such criteria.

On January 17, the CDC conducted its first press briefing on the novel coronavirus. On January 21, after the first U.S case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed, the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director, Nancy Messonnier, stated that: "we do expect additional cases in the United States and globally ... The confirmation that human-to-human spread with this virus is occurring in Asia certainly raises our level of concern. But we continue to believe the risk of this novel coronavirus to the American public at large remains low at this time."

On January 22, Trump was interviewed by the media, in which he acknowledged that the CDC had briefed him on the sole known COVID-19 case in the country. The interviewer asked Trump: "Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?" Trump replied: "No. Not at all. And, we're, we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine." He continued to claim that the outbreak was "under control" on January 30, February 23, February 24, and February 25.

On January 27, Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted that "things are going to get worse before they get better". Three days later, Fauci stated that the COVID-19 outbreak "could turn into a global pandemic". Also on January 30, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that "the immediate risk to the American public is low."

On February 10, Trump stated that "a lot of people think that OVID-19goes away in April with the heat ... Typically, that will go away in April" (later on April 3, he denied ever having given "a date" for the departure of the virus). On February 13, CDC director Robert Redfield contradicted Trump, saying that the "virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year". Redfield also predicted that it "will become a community virus at some point in time, this year or next year". On February 16, Anthony Fauci warned that it was not necessarily true that COVID-19 would "disappear with the warm weather."

On February 24, senior members of the Trump administration economic team spoke to the board of the Hoover Institution in private, warning them that it was not yet possible to estimate the virus' effects on the economy. Later that day, however, Trump tweeted that the virus was "very much under control" in the United States.

February 25 to March 15

February 25 was the day that the CDC first warned the American public to prepare for a local outbreak. That day, Nancy Messonnier, head of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that "We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare for the expectation that this is going to be bad." Messonnier predicted that "we will see community spread in this country", and it was only a matter of time. As a result, "disruption to everyday life might be severe". Messonnier stated that the CDC is preparing, and "now is the time for hospitals, schools and everyday people to begin preparing as well."
Starting the day after her comments, Messonnier was excluded from public briefings of the White House coronavirus task force, and Trump threatened to fire her.

Also on February 25, Anthony Fauci declared that given how COVID-19 was spreading in other nations, it was "inevitable that this will come to the United States" as well. On February 26, CDC Director Robert Redfield said it would be "prudent to assume this pathogen will be with us for some time to come".

Meanwhile, on February 25, federal economic policy chief Larry Kudlow declared the COVID-19 containment "pretty close to airtight". On February 26, Trump contradicted Messonnier, stating: "I don't think it's inevitable" that a U.S. outbreak would occur, "It probably will, it possibly will ... Whatever happens, we're totally prepared." Trump additionally declared that the number of infected was "going very substantially down, not up", but stated: "Schools should be preparing. Get ready just in case."

On February 26, speaking of the number of known infected in the country at the time, Trump predicted "the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero—that's a pretty good job we've done." He rejected the notion that the U.S. needed to produce more masks, stating: "Our borders are very controlled." He contrasted COVID-19's mortality rate with that of Ebola, stating: "This is a flu. This is like a flu."

On February 27, he said of the virus: "It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. And from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows." Also on February 27, Trump declared that the risk to the American public from COVID-19 "remains very low".

On February 28, Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale told Jared Kushner that it would serve Trump's reelection chances to have "more visuals." Parscale wanted Trump "standing in front of amazing things. Put the white coat on. Look at the vaccine being made. Show America we're doing stuff." (This was reported in Bob Woodward's book '' Rage'' released in September 2020.) Later that day, at a campaign rally, Trump pointed out that, as yet, there had been zero known deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. (compared to about 35,000 influenza deaths in the U.S. each year), and he concluded: "You wonder if the press is in hysteria mode."

On February 29, Trump said that "additional cases in the United States are likely", but "there's no reason to panic at all." When a reporter asked Trump: "How should Americans prepare for this virus?" Trump answered: "I hope they don't change their routine", before calling on CDC director Robert Redfield to answer the same question. Redfield replied: "The risk at this time is low ... The American public needs to go on with their normal lives."

