Trump Abandons Rosy Forecast: Pandemic To ‘Get Worse Before It Gets Better’
In the first briefing of the White House coronavirus task force since April, President Donald Trump warned the nation about the state of the pandemic. He also told Americans to, "get a mask."
President Trump abruptly departed on Tuesday from his rosy projections about the coronavirus, warning Americans from the White House briefing lectern that the illness would get worse before widespread recovery. 鈥淚t will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better,鈥 Mr. Trump said. 鈥淪omething I don鈥檛 like saying about things, but that鈥檚 the way it is.鈥 (7/21)
President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the 鈥渘asty horrible鈥欌 coronavirus will get worse in the U.S. before it gets better, but he also tried to paint a rosy picture of efforts to conquer the disease that has claimed more than 140,000 American lives in just five months. He also professed a newfound respect for the protective face masks he has seldom worn. He pulled one from his pocket in the White House briefing room but didn鈥檛 put it on. (Miller 7/21)
President Trump, six months into a deadly pandemic and less than four months from Election Day, conceded Tuesday that the coronavirus would 鈥済et worse before it gets better鈥 and urged all Americans to wear face masks 鈥渨hether you like the mask or not.鈥 鈥淚f you can, use the mask,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hink about patriotism.鈥 (Stokols, 7/21)
In his first coronavirus briefing since April, President Donald Trump got a little more accurate about the state of the pandemic in the US -- but also continued to make some of the same false claims and promote some of the same misleading narratives of his previous moments in the White House briefing room. (Dale, Subramaniam, Cohen and Wright, 7/21)
Anthony Fauci, one of the most recognized and trusted faces of the federal coronavirus response, said on Tuesday he was not invited to join President Donald Trump later in the day at a news briefing on the White House pandemic response. Trump announced on Monday he would return to the White House lectern to deliver regular news briefings on the coronavirus 鈥 a staple this spring in the early months of the pandemic in the U.S. Those briefings often meandered off topic into campaign-style diatribes, and Trump has continued to use news conferences to express his disdain for his Democratic rivals since the last coronavirus briefing in April. (Choi, 7/21)
Also 鈥
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) dubbed the coronavirus the 鈥淭rump virus鈥 on Tuesday evening, ratcheting up聽her rhetoric聽over President Trump鈥檚 handling of the pandemic. "Well, I think with the president's comments today, he recognized the mistakes he has made by now embracing mask-wearing and the recognition this is not a hoax. It is a pandemic that has gotten worse before it will get better because of his inaction," Pelosi said on CNN's "The Situation Room." (Axelrod, 7/21)