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Trump Administration Rejects Criticism of Its Response to Pandemic

Zlatica Hoke

   WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump has called his predecessor
   Barack Obama an "incompetentpresident"following Obama's criticism of
   the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic.

   Obama told college graduates in a live-streamed speechon
   Saturdaythat"this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on
   the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're
   doing."He did notmentionanyone by name.

   Asked about the remark on Sunday, Trump said: "Look, he was an
   incompetent president, that's all I can say. Grossly incompetent."

   The U.S.has become the global epicenterof thecoronaviruspandemic, with
   more than 1.5 million confirmed cases andclose to90,000 deaths.Critics
   have accused the administration of exacerbating the situation by
   ignoring the gravity of the outbreak in the crucial early weeks.

   Earlier Sunday,thetopU.S. healthofficialrejected thechargethat the
   government had failed its people.

   "It could have been vastly, vastly worse,"Health and Human Services
   Secretary Alex Azar told CNN. Hesaid the U.S. over the last two months
   was "able to flatten the curve" of the number of coronavirus cases in
   order to give health care workers a chance to deal with the onslaught
   of patients needing care.

   Trump said on Twitter, "Doing REALLY well, medically, on solving
   theCoronaVirussituation (Plague!). It will happen!"

     Doing REALLY well, medically, on solving the CoronaVirus situation
     (Plague!). It will happen!
     -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) [1]May 17, 2020

   Onhisreturnfrom a weekend visit totheCamp David presidential retreat
   outsideofWashington, Trump declared, "We did a lot of terrific
   meetings. Tremendous progress is being made on many fronts, including
   coming up with a cure for this horrible plague that has beset our
   country."

   The president has scheduledmorediscussions with governors and industry
   leadersfor Mondayon conditions to reopenthe country and ensurea steady
   supply of food and other goods and services, despite projections that
   the U.S.coronavirus death tollwouldreach 147,000 by August.

   The shutdowns threaten to push the U.S. economy into recession and
   unemployment has reached historically high levels, with one-quarter of
   the country's work force losing jobs.

   Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Sundaythatadditional job
   losses are likely through June. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes"
   news program, Powell said theeconomic recovery will take a long time
   andU.S.businesses and familieswill needthree tosix more months of
   government's financial support.He alsoemphasized the importance
   ofpreventing another outbreak for the economic recovery.

   "If we are thoughtful and careful about how we reopen the economy so
   that people take these social distancing measures forward and try to do
   what we can not to have another outbreak...then the recovery can
   beginfairly soon," Powell said.He urged Americans to help each other by
   respecting social distancing, washing their hands and wearing masks.

References

   1. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1262020427582451717?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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