On March 2, Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, voiced his concern that in the next one to three weeks, the U.S. would "see a lot more community-related cases", due to the country already having identified "a number of cases" that have "been in the community for a while".

On March 4, Trump appeared on Fox News's ''Hannity'' by phone, where he claimed a 3.4% mortality rate projected by the World Health Organization (WHO) was a "false number", and stated his "hunch" that the true figure would be "way under 1%". Trump also predicted that many people infected with COVID-19 would experience "very mild" symptoms, "get better very rapidly" and thus they "don't even call a doctor". Thus, there may be "hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work—some of them go to work, but they get better." Trump used this to argue that there would be an under-reporting of cases and an over-estimation of the death rate.

On March 6, CDC director Robert Redfield again said that the risk to the American public was "low", asserting that there were not "hundreds and hundreds of clusters" of COVID-19 cases in the country, and declaring that "we're not blind where this virus is right now in the United States". On March 7, Redfield encouraged Americans to continue their travel, even take a trip to Disneyland (within one week, Disneyland parks were closed in the country). On March 9, Redfield repeated that the risk to the American public was still "low".

From March 6 to March 12, Trump stated on four occasions that the coronavirus would "go away". On March 10, Surgeon General Jerome Adams stated that "this is likely going to get worse before it gets better."

Trump expressed a focus on the number of U.S. cases in the initial stages of the outbreak, citing the relatively low number of confirmed cases as proof that his January 31 decision to restrict entry into the country from China by foreign nationals was successful. Commenting about cruise ship ''Grand Princess'', he stated his preference that infected passengers not disembark as he did not want "to have the .S. casenumbers double because of one ship". Trump explained in his March 25 briefing that "if I didn't do it, you'd have thousands and thousands of people died—who would've died—that are now living and happy".

March 16 to April 24

On March 16, President Trump admitted for the first time that COVID-19 was not "under control", and the situation was "bad" with months of impending disruption to daily lives, and a recession possible.

On March 17, Trump argued that he "felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic." A fact-check by the Associated Press of this statement of Trump's concluded that Trump was "revising history"; the claim "doesn't match his rhetoric over the last two months", where Trump never described the outbreak as a pandemic before the World Health Organization did so on March 11.

On March 19, Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that he was deliberately downplaying the risk when communicating with the public. "I wanted to always play it down," Trump said. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic." The interview was not made public at the time. The quote was made public on September 9, a few days in advance of the scheduled release of Woodward's book, '' Rage''.

Trump has repeatedly compared COVID-19 to influenza, despite Fauci estimating COVID-19 to have a mortality rate around ten times higher. On March 9, Trump compared the 546 known U.S. cases of COVID-19 at the time and the 22 known deaths at the time to the tens of thousands of U.S. deaths from flu each year. On March 24, Trump argued that: "We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu ... But we've never closed down the country for the flu." On March 27, he stated: "You can call it a flu. You can call it a virus. You know you can call it many different names. I'm not sure anybody even knows what it is."

On March 24, Trump declared that "we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel"; a day later the U.S. surpassed 1,000 COVID-19 deaths. On April 5, Trump continued to use the same phrase; by that day, the U.S. had close to 10,000 COVID-19 deaths and over 330,000 known COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, on April 5, Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned that the next week is "going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives", comparing it to the attack on Pearl Harbour or the 9/11 attack.

From March 30 to April 7, Trump stated on four occasions that COVID-19 would "go away".

On March 31, contradicting his many previous comparisons of COVID-19 to the flu, Trump said: "It's not the flu ... It's vicious". When reporters asked him if his initial dismissive comments on the virus had misled Americans, he replied: "I want to give people a feeling of hope. I could be very negative ... You know, I'm a cheerleader for the country." Asked further if he had known—despite his claims that the outbreak was under control—that the situation would turn out so severe, Trump replied: "I thought it could be. I knew everything. I knew it could be horrible, and I knew it could be maybe good." On April 1, Mike Pence told the media: "I don't believe the president has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus ... I think he's expressed confidence that America will meet this moment". Pence proceeded to describe Trump as "an optimistic person".

