Trump’s COVID Timeline: From Disbanding the Pandemic Response Team to his Diagnosis

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The Mask

From the inexplicable decision to disband the White House pandemic response team in 2018, to the discussions with Bob Woodward, the promise of COVID disappearing by April, all the way to mocking masks and ultimately the President’s diagnosis, this is a complete timeline of President Trump and his administration’s response to COVID-19.

 

May 2018 The Administration disbands the White House pandemic response team.
July 2019 The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency left her post, and the Administration decided to eliminate the role.
October 2019 “Currently, there are insufficient funding sources designated for the federal government to use in response to a severe influenza pandemic.” [Crimson Contagion exercise findings]
January 22 “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
January 24 Trump praises China’s handling of the coronavirus: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
January 28 “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency…This is going to be the roughest thing you face” Trump’s National Security Advisor to Trump
January 30 “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,…This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” [Memo from Trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro]
February 2 “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 7 “It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu… This is deadly stuff” [Trump in a private taped interview with Bob Woodward, made public September 9]
February 10 “I think the virus is going to be—it’s going to be fine.”
February 10 “Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
February 24 “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25 “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25 “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26 “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26 “We’re going very substantially down, not up.”
February 26 “Well, we’re testing everybody that we need to test. And we’re finding very little problem. Very little problem.”
February 26 “This is a flu. This is like a flu.”
February 27 “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28 “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
March 2 “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2 “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4 “Now, and this is just my hunch, and — but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot people will have this and it’s very mild.”
March 4 “If we have thousands or 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.”
March 5 “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5 “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6 “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6 “You have to be calm. It’ll go away.”
March 6 “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6 “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6 “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”
March 7 “When we get into April, in the warmer weather—that has a very negative effect on that, and that type of a virus.”
March 7 “No, I’m not concerned at all.
March 8 “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”
March 9 During a news conference, White House officials say the U.S. will have tested one million people that week and thereafter would complete 4 million tests per week. By the end of the week, the CDC had only completed a paltry 4,000 tests.
March 9 “This blindsided the world.”
March 10 “Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 11 “It goes away….It’s going away. We want it to go away with very, very few deaths.”
March 12 Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells Congress that the country does not have sufficient testing. “The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” he said. “That is a failing. Let’s admit it.”
March 12 “You know, you see what’s going on. And so I just wanted that to stop as it pertains to the United States. And that’s what we’ve done. We’ve stopped it.”
March 13 “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
March 13 The Atlantic reported that less than 14,000 tests had been done in the ten weeks since the administration had first been notified of the virus, though Mike Pence had promised the week prior that 1.5 million tests would be available by this time.
March 14 “I’d rate it a ten,” [Trump’s rating of his coronavirus response]
March 15 “Relax”
March 15 “This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something that we have tremendous control over.”
March 16 “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment-try getting it yourselves,”
March 17 “The only thing we haven’t done well is get good press.”
March 17 “I felt like it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
March 19 I intended “to always play it down.”  [Trump in a private taped interview with Bob Woodward, made public September 9]
March 20 “I say that you’re a terrible reporter, that’s what I say. I think it’s a very nasty question, and I think it’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.” [Response to reporter’s question: “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?”]
March 22 “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”
March 24  “I’m also hopeful to have Americans working again by that Easter – that beautiful Easter day.”
March 24 “We’ve never closed down the country for the flu,” Trump said. “So you say to yourself, what is this all about?”
March 24 “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”
March 25 “The faster we go back, the better it’s going to be.”
March 26 “Congratulations AMERICA!” [On Senate passage of third relief bill]
March 26 “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”
March 26 “We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor from — you know who I’m talking about — from Michigan,”
March 27 “I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!”
March 27 “Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington. You’re wasting your time with him…”
March 27 “I want them to be appreciative. We’ve done a great job.”
March 27 “We’re doing a great job for the state of Washington and I think the Governor…he’s constantly chirping and I guess complaining would be a nice way of saying it.”
March 29 “Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?”
March 29 “Unfortunately the enemy is death. It’s death. A lot of people are dying. So it’s very unpleasant.”
March 30 “Stay calm, it will go away. You know it — you know it is going away, and it will go away, and we’re going to have a great victory.”
