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U.S. President Donald Trump (R) speaks about the coronavirus, as White House senior adviser Jared Kushner listens in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2020. /AP
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One of U.S. President Donald Trump's military valets in the White House has tested positive for COVID-19, CNN reported on May 7. A day later, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary also reported testing positive. Later on Friday night, one of the personal assistants of White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump confirmed falling ill with the new coronavirus.
These are not the first staff working for top U.S. officials to have been infected by the virus. In March, a member of Pence's office contracted COVID-19. Weeks and months have passed, and another assistant got the virus. Trump has made Pence the direct person in charge of dealing with the pandemic nationwide, yet confirmed cases keep breaking out in Pence's own office.
Since April 2, Trump's top senior adviser Jared Kushner has appeared in the daily coronavirus briefings in the White House, and is now responsible for protecting the health of Trump's inner circle officials and their aides during the pandemic while purchasing medical equipment.
However, one month has passed, and with coronavirus cases in Trump's inner circle growing, one could say that Kushner is not doing his job seriously. He could be fired by his boss, but he is like no other man, as he is Trump's son-in-law.
The infections among Pence's aides show that the U.S. federal government is still not paying attention to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the nation, and the cases in the White House this week exposed that Kushner is not taking strict measures for the sake of top officials.
Reports show that Kushner did not even manage to organize a group of experts in his task force. Instead, he recruited a bunch of inexperienced volunteers to listen to his orders of benefiting Trump's own family business.
The New York Times
exposed Kushner's team in an article titled "How Kushner's Volunteer Force Led a Fumbling Hunt for Medical Supplies" published on May 5. According to the article, "Volunteers were told to prioritize tips from political allies and associates of President Trump, among those were the conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a former 'Apprentice' contestant."
Critics say that Trump's administration doesn't know how to deal with the pandemic. In fact, they do know. Only that they are living by their wits for canny moves for the family's own benefit. One example is that Kushner's COVID-19 task force places the PPEs linked to Trump's own business on top of legitimate vendors and approved supplies such as Dr. Jeffrey Hendricks's for the federal government.
Trump came into the presidency as a political layman, but now the people found out that he is a puppet of political cronyism and a tool of political interest groups. He has defected from his own initial ideas in the first few days in the White House.
This is not even the populism he mentioned in his inaugural speech in January 2017 when he said "today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington DC and giving it back to you, the American people." Instead, he took power from the people and put it in his own family's hands for business purposes.
After three cases among Trump's inner circle staff, the Washington Post reported on Sunday that top health officials exposed to these confirmed cases will be isolated.
This may sound that they have stepped up measures to protect top officials, however, Trump himself, together with his vice president and some other members of the cabinet, are still insisting that they will not wear masks.
Veterans talk with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump during a ceremony at the World War II Memorial to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, in Washington, D.C., May 8, 2020. /AP
On May 8, Trump was seen speaking to World War II veterans without wearing a mask. This is despite experts having warned many times that old people are especially susceptible to COVID-19.
Fighting a war against the pandemic is hard without a good leader, and fighting it with a leader acting as a war profiteer is even cruel. As confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surge up to 1.34 million and the death toll reaches 80,000, Americans have noticed the seriousness of the pandemic.
But that is not enough. Trump must realize that it is not only American people's business, and it shouldn't be his family businesses' business, but it needs to be his presidency's and his government's business, for the sake of American people, if he really wants to make American great again.
Scriptwriter: Xiong Tong
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