At the April 1 White House briefing, Pence was asked why the administration had not reopened the enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act so that more Americans could sign up for health insurance. Pence responded indirectly. Trump praised him publicly in the moment: "I think that's one of the greatest answers I've ever heard because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question. I said that's what you call a great professional."

At the April 10 briefing with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Trump implied that the illness was caused by a bacterial pathogen rather than a virus: "Antibiotics used to solve every problem. Now one of the biggest problems the world has is the germ has gotten so brilliant that the antibiotic can't keep up with it."

Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official who had also helped Presidents Yeltsin and Putin while living in Russia and who ''Politico'' described as having "no medical or scientific background," became the Health and Human Services spokesperson on April 16. During Caputo's term, HHS began attempting to alter or shut down the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, which are written by scientists; HHS claimed these reports were unfavorable for Trump.

On April 18, Jared Kushner told Bob Woodward that Trump was "getting the country back from the doctors." While acknowledging "that doesn't mean there's not still a lot of pain and there won't be pain for a while," he said, "Trump's now back in charge. It's not the doctors." He made the comments during a taped interview with Bob Woodward which was made public on October 28.

In an interview by ''The Washington Post'' published on April 21, Redfield warned that "there's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," as it could coincide with seasonal flu. During that day's briefing, Trump criticized the story's headline, "CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating", as being "fake news", and accused media outlets of having "totally misquoted" Redfield. Redfield clarified that "I didn't say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more complic—" He then concluded, "—or more difficult and potentially complicated." Trump followed up, by saying that "we may not even have corona coming back, just so you understand." Later in the briefing, Fauci said that he was "convinced" that the United States "will have coronavirus in the fall", but the country would be "much, much better prepared".

April 25 to June 15

In late April, White House officials delivered upbeat messages about the future of the country. Vice President Mike Pence predicted that "by Memorial Day weekend we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us." White House adviser Jared Kushner predicted that "a lot of the country should be back to normal" by June and "really rocking again" by July. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted that the American economy would "really bounce back" in the months of July, August and September. Meanwhile, Trump was repeating his assertion that the coronavirus "is going to go away".

By contrast, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, Deborah Birx, said on television on April 26 that social distancing would be necessary through the summer.

On April 27, with over 55,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S., Trump stated that the U.S. was "probably heading to 60,000, 70,000" deaths. Less than one week later, on May 1, with over 63,000 total deaths, Trump said: "Hopefully we're going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost".

On May 8, Trump predicted that COVID-19 is "going to go away without a vaccine", "eventually". Just five days earlier, he had instead said: "this country needs the vaccine". Asked to explain his May 8 prediction, Trump claimed: "I just rely on what doctors say". However, weeks earlier, senior health official Anthony Fauci had stated that the outbreak was "not going to be over to the point of our being able to not do any mitigation until we have a scientifically sound, safe and effective vaccine." Later on May 12, Fauci explained that COVID-19 would not simply vanish from the U.S. because it was too "highly transmissible".

On May 12, Fauci testified to the Senate that the actual death toll for COVID-19 in the U.S. was "almost certainly higher" than the official death toll. He argued that there would be unrecorded deaths in areas where hospitals were very strained, with people dying in their homes, who would not be counted as COVID-19 deaths. Fauci also warned that "we don't know everything about this virus, and we really had better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children", pointing to examples of children developing an inflammatory syndrome which is similar to Kawasaki syndrome.

On June 9, an interview of Fauci aired where he said that COVID-19 was his "worst nightmare" realized, given that it was "highly transmissible", he further warned that "it isn't over yet". Additionally, if President Trump's endorsement of the Covid vaccine had been more publicized, perhaps more Republicans would have received a dose of the vaccine.

June 16–30

On June 16, ''The Wall Street Journal'' published an interview with Fauci, where he commented that the United States is "still in a first wave" of infections for the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci also stated that the increasing percentages of positive tests in many states "cannot be explained by increased testing". Also that day, Vice President Pence, in an opinion piece for ''The Wall Street Journal'', criticized the media for warning against a "second wave" of infections, stating that "such panic is overblown". Pence declared that "we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy".

