Washington. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo got a tweet from the president as wrong as his counterparts in New Jersey and Connecticut. All three had spoken to Donald Trump. But he didn’t tell anyone what he did on social media shortly afterward. “I am considering placing hot spots” under QUARANTINE. “Cuomo reacted in horror. Quarantining a metropolis with almost nine million people will only create additional chaos. “That would be a declaration of war on the states.”
A few hours later, Trump moved away from the idea on Saturday night. Instead of a quarantine enforced with state violence if necessary, there will be a “strong” travel warning. Shortly thereafter, the CDC health agency ordered citizens of the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to “refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days with immediate effect”. He leaves it up to the governors of the countries concerned whether and how this is implemented.
They are waging an increasingly desperate defense against the Covid 19 virus, which is spreading rapidly and overwhelming New York’s healthcare system. With almost 55,000 people tested positive, the metropolis is the epicenter of the corona crisis, which is rapidly expanding in other metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. Overall, the United States has overtaken China and Italy with more than 130,000 cases.
New rules expected
After spending a month unused in circulation of test kits that would have helped curb the spread of the virus, the president abruptly changed course and issued “social distancing” guidelines that apply across the United States for 15 days should. Then Trump said he wanted to see “full churches” at Easter and return to normal. His own experts strongly advise against this.
It is now eagerly awaited which new guidelines the health authorities will publish next week when the first “slowdown period” expires. Experts believe that Trump is just as erratic when it comes to procuring urgently needed ventilators. After hesitating to apply emergency laws for weeks, he ordered General Motors to help manufacture the life-saving machines late Friday. “The only mistake we can make in such a crisis,” said Trump’s likely challenger in the presidential election, Joe Biden, “is to be too slow.” So far, the Americans have not harmed the president. Three surveys of the past few days show that Biden is only slightly ahead of the incumbent. In fact, a Washington Post survey shows 55 percent of Americans are satisfied with how the crisis is handled. Analysts point out that the “Trump Bump” crisis bonus is significantly smaller than that for presidents in the past. 90 percent of Americans backed George W. Bush after September 11, 2001. His father got 89 percent in the first Gulf War. And even Jimmy Carter enjoyed a doubling of his popularity ratings to 61 percent in the Iran hostage crisis. Political scientist John Mueller coined the term “rally around the flag” for this phenomenon.
The slightly improved polls for Trump say little about where he stands on election day in November. Carter and Bush senior lost re-election, while younger Bush fell to 25 percent in the 2008 financial crisis. NBC analyst David Mark believes it is likely that Trump will counter a similar fate. “The fight against the coronavirus is expected to take a long time and will be accompanied by death and economic destruction.”
