Trump Says He’ll ‘Rely On Experts’ On Social Distancing Guidelines From Now On

President Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listen to White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx speak during the daily coronavirus ... President Donald Trump and Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listen to White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx speak during the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on March 29. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

It’s time to leave the precautionary measures against COVID-19 to the experts, President Donald Trump conceded on Monday.

During a rambling, meandering interview on “Fox and Friends,” Trump explained his decision to push the social distancing guidelines to April 30 instead of Easter, as he had originally planned.

“I listened to experts,” said Trump, citing doctors Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, the two leading health officials on his White House coronavirus task force.

Later in the interview, Trump told the Fox News co-hosts he would take heed to Fauci and Birx’s recommendations in the future when determining how long social distancing ought to continue.

“Well, I’ll use my head and I’ll make a decision, but I’m going to rely on experts,” Trump said after co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked if he would consider extending the social distancing guidelines after April 30 if necessary.

“Anthony and Deborah have been doing this for many years, and I’m going to rely on them,” he said.

Trump repeated again that the “worst thing we can do” is “declare victory and then not have victory and then have to do it all over again.”

Fauci described to CNN “New Day” host John Berman on Monday the process of persuading Trump against lifting the guidelines too soon, saying that he and Birx had “made it very clear” to the President that doing so would be catastrophic.

“Dr. Debbie Birx and I went in together in the Oval Office and leaned over the desk and said ‘Here are the data, take a look’” the doctor told Berman. “He looked at them, he understood them and he just shook his head and said ‘I guess we gotta do it.’”

Watch Trump below:

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for jtx jtx says:

    Untill tomorrow?

  2. …Until the next Twitter shit-storm…5,4,3,2,1

  3. Really…until this afternoon’s presser or until your next trip to your gold commode?

    Addendum:

    Dear Covidiot Trump
    Your internal polling must really be BIGLY BAD recently for you to “rely on experts” seeing that you considered yourself a Stable Genius, never mind that you got your TV medical degree from Trump University School of Trickery, Thievery and Quackery!

  4. So an op-ed in the Post yesterday offered an interesting take on Trump’s reaction in general: By monotonically reading his daily “support” and injecting his own opinion (“wow, that’s a lot of masks,” or “who knew ships could do this?”) he maintains his “distance” from government. Not to mention that he “learns” this just as “we” do. He’s not a part of it. His inane comments continue to resonate with his inane base.

  5. Trump also engaged in an insightful commentary on foreign relations:

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

191 more replies

Participants

Avatar for ajm Avatar for radicalcentrist Avatar for cervantes Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for 26degreesrising Avatar for cd Avatar for alyoshakaramazov1 Avatar for thebishop Avatar for fiftygigs Avatar for darrtown Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for jinnj Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for tmulcaire Avatar for asturcot Avatar for dannydorko Avatar for raph Avatar for carolson Avatar for bitinginsect Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for emiliano4 Avatar for kovie

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: