Jonathan Bernstein: “There’s a bit of a mini-scandal underway about whether President Trump deliberately slowed down coronavirus testing. Trump said he did so during a rally in Tulsa on Saturday, and has frequently said that he opposes added testing because it produces worse statistics. Then the White House said that he was kidding. Then Trump said on Tuesday that he doesn’t kid.”
“On one hand, only someone myopically focused on the short-term would fail to realize that testing is critical for fighting the pandemic and that deliberately holding it back would lead to more people getting sick and dying while also severely damaging his presidency and his prospects of re-election. On the other hand… well, we’ve been watching Trump for a while. Do you think it seems out of character?”
“The real answer here is that it almost certainly doesn’t matter whether the president actually gave a formal order to slow down testing. That’s because we know that Trump just doesn’t have very much clout in the Trump administration. His orders are often ignored. To be fair: Many presidents have great difficult controlling executive-branch departments and agencies. But Trump seems to have an unusual amount of trouble within his own White House.”
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