Trump Needed to Be Told Republicans Were Getting Sick to Take Action on Coronavirus, Report Says

Donald Trump’s senior advisers have begun presenting coronavirus data to the president in terms of which electorally important states could be most affected by the virus next and where GOP-leaning areas were being significantly affected in order to sway him into taking stronger action on the virus, The Washington Post reports. In recent weeks, top White House advisers have been presenting Trump “with maps and data showing spikes in coronavirus cases among ‘our people’ in Republican states,” according to a senior administration official quoted by the Post. This new messaging seems to have worked, according to advisers, though the president is still placing the blame for the highly contagious disease’s spread and the delayed action elsewhere. “This could have been stopped. It could have been stopped quickly and easily. But for some reason, it wasn’t, and we’ll figure out what that reason was,” Trump said at a briefing Thursday. Those close to the president attribute his refusal to address the crisis to his inability to admit fault and the constant positive feedback from Fox News and his advisers alike. As of Monday, the U.S. has more than 4.2 million confirmed cases and nearly 147,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.