A Month After Emergency Declaration, Trump's Promises Largely Unfulfilled

[BeckyDem]

April 13, 20205:01 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition

One month ago today, President Trump declared a national emergency.

In a Rose Garden address, flanked by leaders from giant retailers and medical testing companies, he promised a mobilization of public and private resources to attack the coronavirus.

"We've been working very hard on this. We've made tremendous progress," Trump said. "When you compare what we've done to other areas of the world, it's pretty incredible."

But few of the promises made that day have come to pass.

NPR's Investigations Team dug into each of the claims made from the podium that day. And rather than a sweeping national campaign of screening, drive-through sample collection and lab testing, it found a smattering of small pilot projects and aborted efforts.

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/13/832797592/a-month-after-emergency-declaration-trumps-promises-largely-unfulfilled

[procon]

1. That's become the theme song of Trump's I'll begotten reign.

Promise us Rubes the moon while he's picking our pockets and stealing the family silver, then deliver some stale peanuts and tell us it's a Thanksgiving Feast.

"What have you got to loose," he asks with a cagey glint in his eye as he swipes our future.

[BeckyDem]

2. No doubt, they took crooked thieves to a new level.

I will never stop hoping he becomes the first president to land in prison.