Calling ‘Bullshit’ on Trump’s Hoocoodanode

[Check the byline — yes, it’s me!/~Rayne]

“But the president said nobody could see this coming!” the Trumpists say.

Trump actually said, “No one knew this was going to happen! No one saw this coming!”

Bull shit. Bull. Shit. Lying, fibbing, prevaricating bullshit.

Community members have already seen this in comments, but it bears repeating because the propaganda machine is trying to grant absolution to Trump for his gross failure to act from January onward.

I saw this on New Year’s Eve in my Twitter feed. It was publicly available and should have given pause to anyone charged with this nation’s security. This is what SARS looked like when it started in late 2002 — but the Chinese government didn’t report it to WHO until February 2003.

This time a commercial media outlet may have reported the outbreak within 4-5 weeks of the index case.

Don’t tell me our intelligence community didn’t already know about this outbreak.

Don’t tell me Trump and White House personnel couldn’t and wouldn’t already have been notified.

It was right there in front of anyone who could read the news, begging for further investigation.

Why was Hong Kong so anxious about this — and why wasn’t the White House especially given the heightened tensions at the time between Hong Kong, China, and the U.S.?

What was so “mysterious” about this virus? Why wasn’t it already recognized?

How were the dozens who were infected being treated?

Was this pneumonia another SARS?

If CDC ‘knew’ three or four days after this article there was a new SARS-like illness, why did nothing come out of CDC for the public?

There are no good answers to this. There are only more questions.

Did the CDC’s director simply not do his job?

Did the National Security Adviser not do his job?

Did Trump not do his job?

Well, we know the answer to the that one: Trump chose not to act. We just don’t know exactly what happened at the top of the CDC and NSC. We know the NSC was also hampered by the loss of the pandemic response team, killed by then- National Security Adviser John Bolton in 2018.

We don’t know if Trump’s decision was ignorance,  arrogance, or a belief that hiding this would prevent any damage to his re-election campaign.

Which suggests stupidity was a key factor since Trump could have come out looking like a hero had he simply made a little effort. He could have pointed to successfully preventing a pandemic and done all the self-applied back patting he wanted.

But no. He did absolutely dick-doodley-squat.

Worse, he claims now, “Hoocoodanode?

Bull shit. Bull. Shit. Lying, fibbing, prevaricating bullshit.

And now people are literally dying because of Trump’s bullshit, including his obscene attempt to practice medicine without a license claiming an anti-malarial was approved by the FDA for use against COVID-19.

There’s more blood on his hands; there will be yet more. How many more lives will he claim before we figure out how to work around his fatal bullshit?

Let’s not forget that the Republican Party owns this mess. He’s theirs. They tied their wagon to his. They could have removed him but they were afraid of his mean tweets.

And now their base — elderly voters — are most at risk of dying during this pandemic Trump could have headed off. The same elderly voters are also at risk of losing their lifetime savings as the economy crashes because Trump still can’t manage his way out of a wet paper bag. Where will the GOP call for easy donations after Trump kills off their base?

One more thing: Trump and his administration have been told what to expect from best and worst case scenarios, and those in between as recently infected persons become sick and need medical attention, and as contagion spreads.

They’ve also been told what will happen to our health care system, how burdened our for-profit hospitals will be and how short of ICU beds and ventilators and personal protection equipment we’ll be.

In some cases, how short we already are and have been.

Trump has done very little about the PPE, left the states to fend for themselves. A few hundred masks from the federal strategic reserve for any one state won’t go far when a single large hospital can use thousands a day during normal business. Suggesting masks should be reused revealed not only Trump’s gross ignorance and cheapness but a shocking lack of understanding about basic infection control.

In spite of estimates which have surely made it to the CDC and DHS, and estimates from the American Hospital Association we’ve seen here more than two weeks ago, the administration has done little to nothing to meet the anticipated shortfall.

This estimate now appears on the light side and yet almost nothing has been done to help hospitals fulfill patients’ needs as they are today, let alone what they will be as the full depth of the pandemic wave hits.

Naval hospital ships arriving in another 3 to 4 weeks time are an insult not unlike the fatal insult Trump offered to Puerto Rican Americans in 2017.

“Hoocoodanode” won’t fly here. There’s no excuse. Trump and his minions were warned.