March 30 “I think New York should be fine, based on the numbers that we see, they should have more than enough. I mean, I’m hearing stories that they’re not used or they’re not used right.”
March 30 “I haven’t heard about testing in weeks. We’re testing more than any other nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests…But I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.”
March 30 “We inherited a broken test — the whole thing was broken.”
March 31 “…it’s not the flu. It’s vicious.”
April 1 “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”
April 2 “Massive amounts of medical supplies… are being delivered directly to states…Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?). The complainers should have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit.”
April 2 “…the Federal Government is merely a back-up for state governments.”
April 3 “I’m feeling good. I just don’t want to be doing — somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful resolute desk, the great resolute desk, I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself. I just don’t. Maybe I’ll change my mind.”
April 5 “FEMA, the military — what they’ve done is a miracle…And you should be thanking them for what they’ve done, not always asking wise-guy questions.”
April 6 “LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!”
April 6 U.S. death toll passes 10,000
April 7 “So, you know, things are happening. It’s a — it’s — I haven’t seen bad. I’ve not seen bad.”
April 7 “You are not going to die from this pill…I really think it’s a great thing to try.”
April 7 “That was a flu. OK. So you could say that I said it was a flu, or you could say the flu is nothing to — sneeze at,” [Regarding Spanish Flu]
April 8 “I read about it maybe a day, two days ago,…It was a recommendation that he had, I think he told certain people on the staff, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t see it.” [Regarding Peter Navarro’s January warning]
April 9 “I couldn’t have done it any better,” [When asked if his coronavirus response could have been better]
April 11 U.S. death toll passes 20,000
April 13 “But I guess I’m doing OK, because, to the best of my knowledge, I’m the President of the United States, despite the things that are said.”
April 14 “Enough!” [When a reporter questioned his claim that his authority as president is “total”]
April 14 “[w]hen somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.”
April 15 U.S. death toll passes 30,000
April 15 As Trump focuses on reopening, a leaked CDC and FEMA report warns of “significant risk of resurgence of the virus” with phased reopening.
April 19  “Now we’re going toward 50, I’m hearing, or 60,000 people [dead from the coronavirus]”
April 22 “If [coronavirus] comes back though, it won’t be coming back in the form that it was, it will be coming back in smaller doses that we can contain….it’s also possible it doesn’t come back at all.”
April 23 “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”
April 23 “So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way…”
April 23 “You see states are starting to open up now, and it’s very exciting to see,”
April 23 26 million jobless claims
April 24 U.S. death toll passes 50,000
April 26 “The people that know me and know the history of our Country say that I am the hardest working President in history.”
April 27 “I can’t imagine why,” [Regarding influx in poison control calls about disinfectant]
April 29 “It’s gonna go away, this is going to go away.”
May 3 “Look, we’re going to lose anywhere from 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people,”
May 5 U.S. death toll passes 70,000
May 5 Consumer debt hits an all-time high
May 5 “Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse!”
May 5 “I always felt 60, 65, 70, as horrible as that is. I mean, you’re talking about filling up Yankee Stadium with death! So I thought it was horrible. But it’s probably going to be somewhat higher than that,”
May 5 “There’ll be more death, that the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine. And I think we’re doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it’s going to pass, and we’re going to be back to normal,”
May 5 “I don’t want to be Mr. Gloom-and-Doom. It’s a very bad subject,…I’m not looking to tell the American people when nobody really knows what’s happening yet, ‘Oh, this is going to be so tragic.’”
May 6 Brookings reports that children were “experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times” and “40.9 percent of mothers with children ages 12 and under reported household food insecurity since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Republicans block proposals to expand food stamps.
May 6 “Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other people.” [In response to a nurse telling him that equipment supply has been “sporadic”]
May 7 33 million jobless claims
May 8 “This is going to go away without a vaccine. It is going to go away.  We are not going to see it again.”
May 9 “This is going to go away without a vaccine.”
May 11 “Coronavirus numbers are looking MUCH better, going down almost everywhere. Big progress being made!”
May 11 “We have met the moment and we have prevailed,”
May 14 “Could be that testing’s, frankly, overrated. Maybe it is overrated.”
May 14 “Don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing,”
May 15 “Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back. And we’re starting the process. In many cases, they don’t have vaccines and a virus or a flu comes and you fight through it.
May 16 “We’ve done a GREAT job on Covid response, making all Governors look good, some fantastic (and that’s OK), but the Lamestream Media doesn’t want to go with that narrative, and the Do Nothing Dems talking point is to say only bad about “Trump”. I made everybody look good, but me!”
May 18 U.S. death toll passes 90,000
May 19 “When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing, I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing,…Because it means our testing is much better. I view it as a badge of honor, really, it’s a badge of honor.”
May 21 USA Today reports that mortgage delinquencies surged by 1.6 million in April, the largest single-month jump in history.
May 22 38 million jobless claims
May 27 U.S. death toll passes 100,000
May 29 “We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization”
June 6 U.S death toll passes 110,000
June 6 “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country…This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality.”
June 15 “At some point this stuff goes away and it’s going away.”
June 17 “It’s fading away. It’s going to fade away.”
