Versatile and divisive, Donald Trump finds himself trapped in the coronavirus

Donald Trump presents swabs for coronavirus testing on April 19 at the White House.
Donald Trump presents swabs for coronavirus testing on April 19 at the White House. JIM WATSON / AFP

"We had the largest economy in the history of the world. We were doing better than China, better than any country in the world, better than any other country. We had by far the highest stock market in history. " On Saturday April 18, as on numerous occasions since Donald Trump held daily press briefings, the President of the United States expressed his frustration and his nostalgia for a very close past. Two months earlier, he had accumulated the good news: the Republicans of the Senate had blocked the dismissal procedure initiated by the Democrats, all the economic indicators were green, and he was preparing to reap the fruits of a first agreement trade with China.

The Covid-19 has turned everything upside down, and the unemployment rate has more than doubled in the space of a month, depriving it of what was to be its main campaign argument in November. Mr. Trump also announced on Monday April 20, in apparent contradiction with his intention to reopen the American economy, that he would suspend all immigration to American soil.. "In view of the attack on the Invisible Enemy, and faced with the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American citizens, I will sign a presidential decree suspending immigration to the United States", he tweeted.

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While the epidemic has made more 42,000 dead in the United States, Monday, April 20, and begins to slow down in the most affected areas, starting with New York, Donald Trump continues to oscillate between two postures: that of the unifier that the situation requires, and that of the divider that he regularly endorses since he moved into the Oval office.

In tow of an "invisible enemy"

After being reluctant in February to take the measure of the threat, then to extend the restrictive federal recommendations which triggered the shutdown of the American economy, Donald Trump resigned himself to relying on skills of the team he set up with his vice-president, Mike Pence, to coordinate the federal government's response. It is dominated by the director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, and by the doctor and diplomat Deborah Birx. Both have established themselves over the weeks as the new "adults" in the room facing an often inconsistent president, to use the expression which designated the most experienced advisers with whom he had initially surrounded himself. arriving at the White House.

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