Asked about comments he made at his recent rally that he had requested officials “slow down the testing, please,” President Trump told reporters, “I don’t kid.” This comes after his White House press secretary said on Monday that Trump made the comments in jest, and Peter Navarro, an administration trade official, said the comments were “tongue-in-cheek.”
The whole thing invites sympathy for the president’s aides and appointees, who spend precious breath cleaning up after him and suffer incredible rhetorical whiplash for it. Trump undercuts even himself with the testing schtick, in an unnecessary effort at self-defense.
Only his most ardent opponents would suggest that it’s his fault more people contract the virus. Reopening was a shared responsibility. The governors and assenting businesses decided when to open their doors. Whatever arguments can be made about how the president leads, he’s operated more as a figurehead proponent of reopening than as an actual opener of economies (much to his own chagrin).
Testing is “a double-edged sword,” as the president also said, only if you require low positive numbers to justify maintenance of recovery efforts. But that’s an unnecessary condition and one that’s already been collectively rejected by governors. Officials foresaw an increase in cases as phased reopenings began, and over time, an increase was deemed by governors to be worth that risk.
All this demonstrates that the president’s early direction on testing has been lost. In the beginning, his administration was working toward more testing so that we might know the virus’s true reach, understanding that scores had been, were, or would be infected without it being known. Better testing capacity helps us to know where we truly stand against the virus. Trump has every reason to embrace increased testing for that reason.
That Trump would invest so much in the virus numbers is unsurprising. Perhaps if I faced steep chances at reelection, I would calculate differently, but the president has no need to do all this senseless explaining. He can lament rising numbers, defend reopening, and praise the expansion of testing availability (even take credit for it!) all at the same time.