They own every American death for their failure to fulfill their duty to this nation.

This is an open thread.

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75 replies
  1. Rayne says:

    This is going to touch every one of us. I’ve seen several people I follow in Twitter mourning a family member today, lost to COVID-19. One was in Michigan.

  2. Ruthie says:

    “Where will the GOP call for easy donations after Trump kills off their base?”

    The Koch/Mercer/Adelson cabal still have plenty of cash no doubt, even after a stock market crash.

    Your posts on Covid-19 vibrate with rage, which I both applaud (because I can’t emote as well) and share (for obvious reasons). The rage I’d direct at the Trump Administration and the Republican Party is only slightly less than I feel towards the people who’ve DRIVEN TRUMP’S APPROVAL RATING UP in the past week!!!!!!!!!! WTF?

    • Rayne says:

      I don’t know how anybody isn’t rigid with outrage right now. I don’t know how 53% of Americans can approve of the slack-assed bewigged moron at the podium.


      I’m done being polite as I said yesterday. I think this number means that it’s early in the national epidemic and as more Americans die the remainder will clue in.

      But I’ve underestimated the grip American exceptionalism has on this country, blinding them to facts, making it easy for oligarchs to manipulate their brains.

      • BobCon says:

        Support for Bush was sticky even after the failure of the Iraq War started following the predictions of every critic. You even had supposedly moderate rationalists like Thomas Friedman insisting that we needed to stay the course. Just as Friedman now is talking about loosening restrictions to goose the economy.

        When the press refuses to put out headlines and lead broadcasts every day about the story that is right in front of their noses — that the GOP is driving us over a cliff — this is what we get.

        • errant aesthete says:

          It’s not only an issue of the press refusing to put out headlines and lead broadcasts every day about a “story that is right in front of their noses,” but how the press can release stories ‘of the day’ that seem fair and unbiased but are so cleverly executed, readers are gently nudged into forming inaccurate conclusions.

          When Rayne mentioned the idea that the countless deaths associated with this national epidemic might “clue in” those remaining of us to the realities of what is actually happening as opposed to what our fixed mindsets already believe or perceive as happening, it occurred to me that it was going to require not only diligence but brutal honesty from each of us in paying careful attention to what we read, watch, notice and think about in regard to the new coronavirus narrative being disseminated throughout the country.

          That means noting the devices of effective marketing and skillful propaganda that is sophisticated, cunning and, oftentimes, harmful to our own well being, or as Rayne said “blinding” us to facts and making it easy to “manipulate” our brains.

          I don’t know the policy here on quoting a reader’s comment from another publication, in this case the NYT, but the article the reader cites is one penned by Maggie Haberman. As a Time’s reporter who is frequently criticized for being more of an “access” reporter, a PR Pro, rather than a journalist, Haberman is famously known for her “inside” connections, including the one she has successfully cultivated over the years with Donald Trump that has earned her the title “Trump Whisperer.”

          This article was published in the Time’s yesterday, updated today, March 24, 2020: “Trump Has Given Unusual Leeway to Fauci, but Aides Say He’s Losing His Patience.”

          I would suggest reading the article first so you might get a sense of how expertly Haberman made her pitch in chronicling the relationship between Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Mr. Trump.

          [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-fauci.html]

          The reader’s comment that follows is small but significant in noting a distinction that most readers wouldn’t think about or even notice. But it is often these tiniest of insights that give one hope.

          Mike
          Kaplan
          Sorry, NYT, but this is one of those articles that tries to hard to be evenhanded with lopsided situations. For example, instead of

          “Dr. Fauci and the president have publicly disagreed on how long it will take for a coronavirus vaccine to become available and whether an anti-malaria drug, chloroquine, could help those with an acute form of the virus.”

          …this should read “Dr. Fauci has had to correct the President on how long it will take for a coronavirus vaccine to become available, and whether an anti-malaria drug, chloroquine, could help” etc.

          This is not a difference of opinion between equals who “publicly disagreed”. This is a recognized expert in the field correcting a know-nothing clown.

          ~The noun, “clown” would not have been my choice…

          Others seem to agree, at this count, he’s garnered 2426 recommends.