June 18 “And it is dying out. The numbers are starting to get very good.”
June 20 “Testing is a double-edged sword,…When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases, so I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.'”
June 22 U.S death toll passes 120,000
June 23 “Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!”
June 23 “It’s going away,”
June 25 “The number of ChinaVirus cases goes up, because of GREAT TESTING, while the number of deaths (mortality rate), goes way down. The Fake News doesn’t like telling you that!”
June 25 “Coronavirus deaths are way down. Mortality rate is one of the lowest in the World. Our Economy is roaring back and will NOT be shut down. “Embers” or flare ups will be put out, as necessary!”
June 30 U.S. has just 4% of the global population, but 25% of global coronavirus cases and the second highest death rate per capita.
July 1 “I think we’re going to be very good with the coronavirus.” “I think that, at some point, that’s going to sort of disappear, I hope.”
July 6 U.S. death toll passes 130,000
July 7 “I think we are in a good place.”
July 7 The president predicted that in the next two to four weeks, “I think we’re going to be in very good shape.”
July 8 “In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November election, but it is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”
July 8 “I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking school [sic] to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!”
July 18 U.S. death toll passes 140,000
July 19 “I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world”
July 19 “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”
July 21 “You will never hear this on the Fake News concerning the China Virus, but by comparison to most other countries, who are suffering greatly, we are doing very well – and we have done things that few other countries could have done!”
July 27 “America will develop a vaccine very soon, and we will defeat the virus. We will have it delivered in record time.”
July 28 U.S. death toll passes 150,000
July 28 “He’s got this high approval rating. So why don’t I have a high approval rating with respect — and the administration — with respect to the virus?” (Trump referring to Anthony Fauci)
August 1 “Wrong! We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would be less cases,”  (Donald Trump in a retweet of Anthony Fauci saying the U.S. has seen more cases than European countries because it only shut down a fraction of its economy amid the pandemic)
August 3 “I think we are doing very well and I think … as well as any nation,”
August 3 “They are dying. That’s true. And you — it is what it is.”
August 3 “OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!”
August 3 “Right now I think it’s under control.”
August 3 “You know, there are those that say you can test too much, you do know that.”
August 4 “…we have among the lowest numbers.” – White House Press Briefing
August 5 “If you look at children, children are almost – and I would almost say definitely – but almost immune from this disease.”
August 5 “We’re supplying the world now with ventilators. You go back four months, we didn’t have any” – Fox and Friends
August 5 “It will go away like things go away”
August 6 U.S. death toll passes 160,000
August 12 U.S. reports highest number of COVID-19 deaths in one day since mid-May
August 16 U.S. death toll passes 170,000
August 22 “Many doctors and studies disagree with this!” (Donald Trump in a quote tweet of a Twitter moment stating that the FDA is revoking hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for COVID-19 treatment, as they are “unlikely to be effective”)
August 22 “The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!”
August 23 The President claims that ballot drop boxes are a “voter security disaster” and a “big fraud,” “possible for a person to vote multiple times” and that they aren’t “Covid sanitized.”
August 26 U.S. death toll passes 180,000
August 31 “We’ve done a great job in Covid but we don’t get the credit.”
August 31 Six million Americans have now been infected by the coronavirus.
September 4 There will be a vaccine “before the end of the year and maybe even before Nov. 1. I think we can probably have it sometime in October.”
September 9 U.S. death toll passes 190,000
September 10 “I really do believe that we are rounding the corner. The vaccines are right there”
September 10 “This is nobody’s fault but China.”
September 10 “We’ve possibly done the best job”
September 10 “We have rounded the final turn”
September 10 “I think that we’ve probably done the best job of any country”
September 14 Trump, was asked if he is afraid of Coronavirus risk at his rallies: “I’m on a stage, it’s very far away, so I’m not at all concerned.”
September 16 “If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.”
September 16 Reporter: “[The head of the CDC] said that the vaccine for the general public wouldn’t be available until next Summer or maybe even early fall. Are you comfortable with that timeline?” Trump: “I think he made a mistake when he said that. That’s just incorrect information.”
September 19 U.S. death toll passes 200,000
September 21 “Take your hat off to the young because they have a hell of an immune system. But [the virus] affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing. By the way, open your schools everybody, open your schools.”
September 21 “We’re rounding the corner,” “With or without a vaccine. They hate when I say that but that’s the way it is. … We’ve done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job, a phenomenal job. Other than public relations, but that’s because I have fake news. On public relations, I give myself a D. On the job itself, we take an A+.”
September 21 “In some states, thousands of people — nobody young. Below the age of 18, like, nobody. They have a strong immune system, who knows? Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing.”
September 23 “I think we’re rounding the turn very much.”
September 28 “And I say, and I’ll say it all the time: We’re rounding the corner.  And, very importantly, vaccines are coming, but we’re rounding the corner regardless.  But vaccines are coming, and they’re coming fast. “
From the 1st Debate, September 29 “Well, so far we have had no problem whatsoever. ” (referring to crowds of thousands at rallies)

 

“I don’t wear a mask like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
October 2 Trump and First Lady test positive for Coronavirus

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Timeline of Trump’s Coronavirus Response from Texas Congressman, Lloyd Doggett.
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