On June 17, Trump declared that the outbreak was "dying out" and that COVID-19 is "fading away". On June 23, Fauci stated that the United States is "now seeing a disturbing surge of infections", reiterating that COVID-19 would not "disappear".

July

On July 3, NBC reported that Trump administration officials were planning a communications strategy that would portray the virus as having a low mortality rate and that would highlight possible therapeutic drugs. The officials were reportedly aware of the reality that, with only four months until the election, COVID-19 would present an ongoing public health concern for voters. During his Independence Day address the next day, Trump commented that 99% of U.S. COVID-19 cases were "totally harmless"; the comment was disputed by FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn and mayors of several southern cities.

In mid-July, the Trump administration told hospitals to begin reporting COVID-19 data to states rather than to the CDC. As a result of no longer receiving data directly, the CDC removed existing data from its public online "dashboard." When federal health officials complained that the CDC was no longer publishing data, the Trump administration swiftly reinstated the CDC dashboard.

On July 19, in an interview with Chris Wallace on ''Fox News Sunday'', Trump disputed Wallace's statement (based on Johns Hopkins University numbers) that the U.S. had the seventh-highest mortality rate in the world from COVID-19, stating that "we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world", and presenting Wallace a White House-produced chart (claimed to be sourced from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) in support of this statement. He again downplayed the threat, arguing that "many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day ..they have the sniffles and we put it down as a test."

On July 21, Trump acknowledged that the outbreak would "get worse before it gets better" and said that his administration is "in the process of developing a strategy."

August

On August 2, Deborah Birx appeared on CNN and warned of a new surge. Afterward, she received a "very uncomfortable" and "very difficult" phone call from Trump, though she did not reveal this publicly until the following year.

On August 17, speaking to a crowd in Mankato, Minnesota, Trump said of the pandemic's effect on the economy: "That's God testing me." Trump said he performed an "economic miracle" and addressed God: "Did I do a great job, God? I'm the only one that could do it."

In August 2020, President Trump retweeted that only 6% of reported COVID-19 deaths in the United States were actually from the disease, based on COVID-19 being the only condition listed on the death certificate. The lead mortality statistician at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics said that those death certificates likely did not include all the steps that led to the death and thus were incomplete. The CDC collects data based on case surveillance, vital records, and excess deaths.

September

On September 9, quotes and audio from Bob Woodward's March 2020 interviews with Trump were made public, including his March 19 admission that he wanted to "play it down". Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told journalists that Trump had "never downplayed the virus," had rather chosen to "express calm" in public, and "has never lied to the American public on COVID." Public reaction concerned whether Woodward should have published his findings immediately rather than waiting for his book release; Woodward defended his process. The next day, September 10, Trump echoed this public debate in a tweet: "Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn't he immediately report them in an effort to save lives?" Because, Trump answered himself, Woodward had seen nothing to criticize; his own statements had been "good and proper...Calm, no panic!"

On September 13, in a video posted to Facebook, HHS spokesman Michael Caputo accused CDC scientists of "sedition" against Trump. He also maligned them as lazy. Two days later, Caputo apologized and took a 60-day medical leave of absence.

On September 21, Trump said at a rally in Ohio that the virus "really affects" elderly people "with heart problems and other problems," and then he added, "below the age of 18, like, nobody." He then said: "But it affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing."

October

On October 6, Trump claimed that COVID-19 is "in most populations far less lethal" than the flu. He posted the same message to both Twitter and Facebook. Both social media companies treated this as misinformation: Twitter placed a warning message over the tweet, and Facebook deleted the equivalent post on its platform.

At a rally in Carson City, Nevada on October 18, Trump attempted to credit Obama vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as being responsible for stay-at-home orders, arguing that "under the Biden lockdown, the lights of Reno and Las Vegas were extinguished", and that "if he comes in, Carson City will become a ghost town and the Christmas season will be canceled." These comments were made despite that fact that Biden is a private citizen not in an elected office, the lockdowns occurred while Trump was in office, and that Christmas would too even if Biden were elected (as he would not take office until January 20, 2021 as per established precedent).

In a campaign call on October 19, Trump claimed that Americans were bored of hearing about COVID-19. "People are saying 'Whatever, just leave us alone.' They're tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots," he said, adding that Fauci has "been here for 500 years."