      • Vicks says:

        “I don’t know how 53% of Americans can approve of the slack-assed bewigged moron at the podium.”
        I’m scratching my head over that too as I am finishing up my Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application.”
        That’s sarcasm btw.
        I really am filling it out and if it works as promised it will allow me to keep paying my employees and not screw over vendors if this “pause” ends up being longer than our rainy day fund allows.
        My sarcasm is aimed at Trump using tax payer money to fund his re-election campaign.
        It looks like he doing the equivalent of printing money and throwing it at the people with the problems and hoping they will solve it and stop being such a drag on his president show.
        Perhaps this is how it all starts.
        The frog boiling that is.
        I’m taking every penny I can get.
        I’m encouraging and helping others do the same.
        As long as they maintain payroll, I have zero concern or interest if they can pay it back.

      • timbo says:

        My working assumption is that they don’t. If you’re going to lie and cover your tracks, if you’re going to try to prop up an empty regime, then it’s not clear that these folks won’t go to any measure to say in power. Any.

        Certainly, Trump’s general approval rating is below this “Good Job Virus” statistic that’s been touted. That’s been steadily declining the past few weeks so. I suspect that once people realize that this could have been their kids then they might start to get a real clue as to how broken the Trump Gang and the GOP leadership truly is. This. Could. Have. Been. Our. Kids.

  3. CapeCodFisher says:

    This is the authoritarian virus. First, China’s dictator concealed and contained important info about the outbreak that would have allowed health pros to deal with it in its early stages. Then America’s wannabe dictator concealed and contained info about the outbreak that would have allowed the country to suppress it. Pretty disgusting.

    • Rayne says:

      You can say Xi concealed this virus but clearly Chinese media managed to report it despite an authoritarian leadership. China lost 3 weeks by failing to deal with this virus as more than a ‘mystery pneumonia’ and when they did they went all out, preventing millions of deaths and an even faster spread of COVID-19.

      In contrast, the U.S. lost more than two months — in fact, I don’t believe that the executive branch is genuinely responding yet given the ridiculously insulting amount of PPE sent to states from the strategic reserve. The only regular sign of action is Trump gripping a podium and spouting bullshit daily which has already lead to poisonings and at least one death.

    • timbo says:

      There’s also the theory that Trump believes a lot of his own bullshit. But that wouldn’t explain how he’s escaped prison until now.

  4. harpie says:

    U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-intelligence-reports-from-january-and-february-warned-about-a-likely-pandemic/2020/03/20/299d8cda-6ad5-11ea-b5f1-a5a804158597_story.html
    March 20, 2020 at 8:10 p.m.

    […] At a White House briefing Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said officials had been alerted to the initial reports of the virus by discussions that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had with Chinese colleagues on Jan. 3.

    The warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies increased in volume toward the end of January and into early February, said officials familiar with the reports. By then, a majority of the intelligence reporting included in daily briefing papers and digests from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA was about covid-19, said officials who have read the reports. […]

    Trump famously does NOT read his intelligence reports.
    Remember the famous 9/6/2001 PDB, ALSO a GOP clusterf#ck.

  5. Tom says:

    It’s just one of the most–if not THE most–important responsibilities of the President to ensure that he or she is aware of and fully briefed on any and all threats to the nation. Yet this is the privileged, adult, apparently fully-functioning American male, born and raised in the USA, who managed to make it to his early 70s, but still had to ask his Chief of Staff, John Kelly: “Hey, John, what’s this all about? What’s this a tour of?” when he visited the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor back in November 2017, as described in Rucker & Leonnig’s recent book, “A Very Stable Genius”. At the risk of stating the obvious, Trump’s failure to prepare his country for the COVID-19 virus is just another example of his willful ignorance and sheer bloody-minded stupidity.

  6. To be continued says:

    Thank u again for holding feet to fire Rayne. You never miss a beat.
    Sadly, calling Dr Quick home from China when they did, prevented continued access to within country infection demographics that would have helped, but they likely would not have listened anyway…

    • Rayne says:

      When we put pieces together like this — Dr. Quick’s departure in July 2019 — it begins to look like deliberate malfeasance.

      How do we know the earliest cases hadn’t already begun to surface in July-August, but just hadn’t spread beyond successive single cases until a super spreader entered the picture? Now we won’t know because Team Trump removed Dr. Quick.

        • Rayne says:

          A-yup. When I have time I need to dig and see if there are any other parallels. Probably more closely tied to Bolton’s actions.

