The Zigzagging President

Donald Trump is not dissolving the coronavirus task force after all, and is now praising the advisory council’s “fantastic job.” The experts have time and again expressed skepticism about plans for easing restrictions.

President Donald Trump is continuing his zigzag trajectory. A day after confirming that the White House coronavirus task force would be dissolved, he reversed course. On Wednesday, he tweeted that the “CoronaVirus Task Force … has done a fantastic job” and would thus continue operating indefinitely.

He emphasized that the focus was on ensuring health and safety and on reopening the economy. In addition, he said the advisory board should concentrate on developing vaccines and treatment therapies. He reserved the right to make personnel changes, tweeting that it was possible some individuals could be added or removed.

Vice President Mike Pence had initially announced on Tuesday that the task force, which he is directing, would end its work in late May or early June. He described it as a sign of the “tremendous progress” in combating the pandemic.

Moving forward, he said, existing federal institutions, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would take the lead. He also added that Deborah Birx, coordinator of the task force, would remain active in an advisory capacity for as long as she was needed.

Trump himself only commented briefly on the planned dissolution. The American people were “fighters,” he said, and wanted to go back to work. He admitted that it was not a “perfect situation” but that the country couldn’t be kept closed for “five years.”*

The Criticism Was Too Much

Birx and Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are skeptical about easing restrictions that in some states are proceeding beyond task force recommendations. Trump recently prevented Fauci – who has spoken openly about mistakes in early management of the coronavirus crisis – from testifying before a committee in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. He was allowed to accept an invitation from the Senate, where Republicans hold the majority.

Until recently, one of the duties of the task force was to prepare for Trump’s daily press conferences with selected task force members. After a heavily criticized appearance by the president in which he had made the strange comment about possibly using disinfectants to treat COVID-19, Trump decided to discontinue his briefings. The fact that Trump reversed his decision to dissolve the task force is probably a result of the widespread public criticism the decision had elicited, given that the infection rates and death toll remain high.

More trouble looms for the president because of his dismissal of vaccine scientist Rick Bright. Bright, who led a research group at the National Institutes of Health, registered a complaint in which he accused the administration of, among other things, not taking his warnings seriously about the coronavirus back in January. The Democrats want him to testify in Congress.

*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, these quoted remarks could not be independently veri