In the final 2020 presidential debate against Biden on October 22—as daily deaths in the United States neared an all-time high—Trump argued that the United States was "learning to live with OVID We have no choice. We can't lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does. He has the ability to lock himself up, we can't close up our nation, or you're not going to have a nation." He again claimed that the United States was "rounding the turn". Biden countered Trump's argument, replying "he says that we're learning to live with it. People are learning to with it. You folks home will have an empty chair at the kitchen table this morning. That man or wife going to bed tonight and reaching over to try to touch ... out of habit, where their wife or husband was, is gone. Learning to live with it? Come on. We're dying with it."

On October 25, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows stated on CNN that "we're not going to control the pandemic", and that the best that could be done was "vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation."

On October 27, the Office of Science and Technology Policy published a news release listing "ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC" as one of the Trump administration's "accomplishments", at a time when the seven-day U.S. case average (then 70,000/day) was the highest to date.

On October 30, at a rally in Michigan, Trump accused hospitals of inflating the count of COVID-19 deaths, falsely claiming that "doctors get more money if someone dies from COVID."

Mitigation measures and policies

Implementing restrictions

In his first comment on COVID-19 in a major address, Trump in his February4 State of the Union pledged that his "administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat". On February 28, Trump stated that "we are doing everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering the country. We have no choice."

On March 11, 2020, after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, President Trump delivered an Oval Office address. In his speech, Trump stated that his administration was "marshaling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people". He announced that the United States was "suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days", except travel from the United Kingdom, and including "the tremendous amount of trade and cargo". Trump also listed several economic policy proposals designed to provide tax relief for workers, aid small businesses, and fight the spread of the virus. Trump declared that insurance companies "have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments". After the speech, America's Health Insurance Plans clarified the waivers were only for tests, not for treatments, but by March 10 treatment was also covered. Trump also clarified that said trade was still approved under the travel restrictions, and administration officials clarified that American citizens or legal permanent residents or their families were not affected. Trump praised his administration's response to the "foreign" virus while stating that "a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe." He closed the speech by calling for less partisanship during the pandemic and praising Americans' response to adversity.

On March 16, President Trump and the Coronavirus Task Force released new recommendations based on CDC guidelines for Americans, titled "15 Days to Slow the Spread". These recommendations included physical distancing and hygienic instructions, as well as directions to the states in dealing with school closures, nursing homes, and common public venues.

On March 28, Trump raised the possibility of placing a two-week enforceable quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and "certain parts of Connecticut" to prevent travel from those places to Florida. The federal quarantine power is limited to preventing people reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease from entering the country or crossing state lines. Later that day, following criticism from the three governors, Trump withdrew the quarantine proposal. Instead, the CDC issued a travel advisory advising residents of the three states to "refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately".

On April 1, Trump falsely asserted that Americans were being tested for COVID-19 as they got on and off planes and trains.

On April 2, Anthony Fauci stated: "I don't understand why" some states still had yet to implement stay-at-home orders. By April 3, the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota had not implemented any such orders, while the states of Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming had implemented stay-at-home orders in some regions of the states, but not state-wide.

On September 16, Attorney General Bill Barr characterized lockdowns as a serious civil rights violation: "Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history." House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn criticized the comparison, stating that it was "the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful thing I've ever heard."

Before Thanksgiving, Deborah Birx advised Americans to limit holiday gatherings to "your immediate household." She did not follow this advice herself; the day after Thanksgiving, she traveled to a vacation property where she spent time with her daughter's family.

Lifting restrictions

On March 22, Trump indicated a desire to scale back physical distancing measures: "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself." A day later, he argued that economic problems arising from physical distancing measures will cause "suicides by the thousands" and "probably more death" than COVID-19 itself. He declared that the United States would "soon, be open for business", in a matter of weeks. During a virtual Fox News town hall on March 24, Trump stated restrictions had been "very painful for our country and very destabilizing. He expressed a desire to have the country "opened" within two weeks, anticipating "beautiful" and "packed" church services for Easter (April 12).