        • Lawnboy79 says:

          While your on that, does the time line on DT’s move to the swamp in “Mar-my-ego” peak your interest? Is this move a short per se.

          P.s. great blog, I’m worried for you E Wheelers.

        • timbo says:

          Interesting.

          But how does John’s book deal figure into all this? Poor John—are people (present company excepted) sheltering in place and purchasing his book on Amazon at all now?

        • Rayne says:

          Makes one wonder if the other reason he promoted his book rather than testify was that he had a suspicion this biological debacle was coming back in December. I only saw mention in one outlet; Bolton might have had more access to news about China even as a private citizen. Whatever the case, Bolton’s spots never changed. We’re fucked in no small part because of his betrayal of our national interests in adequate pandemic response.

      • mass interest says:

        “deliberate malfeasance”

        I’ve thought this for some weeks now, as I’ve kept up with coverage to the best of my ability.

        Weaken the USA population to the extent that the ultimate power grab is a piece of cake.

  7. BobCon says:

    What crystalizes the problem for me is that the virus emerged in South Korea and the US at the same time, but only South Korea moved.

    What happened was South Korean leadership saw the implications of SARS and H1N1 several years ago and had been developing pandemic response plans all that time.

    During Trump’s transition there was a cabinet level exercise developed by Obama’s people about pandemic response. Wilbur Ross fell asleep, most of the rest figuratively yawned through it. State, HHS and OMB went ahead and slashed the heart out of preparedness, hacks eventually were appointed to head the CDC and FDA, and now here we are. They didn’t just close their eyes a few months ago, they did it years ago.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-warning-scenario-pandemic-132797

    • Rayne says:

      There’s another key difference between South Korea and U.S.; the Koreans removed a corrupt president in 2017 by impeachment.

        • Ruthie says:

          Yes!

          Tragically, the only way significant numbers of people will start to recognize it is when the bodies start to pile up – and even then, I don’t have 100% confidence.

      • BobCon says:

        Yes, every place can screw up and choose a bad leader. We’re not alone that way. But it takes a special kind of screwed up to refuse fix those mistakes.

        South Korea screwed up initially in its response, leading to a jump in cases, but they turned things around. Trump never admits mistakes.

    • To be continued says:

      S. Korea has historically a very strong public health infrastructure and combined with the continuous threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Asia were better able to implement the necessary strategies…however no infectious models to date account for religious affiliation…so the best made plans still break down…

  8. orionATL says:

    tell it like it is girl. tell it like it is.

    everybody but donald grump (and glenn kessler) knows who is responsible for the corona virus de-containment and explosion in the u.s.:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/24/trump-cuts-undermine-coronavirus-containment-cdc-watchdog-report

    the childish bastard puts his dwarf hands over his face and tells himself everything is going to be o.k.

    but what about the rest of us d.j. ? you are not the only one. do you understand that ?

    • P J Evans says:

      No, he doesn’t understand that – or anythign else that doesn’t directly and immediately affect him. For him, he (and Ivanka and Jared) are the only real people in the world, and everyone else is either an enemy, a servant, or an NPC.

  9. harpie says:

    GILEAD

    CORONAVIRUS TREATMENT DEVELOPED BY GILEAD SCIENCES GRANTED “RARE DISEASE” STATUS, POTENTIALLY LIMITING AFFORDABILITY
    https://theintercept.com/2020/03/23/gilead-sciences-coronavirus-treatment-orphan-drug-status/
    March 23 2020, 10:03 p.m

    THIS AFTERNOON, the Food and Drug Administration granted Gilead Sciences “orphan” drug status for its antiviral drug, remdesivir. The designation allows the pharmaceutical company to profit exclusively for seven years from the product, which is one of dozens being tested as a possible treatment for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

    Experts warn the designation, reserved for treating “rare diseases,” could block supplies of the antiviral medication from generic drug manufacturers and provide a lucrative windfall for Gilead Sciences, which maintains close ties with President Donald Trump’s task force for controlling the coronavirus crisis. Joe Grogan, who serves on the White House coronavirus task force, lobbied for Gilead from 2011 to 2017 on issues including the pricing of pharmaceuticals. […]

    • harpie says:

      […] Gilead Sciences presented earlier this month at the Cowen & Co. Annual Health Care Conference, an investor event for major pharmaceutical and health care corporations. The Intercept previously reported [link] that investment bankers at the event quizzed Gilead Sciences executives over whether they could develop a “commercial strategy for remdesivir” in the near future. […]

      From the link at “intercept previously reported”:

      […] MARKET PRESSURE has encouraged large health care firms to spend billions of dollars on stock buybacks and lobbying, rather than research and development. Barclays declined to comment, and Cowen & Co. did not respond to a request for comment.

