Donald Trump ended up changing his tone. Monday March 16, the President of the United States admitted, contrary to what he had asserted the day before, that the Covid-19 epidemic was not " under control ". He detailed an arsenal of measures to drastically reduce contact between people, even if they remain in the order of recommendation, especially for bars and restaurants. These measures are currently limited to a period of fifteen days.
Keeping his eye on market indicators for a long time, Donald Trump admitted that the country may not be escaping a recession as Wall Street plunged Monday, almost 13%, a record since 1987.
This change in presidential speech has dissipated the dissonance that was caused by press conferences regularly devoted to the epidemic. In the days before, Donald Trump professed optimism, while his experts were, on the contrary, alarmist in the short term. It also brought the federal state closer to the front line of governors in the face of the spread of the coronavirus.
On March 6, the President of the United States sharply attacked the President of Washington State, the most affected country. Jay Inslee criticized the slowness of the Trump administration, the president said he recommended to his vice president Mike Pence, himself a former governor of Indiana, who is responsible today for coordinating the response to the epidemic "Not to compliment him". "It’s a snake, he added. If you are kind to him he will try to take advantage of it. " Jay Inslee replied that he had something else to do than go into a verbal battle with the president.
"You're supposed to be the president"
After a conference call with the country's governors on Monday, Donald Trump briefly resumed hostilities with that of New York State, invited to " Do more " in a message posted on his Twitter account. "Do I have to do more?" No – YOU must do something! You're supposed to be the president "replied Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, who had lamented a few days earlier that the governors were "Left to their own devices" and wanted clear measures from the federal state.
With his California counterpart Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, Andrew Cuomo has stepped up decisions ahead of the administration, from closing down public places such as bars and restaurants to closing down schools. He coordinated with neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut on Monday to make the measures for entertainment venues effective. Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker did the same.