A survey of prominent economists by the University of Chicago indicated that abandoning a lockdown prematurely would do more economic damage than maintaining it. Law and economics scholars argued that the lockdowns were justified based on a cost-benefit analysis. On the March 26 episode of ''Hannity'', Trump stated that there were plans to classify states by COVID-19 risks, possibly allowing for measures to be lifted on a regional basis.

Despite stating in a previous briefing that he preferred to have mitigation measures be controlled by individual states because it was compatible with the Constitution, Trump claimed at the April 13 briefing that he had the ultimate authority to order the end of restrictions, saying "the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots." Three days later, Trump backtracked on his assertions, and assured governors that they would be able to "call heirown shots."

On April 17, Trump made posts on Twitter reading "LIBERATE MICHIGAN", "LIBERATE VIRGINIA" and "LIBERATE MINNESOTA", in support of protests over responses and stay-at-home orders issued by the Democratic governors of these states (including the Lansing, Michigan protest). The posts were made after Fox News's ''America's Newsroom'' aired a segment that covered these protests, implicating that he was reacting to it in real-time (as he has with other Fox News programs, such as ''Fox & Friends''). Later that day, a reporter asked whether he thought those states should end their stay-at-home orders. He replied, "No, but elements of what they've done are too much." When Trump was asked if he was worried that protester gatherings would inadvertently spread the coronavirus, he replied that the protesters "seem to be very responsible people". A day earlier, Trump commented: "They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion is the same as just about all of the governors. They all want to open. Nobody wants to stay shut, but they want to open safely. So do I."

On April 17, the White House released their "Opening Up America Again" blueprint. Later on May 13, the Associated Press reported that the CDC had also written guidance on lifting restrictions, which was not released to the public. The difference between the CDC and the White House's recommendations was that the CDC's recommendations were more specific and more restrictive than the White House's recommendations. The White House plan recommended that "non-essential travel can resume" after 28 continuous days of decreasing COVID-19 cases, whereas the CDC plan stated that resuming non-essential travel will only be under "consideration" after 42 consecutive days of decreasing COVID-19 cases. The CDC plan recognizes that COVID-19 cases will likely surge when restrictions are lifted, and local authorities would need to stringently monitor their communities, but the White House plan does not. The White House plan offers non-specific recommendations to protect "workers in critical industries" and "the most vulnerable", whereas the CDC plan recommends using demographic information to find out where COVID-19 cases are more likely to increase faster.

On April 20, Fauci warned that the protests against stay-at-home orders may "backfire" if a spike in cases follows an early lifting of restrictions. Fauci argued against the protests, stating that "unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not gonna happen." On May 1, Trump described Michigan protesters against stay-at-home orders as "very good people" who are "angry". Some of those protesters had brought rifles into the Michigan State Capitol. Trump called on Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to "make a deal" with the protesters. On May 3, White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx stated that it was "devastatingly worrisome" that some protesters across the U.S. were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. She warned that these protesters may "go home and they infect their grandmother or grandfather who has a comorbid condition".

The CDC developed more than 60 pages of step-by-step guidelines for reopening businesses, including "decision trees" to help business owners decide whether it was safe to reopen. It sought White House approval to publish the guidelines, anticipating a publication date of May 1. The document was called the "Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework." However, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) told the CDC they could not publish it. The White House asked for the document to state more directly "when" to reopen and "how" to safeguard health; they did not want the decision trees that addressed ''whether'' to reopen. Part of the CDC's document (17 pages) was leaked on May 7, and the rest was identified on May 8.

After Anthony Fauci warned against reopening schools too fast, President Trump responded on May 13 that he was "surprised" by Fauci's comments, stating that "it's not an acceptable answer". He accused Fauci of wanting "to play all sides of the equation". Trump declared that "schools are going to be open", while "the only thing that would be acceptable" is to delay the return of older educators for a few weeks. Trump declared that students were "in great shape" and the statistics for them regarding COVID-19 were "pretty amazing". Trump acknowledged that "something" may happen to students, but asserted that: "You can be driving to school and some bad things can happen too."