      The fallout over the coronavirus could pose potential risks for for-profit health care operators. In Spain, the government seized control of private health care providers, including privately run hospitals, to manage the demand for treatment for patients with Covid-19. […]

      TRUMP has resisted using his powers under the Defense Production Act [a refusal that seems to be unusual for him, right?].

      • timbo says:

        If he uses it, he believes he will be associated with the disaster that is coming. What I am keen on is any secret uses of it being utilized. Much like Barr, there are things beneath the surface here that may bear watching out for.

      • Rayne says:

        But this was visible, could see this bullshit grift coming more than two weeks ago, after Axios noted the shipment of remdesivir to China without necessary FDA approval.

        https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/03/07/three-things-endemic-covid-19-edition/

        That’s the really irritating part — where are the national news organizations on this grifting-in-progress? Too preoccupied carrying the tangerine hellbeast’s dementia-addled pressers.

        ADDER: if you think about it, Trump’s toxic chloroquine bullshit set up the public to believe that an FDA-approved antiviral will be better, safer, a must-have. This is a fucking shakedown holding our families’, friends’, and our own lives hostage.

        • harpie says:

          Yes…I remembered that post.
          I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m really almost convinced that this whole deadly mess has ALL been orchestrated.

        • Rayne says:

          You can see how easily this could have been constructed with an easily-manipulated dementia-addled malignant narcissist as the front man. Don’t tell him anything except what you want him to say, prop him at the podium periodically and ensure he maintains the kayfabe while the apparatus at the backend scurries around to negotiate deals and corner the market.

          It’d be easy to see part of the PRC so frustrated that the US didn’t act as expected they allowed a more liberal media outlet to tell the world there was a possible SARS outbreak. And yet the grift crew picked up instead of a real state apparatus.

          *smh* Hope to fucking gods somebody has already FOIA’d everything Grogan ever touched/said/written along with every document related to remdesivir.

        • thomasa says:

          Regarding the potemkin president, I’m reminded of a quip by Molly Ivans of the Dallas Times Herald and others “its impossible to be too cynical. You just can’t keep up.”

  10. punaise says:

    There’s an apparent hoax / conspiracy theory going around social media about the Pasteur Institute creating covid-19 in the lab. Something to do with a patent granted in 2004 to create viruses for research use related to SARS (related, but different). If you are curious google “EP 1 694 829 B1”. I’m steering clear of it. Rayne, feel free to delete this as warranted.

    • Rayne says:

      Nah, it’s relevant, you did the truth sandwich by calling it a hoax upfront.

      Folks need to realize there’s information warfare underway and the conspiracy theory you mention is a perfect example of a volley.

  11. TooLoose LeTruck says:

    “Hoocoodanode” won’t fly here. There’s no excuse. Trump and his minions were warned…
    _________________

    Not unlike Bush and his minions back in 2001…

    Direct quote from Condoleezza Rice, May 16, 2002…

    “I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center…”

    Why anyone votes Republican after the last 20 years is beyond me…

    But thank God our billionaires are doing well…

    That’s what makes life worth living… knowing that the rich are getting richer…

    • P J Evans says:

      Tom Clancy had a character slam a 747 into the Capitol during a joint session with the president speaking. ISTR that book was published before 2001.

      • Tom says:

        And on July 28, 1945 a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building while trying to land in a dense fog.

        • P J Evans says:

          The plane that crashed into the mall in Concord, CA, in 1985. Killed 5, injured more than 70. (It was a Beech Bonanza.)

      • Anne says:

        Debt of Honor, 1994.
        My thought reading it was “this is the kind of scenario that CIA guys dream up for spy training classes.”

  12. Re entry says:

    The intelligence branches must have known this was coming but oddly no leakers. Yes it’s too late now but why didn’t some intel get through?

