1/12
On April 18th of this year, 1,520 Americans died of COVID. 40 states were under stay-at-home orders. It had been a month since a global pandemic had been declared. April 18th—one week after Easter—was the date by which Trump had said America would be open. #velshi
2/12
On April 18th, Jared Kushner told veteran journalist Bob Woodward on tape that Trump’s push to reopen was a way of quote “getting the country back from the doctors.” Once again, science was losing to Trump’s impulsive and irrational decision-making. #velshi
3/12
Kushner said to Woodward, “We’ve now put out rules to get back to work. Trump’s now back in charge. It’s not the doctors.” Because why would we want doctors to get us through a pandemic when we can have a real-estate developer with no medical training? #velshi
4/12
Overruling experts and making decisions for personal gain is commonplace for Trump. It’s how he runs his administration, and it’s how he ran his businesses. #velshi
5/12
Trump values loyalty over expertise, opting for what Kushner described as “people who know their place,” rather than those whose experience may challenge or even contradict Trump’s instincts. #velshi
6/12
Trump’s obsession with loyalty explains the slow erosion of Dr. Fauci as the face of the administration’s fight against coronavirus, in favor of a doctor who DOESN’T specialize in infectious disease or public health and pushes junk science. But he defers to Trump. #velshi
7/12
Even AFTER getting COVID, Trump won’t get behind wearing a mask. He says America has as many cases as we do because we test a lot. Too much, he says. #velshi
8/12
Trump says herd immunity could be the solution, and that we are rounding a corner on the virus, which is only true if you think what’s around the corner is HELL. #velshi
9/12
In three days, Trump’s claim that we would have a vaccine by election day will join the 22,250 LIES the Washington Post has tracked so far. In one presidential term. #velshi
10/12
Trump probably doesn’t think he’s told all that many lies, because he and his family have a problem with numbers. For instance, two days ago, when America hit a record number of infections, 90,000 in one day, Trump’s son said the numbers are “almost nothing.” #velshi
11/12
COVID is down to “almost nothing”: tell that to the families of the 971 people who died in America the day of Trump Jr.’s comment. This is the type of leadership and decision-making that have made the Trump administration an abject failure. #velshi
12/12
Trump and his administration risked our lives. Not just with COVID, but with healthcare, foreign policy and the climate. THEIR failures are now OUR problem. When you fail this big, people die. When you fail this big, you’re not entitled to a second chance. #velshi
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