Trump loves empty gestures. And he's averse to work.

[Zorro]

President Trump is so obsessed with the empty gesture to “open” the economy by May 1 — as he was with his Easter deadline that came and went — that his administration is now fixated on how to make it seem as though he has done something. Working to make that deadline meaningful and workable, however, is beyond the reach of this administration.

White House aides can produce a Kabuki dance for Trump to play president, but he lacks the authority or the preparation to pull this off. Meanwhile, Trump does not want to be blamed if his deadline backfires. The Post reports that the White House is scurrying about “trying to shield the president from political accountability should his move to reopen the economy prove premature and result in lost lives.”

Alas, his attempt to enlist businesses to demand the reopening is not bearing fruit. The New York Times reports: “When the first conference call of President Trump’s economic advisory council on reopening the economy was held Wednesday morning, several business executives echoed a cry that health officials and state and local leaders have been making for weeks, according to two participants: The country needs more testing.”

They are right. The basic problem with the White House deadline (other than the twisted sense of priorities) is that to restart the economy to any significant degree, we will need to conduct covid-19 testing on a massive scale. Without the federal government, the states cannot do it. And the federal government seems not to be doing anything about the testing gap.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/16/trump-loves-empty-gestures-averse-work/

[Girard442]

1. At some point I'm going to have to decide whether to return to an unsafe workplace or...

...find a way to squeak by on my SS. I was hoping that there would be enough of a consensus to make widespread testing happen, but that looks unlikely now.

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. Trumpy doesn't WANT testing!

If he did, he’d ORDER it! It’s that simple.

Trumpy has to pretend that any action is his alone. He can’t let it be perceived that massive testing is someone else’s idea. Admitting that the ideas of others is prudent and practical suggests that he doesn’t know EVERYTHING, and doing so deviates from his BRAND. So because he can’t admit that he’s mistaken or that others know more than he, Trumpy is quite willing to kill ever more people by refusing to order testing.

That’s the kind of murdering jackass we have as president.

So he lies to the nation and boasts about “the most testing” ever, in the universe. No one believes him and they shouldn’t. If he can’t fake it and proclaim an idea as his alone, then he MUST reject it as fake. That’s how he keeps on killing.

[dalton99a]

4. +1

[Under The Radar]

3. Trump isn't a good a very good actor

...and I am sure that he prepares all day long for his 2 hour skit in the evening.
He wants so badly to appear compassionate and resolute as Gov. Cuomo, but his vanity keeps getting in the way.