Trump Wants to Pretend That COVID-19 Is Over

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From the LA Times:

The Trump administration, eager to claim victory over the coronavirus, has been considering scaling back the national emergency declared earlier this year to control the pandemic, according to healthcare industry officials who have spoken with the administration.

….Several industry officials interviewed by The Times said they’d received indications over the last week from the Trump administration that lifting emergency declarations was being considered. “It was very much under discussion,” said one industry official, who asked not to be identified to avoid jeopardizing relationships with the administration.

Sure, that makes sense. If we test less, we’ll look better. If we lift the emergency declaration, it means everything is OK. As long as people die without anyone making a big fuss about it on TV—which is Donald Trump’s only gauge of reality—then America is great again.

The White House, naturally, denies they’re planning to do this, but I assume we all know what a White House denial is worth these days.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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