https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/505520-trumps-focus-scattered-amid-multiple-crises
The president has not held a public event since Friday, and his tweets in recent days have focused extensively on television ratings and threats against those who deface monuments.
Meanwhile, several states are facing a resurgence in coronavirus cases that public health experts warn could quickly spiral out of control.
Millions of Americans remain out of work amid the pandemic, and economists are uncertain about how long the recovery will take, though it is likely to be longer if there are further outbreaks.
Protests over police brutality and racial injustice have persisted for more than a month.
And Trump this week has been at the center of a new controversy as the White House attempts to explain why he was unaware of intelligence that Russia put out bounties for the Taliban to target U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Allies and former government officials say Trump must confront these challenges head on and take charge to show he is capable of leading through a turbulent stretch.
“Traditionally the president would be out front with positive messages on these kinds of national crises, but that’s not Trump’s style. He’s offense only. He leaves defense to others,” said Dan Eberhart, a GOP fundraiser and CEO of oil drilling company Canary.
“The administration may want the president to get out front, but Trump’s style makes that impossible,” he added.
Trump had no public events this week through Wednesday. He is scheduled to deliver remarks at a “Spirit of America Showcase” on Thursday and will head to South Dakota on Friday for what is likely to be a warm reception at a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore.
His Twitter activity has masked ongoing challenges in the country and within the White House. The president has tweeted or retweeted more than a dozen messages in the past week about protecting monuments and statues from vandalism. He fired off nearly a dozen tweets in the same time period commenting on cable news ratings or ripping networks for perceived unfair coverage.
“Any suggestion that the President is not working around the clock to protect the health and safety of all Americans, lead the whole-of-government response to this pandemic, including expediting vaccine development, and rebuild our economy is utterly false,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement.
“While Do-Nothing-Democrats smear and slander this President, President Trump is going to ensure our Nation is healthy, strong, and has a growing, prosperous economy,” he added.
Trump has yet to comment specifically on the sharp rise in coronavirus cases in Arizona, Texas, Florida, California and a handful of other states, leaving it to others in the administration to tackle the issue.
The White House coronavirus task force has resumed holding periodic briefings as the pandemic in the U.S. has worsened. But those media sessions have been organized by the vice president’s office, and Pence has again emerged as the face of the federal government’s response as he travels to affected states to meet with governors.
Trump’s daily involvement with the coronavirus response has dwindled over the last month or so, officials said. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, has said he hasn’t met with the president in weeks.
A White House official said Pence provides relevant information to Trump on the task force’s activities “as warranted.”
The president spent much of last week caught up in a news cycle on his comments that he told aides to slow down testing because it was making the U.S. look bad. While Trump and other aides said the president had not seriously given such a directive, he continued to argue that less testing would yield fewer cases.
The spike in cases is also likely to be an impediment to any economic recovery, which is critical to Trump’s reelection chances as he has argued he is the right man to oversee such a revival. Shutdowns spurred by the pandemic resulted in millions of job losses and prompted business closures nationwide."
metmike: Of course they would not mention his biggest ongoing(3+ years) crisis...........the MSM will twist every news item as negative as possible for him, then squeeze every drop of possible vilifying poison out of it before going on to the next bash Trump news item.
He just has way too many enemies to be elected under the current circumstances even if his opponent is the weakest candidate in history.
His biggest positive, the economy has taken too much of a hit.
The MSM have people convinced that everything is his fault and that's all that matters......what people think.
mike it 1000% is HIS fault ..
How and why would anyone who is rational deny this ?