Here’s your comprehensive timeline of Trump’s failed coronavirus response
90,000 are Americans dead.
1.4 million confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases.
More than 36 million unemployment claims filed.
Despite months of warning, Trump failed to act to slow the spread of this deadly pandemic.
We partnered with Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight Action, on a comprehensive timeline video laying out the tragic price of Trump’s chaotic response.
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The U.S. has the most coronavirus cases and deaths in the world. Our country is facing the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. People of color, Native Americans, and rural communities have been hit disproportionately hard and are suffering badly.
It didn’t have to be this way. Our country is enduring this level of tragedy because of a series of chaotic decisions and inaction that have characterized Trump’s presidency:
- Sabotaging preparedness and ignoring warning signs: From the beginning, Trump’s budget proposals suggested cuts to key pandemic preparedness programs. In May of 2018, Trump disbanded the White House pandemic office. This January, as the coronavirus crisis threatened the U.S., Trump ignored multiple direct, alarming warnings about the severity of the virus.
- Testing failures: After the first U.S. coronavirus case was announced on January 20, Trump wasted months downplaying the virus rather than ramping up testing capacity and production of critical medical equipment. By March 13, the U.S. had only conducted about 25,000 tests. Meanwhile, South Korea, which also saw its first case on January 20, had conducted nearly 10 times as many tests over the same time frame—which helps explain why South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak is all but over.
- Trump still didn’t act as cases mounted: By March 8, U.S. coronavirus cases were doubling every three days. Health care workers were begging for PPE and the death toll skyrocketed. Still, Trump ignored expert pleas and waited months to invoke the Defense Production Act and enact social distancing guidelines.
Trump’s chaos has a tragic price.