On July 8, Trump declared an intent to pressure state governors into ensuring that schools are open to in-person classes for the next semester and "cut off funding" if they don't, alleging that Democrats wanted to keep schools closed for political reasons going into the election. Trump also criticized the CDC's guidelines for schools as being "very tough and expensive". During the day's briefing, Mike Pence subsequently announced that the CDC would " ssuea new set of tools, five different documents that will be giving even more clarity on the guidance going forward." The next day, CDC director Robert Redfield stated that these documents would be supplemental to its existing guidelines, denying accusations that they were to be modified outright due to pressure from Trump.

In August, Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist from the Hoover Institution, became a White House pandemic adviser. He supported lifting restrictions and letting the coronavirus spread, while continuing to protect some vulnerable people (for example, those who live in nursing homes), so that most of the population would develop "herd immunity."

Mask wearing

Early recommendations against masks to protect the wearer

Initially, the U.S. government did not recommend the use of face masks by the general public outside of medical settings to protect themselves from COVID-19, as to prevent shortages of medical-grade personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors treating COVID-19 patients. In February 2020, Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams stated that proper hygiene and getting a flu vaccine were appropriate preventive actions to be taken by the public, and stated on Twitter that masks should be saved for healthcare professionals, and that they were "NOT effective in preventing hegeneral public from catching Coronavirus". CDC director Robert R. Redfield also stated that healthy people did not need to wear masks.

In a March 8 interview with ''60 Minutes'', Fauci similarly argued that "when you're in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is." Fauci again cited the need to conserve supplies of PPE for medical workers and those who were sick.

In late March 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a recommendation that masks be used by those who are sick, or are caring for someone who is sick and not able to wear a mask themselves, and discouraged their use by healthy members of the general public. This guidance was consistent with that of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the time.

Current recommendations surrounding mask wearing

On April 3, after the CDC issued a recommendation that the general public wear non-medical face coverings to help reduce propagation of the respiratory droplets that spread COVID-19, Trump stated in that day's briefing that he would not personally do so, and emphasized that this was merely a recommendation.

Use or lack of use of masks by Trump

In May 2020, Trump did not publicly wear a mask during press appearances at a Honeywell factory producing masks, nor at a Ford Motor Company plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan on May 21. At the Ford plant, Trump did wear a mask, but took it off before appearing for the media; he argued that he "didn't want to give the press the pleasure" of seeing him wearing a mask.

Following the visit, the state's Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she would issue a warning to Ford for violations of Michigan health orders, which require the wearing of masks in all enclosed public spaces. She also criticized Trump on Twitter, calling him a "petulant child", and arguing that he was a bad role model for the country, and had endangered the factory's workers. In response, Trump chastised Nessel for "taking her anger and stupidity" out on Ford, and suggested that the company "might get upset with you and leave the state, like so many other companies have—until I came along and brought business back to Michigan."

On May 26, Trump said that it was "very unusual" for Joe Biden to wear a face mask during a public appearance at a Memorial Day ceremony, because he was "standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather". Trump also said that "that was fine" and that he "wasn't criticizing" Biden. Trump also shared a Twitter post ridiculing the outfit by Fox News commentator Brit Hume. In an interview, Biden responded by saying that "Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine." Also that day, Trump asked a journalist to remove his face mask while asking a question. The journalist refused, saying he would talk louder. Trump reacted by accusing the journalist of wanting "to be politically correct."

In an interview with Fox Business on July 1, Trump stated he was "all for masks" and would wear one in public if social distancing was not possible, although arguing that he would not usually be in such a situation, and questioned whether a nationwide mandate for wearing masks in public would be effective, since it would apply in "places in the country where people stay very long distance" already. On July 14 in an interview with CBS News, Trump similarly urged Americans to wear masks "if it's necessary".

On July 20, Trump posted a photo of himself wearing a mask on Twitter, stating that "many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance", and subsequently recommended residents do so during his briefing the next day.

At a campaign rally on September 3, Trump once again mocked Joe Biden for wearing masks during campaign appearances. He asked the crowd, "did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him?" Trump went on to say that "If I were a psychiatrist, I'd say this guy has some big issues."At a campaign rally in Michigan on September 10, ''New York Times'' correspondent Kathy Gray tweeted that she saw "not many masks" among the crowd. Twenty minutes later, she was escorted out by Trump campaign officials, and tweeted: "I've just been kicked out of the trump rally."

