Coronavirus Task Force Will Remain, Says Trump, Because It’s ‘Popular’
Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will keep his White House coronavirus task force going "indefinitely," despite saying a day earlier that he would soon wind it down because "we can't keep our country closed for the next five years."
Trump explained at a press spray that he had intended to shut it down — even as an internal White House projection showed the death toll from the pandemic increasing to 3,000 people per day by June 1 — but changed his mind because he discovered the task force is popular. A day earlier, Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the task force, said it was no longer needed due to the "tremendous progress we've made as a country."
From Trump's Wednesday remarks:
DONALD TRUMP: I guess, if you think, we're always winding it down. But you know it's a question of what the end point is. But I think it is a change, a little bit. I thought we could wind it down sooner, but I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday.
When I started talking about winding it down, I'd get calls from very respected people saying 'I think it would be better to keep it going, it's done such a good job.'
It's a respected task force. It's — I knew it myself, I didn't know whether or not it was appreciated by the public — but it is appreciated by the public.
Polling shows most Americans disapprove of Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic by an average of 43.7 percent approval to 50.9 percent disapproval.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.