Month: April 2020

White House Merch Now Includes Trump and Pence Pandemic Commemorative Coins

Jon Ponder
Source: White House Gift Shop

Trump and his team never miss a chance to rewrite the history of their slow start and pathetic flailing as the pandemic swept into the nation from both coasts earlier this year.

During his ill-fated daily news conferences, which ran from March 6 to April 23, Trump praised his response to the crisis over 600 times, according to a New York Times analysis. And just this week Jared Kushner told Fox viewers that the administration’s failure to mitigate the disaster was a “great success story.” (In other words, a “heckuva job.”)
Meanwhile, at least 60,000 Americans died from covid-19 and the infection rate surpassed 1 million people. The economy is crashing, businesses are closing and more than 17 million are unemployed.

Even as these bad metrics continue to get worse, Trump declared on Tuesday that “the worst days” of the pandemic are behind us. (In other words, “Mission Accomplished.”)

Now, in a goulish new low, the Trump White House gift shop is selling a souvenir coin that commemorates the administrations’ pathetic pandemic response.

The coin shows names of both Trump and Pence as well as other members of their pandemic response team. It depicts a presidential podium on one side, and a graphic of the virus hovering over a map of the globe on the other.

People who are interested in buying this beyond-tacky token of Trump cult propaganda can order it from the White House gift shop. No rush, however. TMZ reports that the price has already been slashed from $125 to $100.

Frum: Trump Will Sacrifice American Lives By Reopening Too Soon in a Desperate Gambit to Win Reelection

Pensito Editors

From Huffington Post: “In a thread on Twitter, David Frum said reports that the White House is now pivoting its pandemic messaging to focus on the economy showed Trump is ‘consciously choosing to risk higher virus casualties” in the second quarter of 2020 “in hope of jolting the economy into revival in Q3 to save his re-election” in November.

‘It’s a desperate gamble to save himself by sacrificing others,’ wrote Frum, who is now a senior editor at The Atlantic. “It’s also not very likely to work.'”

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Trump Reverses Course on Early Reopening, Hangs Ga. Gov Out to Dry

Jon Ponder

In a dramatic reversal, Trump announced yesterday that he opposed Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s order to open businesses in his state, even though the state has not met Trump administration criteria for bringing commercial activity back online.

Trump’s advocacy for early reopening helped spur protests by armed tea party-type groups targeting Democratic governors across the country. Trump’s reversal comes at the same time a new AP-NORC poll found that just 12 percent of Americans favor early reopening, while 87 percent disapprove, among whom 26 percent say restrictions don’t go far enough and 61 percent say the lockdown rules are about right.

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