The Magas are going to try to spin this every which way, but the plain fact is: Donald J. Trump 100% botched the coronavirus response from top to bottom, beginning to end. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true

"administration received its first formal notification of the outbreak of the coronavirus in China on Jan. 3. Within days, U.S. spy agencies were signaling the seriousness of the threat to Trump by including a warning about the coronavirus [..] in the President’s Daily Brief."

"it took 70 days from that initial notification for Trump to treat the coronavirus not as a distant threat or harmless flu strain well under control, but as a lethal force that had outflanked America’s defenses and was poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens."

"Trump’s baseless assertions in those weeks, including his claim that it would all just “miraculously” go away, sowed significant public confusion and contradicted the urgent messages of public health experts."

"The president’s behavior and combative statements were merely a visible layer on top of deeper levels of dysfunction."

"The most consequential failure involved a breakdown in efforts to develop a diagnostic test that could be mass produced and distributed across the United States"

"At one point, an FDA official tore into lab officials at the CDC, telling them their lapses in protocol [..] were so serious that the FDA would “shut you down” if the CDC were a commercial, rather than government, entity."

"failures cascaded through the system. The administration often seemed weeks behind the curve in reacting to the viral spread"

"arguments between the White House and public health agencies over funding [..] meager existing stockpile of emergency supplies [..] infighting, turf wars and abrupt leadership changes hobbled the work of the coronavirus task force."

"In mid-March, [..] the poll showed that far more Republicans than Democrats were being influenced by Trump’s dismissive depictions of the virus and the comparably scornful coverage on Fox News and other conservative networks."

"As a result, Republicans were [..] refusing to change travel plans, follow “social distancing” guidelines, stock up on supplies or otherwise take the coronavirus threat seriously."

"Trump’s message was changing as the report swept through the GOP’s senior ranks. In recent days, Trump has bristled at reminders that he had once claimed the caseload would soon be “down to zero.”"

"“This has been a real blow to the sense that America was competent,” said Gregory F. Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the government’s senior-most provider of intelligence analysis. He stepped down from the NIC in January 2017"

“That was part of our global role. Traditional friends and allies looked to us because they thought we could be competently called upon to work with them in a crisis. This has been the opposite of that.”

"Trump was not substantially briefed by health officials about the coronavirus until Jan.18, when, while spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, he took a call from Azar."

"before the heath secretary could get a word in about the virus, Trump cut him off and began criticizing Azar for his handling of an aborted federal ban on vaping products, a matter that vexed the president."

"Trump was in the throes of an impeachment battle [..] calling lawmakers late at night to rant, and making lists of perceived enemies he would seek to punish when the case against him concluded."

"On Jan. 21, a Seattle man [..] becoming the first known infection on U.S. soil. Then, two days later, Chinese authorities took the drastic step of shutting down Wuhan"

"Trump was out of the country for this critical stretch, taking part in the annual global economic forum in Davos, Switzerland."

"On Jan. 22, Trump received his first question about the coronavirus"

"we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. . . . It’s going to be just fine.”

"Azar, Pottinger and Fauci, [..] formed the core of what would become the administration’s coronavirus task force. But it primarily focused on efforts to keep infected people in China from traveling to the United States even while evacuating thousands of U.S. citizens."

"The meetings did not seriously focus on testing or supplies, which have since become the administration’s most challenging problems."

"The State Department agenda dominated those early discussions, according to participants."

"Pottinger was by then pushing for another travel ban, this time restricting the flow of travelers from Italy and other nations [..] this time, the plan met with resistance from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and others who worried about the impact on the U.S. economy."

"While fights over air travel played out in the White House, public health officials began to panic over a startling shortage of critical medical equipment including protective masks for doctors and nurses, as well as a rapidly shrinking pool of money"

"A national stockpile of N95 protective masks, gowns, gloves and other supplies was already woefully inadequate after years of underfunding."

"the manufacturing of such equipment had long since migrated to China, where factories were now shuttered [..] At the same time, China was buying up masks and other gear to gird for its own coronavirus outbreak, driving up costs and monopolizing supplies."

"In late January and early February, leaders at HHS sent two letters [asking for] $136 million [..] Yet White House budget hawks argued that appropriating too much money at once when there were only a few U.S. cases would be viewed as alarmist."

"Joe Grogan, head of the Domestic Policy Council, clashed with health officials over preparedness. He mistrusted how the money would be used and questioned how health officials had used previous preparedness funds."

"The disputes meant that the United States missed a narrow window to stockpile ventilators, masks and other protective gear before the administration was bidding against many other desperate nations"

"Trump continued to exhibit little concern. On Feb. 10, he held a political rally in New Hampshire attended by thousands where he declared that “by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”"

"On Feb. 29, a Washington state man became the first American to die of a coronavirus infection. That same day, the FDA released guidance, signaling that private labs were free to proceed in developing their own diagnostics.

Another four-week stretch had been squandered."

There's a photo.
"Keep America Great," indeed

On Feb 27 I posed this question: https://twitter.com/mcjulie/status/1233175118832001025

The next day I got this very thoughtful answer. https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1233414543734214656

"A team reporting to Kushner commandeered space on the seventh floor of the HHS building to pursue a series of inchoate initiatives."

"One plan involved having Google create a website to direct those with symptoms to testing facilities that were supposed to spring up in Walmart parking lots across the country, but which never materialized."

"Another centered on an idea advanced by Oracle chairman Larry Ellison to use software to monitor the unproven use of anti-malaria drugs against the coronavirus pathogen."

"The Kushner initiatives have, however, often interrupted the work of those under immense pressure to manage the U.S. response."

“Right now Fauci is trying to roll out the most ambitious clinical trial ever implemented” [..] And yet, the nation’s top health officials “are getting calls from the White House or Jared’s team asking, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to do this with Oracle?’ ”

"If the coronavirus has exposed the country’s misplaced confidence in its ability to handle a crisis, it also has cast harsh light on the limits of Trump’s approach to the presidency — his disdain for facts, science and experience."

"He has survived other challenges to his presidency by fiercely contesting the facts arrayed against him and trying to control the public’s understanding of events with streams of falsehoods."

"The coronavirus may be the first crisis Trump has faced in office where the facts — the thousands of mounting deaths and infections — are so devastatingly evident that they defy these tactics."

But then, as recently as March 24, DJT was STILL talking about being "open by Easter" https://twitter.com/mcjulie/status/1242574901648605184

He seems to have abandoned that idea, at least.

Addendum: when searching for the date of my "Easter" comment, I ran into this essay from Easter 2016.
http://www.gothhouse.org/blog/mark-driscoll-and-the-he-man-woman-haters-gospel/

And, oh God, I ran into this essay from "Super Tuesday" 2016 https://www.gothhouse.org/blog/depressed-about-trump/