Since the day the Trump administration accepted the inevitability of the coronavirus pandemic, they have held daily “briefings” to ostensibly update the nation on the government’s efforts to control the outbreak. Instead of informative briefings, they have turned into Donald Trump’s Daily Coronavirus Sideshow.
In reality, these spectacles have become an ongoing litany of self-congratulatory back-slapping by Trump, lies, misinformation and, of course, demonization of the media outlets that dare disagree with him.
The simple fact is, Donald Trump is not helping anybody with these useless daily attempts to flatter his ego.
The utter disconnect with reality became even more obvious this past weekend with a heated battle between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Trump’s economic advisor, Peter Navarro, when the latter supported Trump’s repeated assertion that the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, should be adopted immediately as a coronavirus treatment, despite the lack of adequate testing.
During Sunday's daily briefing, when Dr.Fauci was asked about the issue, Trump refused to allow him to answer. Instead, he abruptly shut down the briefing, as he usually does when a difficult question is posed. Before doing so, he berated the reporter who asked the question, stating “Do you know how many times he’s answered that question? Maybe 15.”
He then walked “offstage”, obediently followed by the rest of his entourage.
How is this helping?
In a time when we need a consoler-in-chief, we are instead seeing Sideshow Bob, as these daily briefings devolve into an excuse to pat Trump in the back. They are not the promised daily updates with useful, accurate information, and the media should stop covering them.
The Daily Coronavirus Sideshow needs to be cancelled!