On Wednesday, President Donald Trump spoke out against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) plan to allow businesses in the Peach State to reopen – but only because the medical experts on his COVID-19 task force reportedly had managed to persuade him to so.
According to CNN, task force member Dr. Deborah Birx had privately met with Trump right before his daily press briefing to sway him against Kemp’s decision because she and the other task force members feared being asked by reporters why the President endorsed the reopening of Georgia’s economy while scientists on his panel did not.
An unnamed source told CNN that Dr. Anthony Fauci, another prominent doctor on the task force, told his colleagues during a meeting that he “cannot defend this publicly.”
Subsequently, Birx reportedly spoke to Trump and successfully changed his mind on the issue before he stepped up to the podium.
“I’m going to let [Kemp] make his decision,” the President said during the briefing. “But I told him I totally disagree.”
This is the reading-notes-off-a-card phase of Trump policymaking.
In two days he’ll reverse himself completely, spontaneously and enthusiastically.
And whatever happens, he’ll have been right.
Pure Trump messaging…gauge the reaction (negative to both Trump and Kemp) and put the whole thing on the docs…
Which tells me that he knows all about the rapids coming his way
I just hope it was a coal-fired cattle prod…
I’m sure someone did have to prod him into it in that moment. But make no mistake, eventually he takes all sides of every issue. The first hint of bad news would have gotten a ‘I told him it was a bad idea’.
Well the unemployment numbers tsunami is really gonna float his boat.