You Can't Trust That

Donald Trump's coronavirus strategy runs something like the high school drama teacher yelling "Everything is fine!" while the set for the school play bursts into flames. As we suggested a few days ago, looks like it's not working. And there are multiple data points.

According to a USA Today/Suffolk University survey, only 31 percent of Americans regard Trump as "honest and trustworthy," as opposed to 64 percent who disagree. But here's where it gets good: those 31 percent who trust Trump amount to people who watch Fox News--and basically get their news only from similar sources. "Among Fox-first viewers — who comprise about 25 percent of Americans in the survey — 78 percent say Trump is honest and trustworthy, while just 15 percent disagree."

Among people who don't watch Fox, only 15 percent trust Trump, while 80 percent don't. It's sort of a "This is your brain on Fox" thing.

Americans trust their governors over Trump by a wide margin.

Meanwhile, Ohio's Republican governors Mike DeWine's popularity is surging precisely because he's not following Trump's lead. 

That might be a smart idea for Republican governors. Trump encouraged Georgia's Brian Kemp to reopen the state. But when Kemp followed through the next day, Trump threw him to the wolves: "I wasn’t happy with Brian Kemp, I wasn’t at all happy."

Let's not feel too sorry for Kemp, who purged voter rolls to win his election and claimed to have believed asymptomatic people couldn't spread the virus. Let's not feel sorry for anyone who aligns with the Death Star.

But hey, why wouldn't we trust Trump? Last night he tweeted,

The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is sooo much better than any other country in the World. Other countries are way behind us in Testing, and therefore show far fewer cases!

 To that Washington Post reporter replied,

FACT:

US has conducted 16.4 tests per every 1,000 people, below the world average and about the same as *Belarus*

Iceland: 136 per 1,000

Bahrain: 71

Italy: 30

Russia: 22

Belarus: 17

Yesterday Trump and Florida Governor Mike DeSantis--another guy who minimized the virus and won a rigged election--celebrated Florida's coronavirus progress. The Tampa Bay Times:

While DeSantis spoke in Washington, there was grim news back home: Florida reported its deadliest day in the two months since the outbreak began.

No wonder this trust thing isn't going well for Trump. How could it, when you can't trust the president with basic facts, and if the vice-president is gonna defy Mayo Clinic rules and walk around without a mask?

AP

Just a word. With Justin Amash entering the presidential race, things may get ugly for Democrats. One way or another, Joe Biden's gonna have to address the sexual assault accusation--and maybe get out of the way. I'm not feeling optimistic this morning.