On September 21, ''The Daily Beast'' reported that William Crews, a public affairs official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was a pseudonymous managing editor of the conservative blog '' RedState'', and had made posts downplaying the wearing of masks as a "political statement" and referring to Fauci as a "mask Nazi." That same day, NIAID announced that Crews would retire.

During an October 15 town hall hosted by NBC News, Trump falsely claimed that 85% of people who wear masks catch COVID-19, citing a CDC study. The study was actually to evaluate the behaviors of COVID-positive patients prior to the onset of symptoms. While 70% of those surveyed did self-report that they frequently wore masks, they were found to be more likely to have engaged in activities "where mask use and social distancing are difficult to maintain", such as indoor dining and close exposures (in comparison to those where mask use and social distancing is easier).

Testing

On February 21, Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases denied that there was a "lag time for testing." Similarly, Health Secretary Alex Azar, in his testimony to the Senate on February 25, denied that the CDC-developed COVID-19 test was faulty (which it actually was), instead boasting that the CDC's response has been "historic".

On March 4, Trump inaccurately blamed the Barack Obama administration for making "a decision" that delayed COVID-19 testing by the Trump administration, stating that his administration "undid that ulea few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion to more quickly provide diagnostic tests to the American people." Also that day, CDC director Robert Redfield inaccurately claimed that the Obama administration had modified policy to start regulating laboratory-developed tests. In actuality, the policy in question had never been modified by the Obama administration, despite plans to do so. The policy's overall legal roots date to 2004, before the Obama administration. Under the umbrella of Emergency Use Authorizations, the old policy stated that laboratory-developed tests "should not be used for clinical diagnoses without FDA's approval, clearance, or authorization during an emergency declaration". However, this policy was historically treated as a recommendation and generally unenforced, with no clear legal authority of the FDA in this area. The Trump administration continued to require laboratories to apply to the FDA for approval, but allowed the laboratories to test while the FDA processed the applications.

On March 5, Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of the coronavirus response team, acknowledged that "we don't have enough tests" to meet the predicted future demand; this announcement came only three days after FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn committed to producing nearly a million tests by that week.
The next day, Pence was contradicted by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who said that: "There is no testing kit shortage, nor has there ever been". Also on March 6, Trump over-promised on the availability of COVID-19 testing in the United States, claiming that: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test." Firstly, there were criteria needed to qualify for a test; recommendations were needed from doctors or health officials to approve testing. Secondly, the lack of test supplies resulted in some being denied tests even though doctors wanted to test them.

On March 13, when Trump was asked if he took responsibility for deficiencies in the country's testing response, he replied: "I don't take any responsibility at all".

On March 30, Trump claimed that his administration "inherited a broken test" for COVID-19. "That wasn't from us. That's been there a long time," he said. The claim was illogical because no previous administration could have prepared a test for a disease which had yet to emerge. COVID-19 emerged during Trump's presidency, at the end of 2019. The test was designed in 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control under the Trump administration. Trump repeated the false claim on multiple occasions: saying, for example, that the "CDC had obsolete tests" (to OANN on April 19) and that "the tests were broken" (to ABC News on May 5).

In early April, the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report describing that U.S. hospitals in late March reported that "severe shortages of testing supplies", including "nasal swabs, viral transfer media, and reagents used to detect the virus". The hospitals also reported "frequently waiting 7days or longer for test results".

On April 21, Trump stated that COVID-19 testing in the United States "is good in some cases, and in some cases it's not." On May 1, Trump boasted that his administration has "solved every problem ... quickly", including "the testing".

On May 6, Trump said that if the United States "did very little testing, we wouldn't have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad." Also that day, Trump met with a group of nurses. The group did not wear masks or practice social distancing, because they said they all had been tested negative for COVID-19. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany argued that day that it "is just simply nonsensical" that "everyone" in the U.S. "needs to be tested". She introduced a straw man argument that "we'd have to retest them an hour later, and then an hour later after that."

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