    And Bolton can shove his manuscript up his ass

    • timbo says:

      Uh, then who has been talking to the press of the record for some of the reports? The IC knows that their on the line on this one too. The Trump Gang will blame them at some point when this thing goes south.

  13. Re entry says:

    The intelligence community must have known what was coming but oddly no leakers. Yes it’s too late now but why did no intel get out

    And Bolton can shove his manuscript up his ass

    • Rayne says:

      Why did no intelligence leak, you’re asking? You’re asking about a leak from the intelligence community which had gone through two National Security Advisers and the right-wing monkey horde demanding the head of a whistleblower on a pike because they disclosed Trump’s quid pro quo roughly around the same time the CDC’s person in China was yanked home? You’re asking why no leak of intelligence about a very specific issue in a very specific area of China during a trade war with China?

      Really? ~side eyeing you hard~

  14. greengiant says:

    What is going on with the distribution of commercial tests “solely” to hospitals. At the same time University of Washington virology lab has cut testing from 3,000 a day to 1156 a day. Again mostly from hospitals has jumped the positive rate there from 8 percent to 13 percent. Individuals with symptoms, with risk factors such as recent travel to Italy etc. They are not testing the dead.
    Individual clinics have to go to the media to get tests. An St. Louis area doctor described her ordeal.
    https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/coronavirus/st-louis-doctor-describes-rationing-covid–tests-delivering-masks/article_d611fe02-13be-504a-b7f1-87b541a0d46d.html
    Exposed and symptomatic professionals and family members are being given some Orwellian treatment.
    The orchestrated at the federal level plan of only testing those hospitalized has left thousands of tests not done daily.

    • greengiant says:

      One madness to their method is that there is not enough PPE to do outpatient tests. I understand that when PPE was not an issue the medical worker would throw their gear in the chute after a potential exposure. N95 masks are so scarce people are given one for the duration to reuse over and over. Washington SCAN however is sending out 300 short swabs a day for in home testing.
      Other countries are not playing these death enhancing games. I wonder why the US is. First it was there will be no testing except CDC tests because the FDA will not approve the tests. Now this. And the clinical labs are toeing the line for some reason.

  15. John K says:

    “Which suggests stupidity was a key factor since Trump could have come out looking like a hero had he simply made a little effort. He could have pointed to successfully preventing a pandemic and done all the self-applied back patting he wanted.”

    A version of this same thought occurred to me: If Trump had just done the right thing for once, if he had gotten our experts working toward solutions as soon as the intelligence came in, instead of keeping things secret, he would be unbeatable come election time. The favorability polling bounce for presidents in crisis time would have been his to crow about for another four years. Instead, his ignorance and hubris will reveal themselves to even his most ardent supporters as even their friends and relatives get sick and die.
    So, politically speaking, some good must come even from this. (Just to clarify, I am not cheering the death of those Americans, but rather the enlightenment of the others.) You know Republicans are worried if they are actually considering sending money to every American. And now, in face of the gravest of threats, to whom do Americans supplicate? Irony of ironies, science and government!

  16. harpie says:

    1] March 19, 2020
    Photo shows “corona” crossed out and replaced with “Chinese” in Trump’s briefing notes
    https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-19-20-intl-hnk/h_21c623966aa148dbeed242de4e94943e

    2] March 24, 2020
    A photographer captured a reminder to the president (in Sharpie) to STOP saying “The Chinese Virus” after reports of hate crimes against Asian-Americans. [emphasis added]
    https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a31911564/trump-chinese-virus-cross-out-photo/

    3] March 25, 2020
    https://twitter.com/julianborger/status/1242849535703101444
    12:23 PM · Mar 25, 2020

    According to Der Spiegel, the G7 foreign ministers haven’t been able to agree on a joint statement because of Pompeo’s insistence it refer to #coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus”. Pompeo did not deny that this morning – said G7 don’t agree on everything. [link]

    That description is a little blander than the title of the piece in Der Spiegel, which begins with:
    “US Administration torpedoes G7 declaration”
    [US-Regierung torpediert G7-Erklärung]

        • P J Evans says:

          We know that he’s a racist to his core. He doesn’t pretend very well – and neither do the people he listens to.

    • P J Evans says:

      It’s pretty obvious to us. It reads like straight-up extortion: “Be nice to me, or I’ll make everyone in your state suffer.”

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