This weekend, the New York Times’ front page was a feature with the names and obituaries of just a fraction of the 100,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus. It was stark. It was a reminder of just how badly Donald Trump has handled the pandemic, and how he’s left cities, states, businesses, charities and taxpayers without information, without any kind of guidance from the federal government, and without support. To celebrate the 100,000-death mark, Trump went golfing for the first time in two months:
WATCH: President Trump golfs on Saturday at his Virginia golf club. pic.twitter.com/L8SJf0wKzo
— The Hill (@thehill) May 23, 2020
I’m a conspiracist who thinks there’s a fake Melania floating around somewhere, so I have questions about whether the man in this video is even the real Trump. What’s worse, the real Trump going golfing when the US hits 100K deaths, or Trump sending out an imposter to golf while he gets some kind of secret medical treatment? He allegedly golfed at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. Gross.
Golfing wasn’t all Trump did on Memorial Day Weekend. No, he also tweeted:
As the death toll in the coronavirus pandemic neared 100,000 Americans this Memorial Day weekend, President Trump derided and insulted perceived enemies and promoted a baseless conspiracy theory, in between rounds of golf.
In a flurry of tweets and retweets Saturday and Sunday, Trump mocked former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’s weight, ridiculed the looks of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and called former Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton a “skank.”
He revived long-debunked speculation that a television host with whom Trump has feuded may have killed a woman and asserted without evidence that mail-in voting routinely produces ballot stuffing.
He made little mention of the sacrifice Americans honor on Memorial Day or the grim toll of the virus. In fact, Trump’s barrage of social media attacks stood in sharp contrast to a sober reality on a weekend for mourning military dead — the number of Americans whose lives have been claimed by the novel coronavirus has eclipsed the combined total of U.S. deaths from wars in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The “TV host” Trump referenced is Joe Scarborough. For some reason, Trump has returned to the years-old conspiracy that Scarborough killed a young aide in Florida. There’s no evidence for that. As for the other stuff… it’s just so offensive at every level.
OBAMAGATE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2020
…vacationing, relaxing & making shady deals with other countries, & that Barack was always playing golf, doing much of his traveling in a fume spewing 747 to play golf in Hawaii – Once even teeing off immediately after announcing the gruesome death of a great young man by ISIS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I hope you will remember this when you will vote.
Big hug from an Italian: I know at a certain point in some of the most impacted cities, newspapers stopped publishing obituaries because they had pages and pages . It’s heartbreaking.
With the US Postal Service being annihilated, voting is going to be a lot more difficult come November.
I will climb over broken glass and wear a hazmat suit, if I have to, to vote this evil man out of office. The fact that he and the republicans are fighting this hard to kill the post office and vote by mail tells me all I need to know about their intentions. The voting machines must be easily hacked. No other reason to try to force in person voting during a pandemic.
@I am… DaughterWife has a patent on voting machines made in China.
I’m sorry Eleanor. I think the Italian medical community was incredibly brave in the face of such awful trauma. I was also amazed and heartened that people could still sing off their balconies.
Of course he did – in the UK our PM just backed his ‘special advisor’ who broke lockdown 3 TIMES to take go to his parents as he claimed he needed the child care support when he and his wife got ill with the virus, even though both their is family in London that could have given that support. Scummings then had the audacity to be ‘so who cares I can do what I want’ and looked so smug when he left Downing Street after Johnson made a fool of himself on national TV defending his actions. I was heartened by the fact that there is a video on Twitter showing Scummings neighbours berate him as he walked down the street to his home.
We will remember this at the next General Election!!! Makes me wonder what Scummings has on Boris – I guess he knows how many children Boris actually has!
I previously thought they were just birds of a feather who shared a (very bigoted and unpleasant) political agenda but the last day or so has completely changed my mind! Cummings has DIRT.
Ah. I was wondering what the Cummings/Johnson thing was about. I kept seeing references to it on twitter but couldn’t figure out the root cause of the problem.
The NYT front page was chilling and powerful. Definitely one that will be remembered for decades to come.
Trump golfing was so irresponsible. Look at all the people gathering in OCMD, lake of the ozarks etc – they’re just following his lead. It’s awful and we are going to have a huge second wave in June.
Say here in VA Becks. People running to the beach, lakes and The RIvah (as it’s pronounced in my area). I say, let them have it. They can test out the waters. Pun intended. And when that second wave hits, they will wonder WHY. Idiots. I’m perfectly content being at home and enjoying some food on the grill with my family.
Yes, it was powerful, but not enough to shut down the relentless and, I think, growing insistence from people that this whole thing has been designed to make Trump look bad. People who I thought were fairly reasonable are going off the deep end with sh^t like this and I don’t know how we’re going to survive.
I don’t think we’ll ever have a true second wave-the first wave hasn’t ended yet. It’s just going to be a first wave that simmers for the next few months and then when there’s a uptick in the fall the GOP will argue it’s not a second wave because the numbers don’t back it up.
They’ll claim it’s all a conspiracy to throw the election. “Where was the second wave?” They’ll ask. Not realizing that because of all of these people going out we never had it under control. Sigh
On this Memorial Day I think about the veterans in VA nursing homes, especially those from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. They served bravely and now they’re trapped, facing an enemy they can’t fight against. Heartbreaking.
Question: Will Donald Trump compound his disgusting disregard for the 100K dead by golfing yet again today?
He went golfing Sunday to instead of going to church-apparently some of the evangelicals are annoyed about that. Guys-he’s not a Christian and never has been.
I wonder if he’s physically fit to golf Monday to.
Lardass rides around in a golf cart. Stephen Hawking would be fit enough to golf like trump does.
I’m quitting Karma if he does not contract the virus!
While it would be poetic justice if he were to contract it, that’s not how any of this works.
He is not playing fairly for karma to have a chance, everyone around him is tested daily. I can’t imagine the secret service allowing anyone with a temp near him. Plus the Hydroxymoron is certainly loading up on preventative measures, given how covid has been tearing through the west wing.
Thanks for my laugh of the day!
It’s moments like this that I wonder why all those “patriots” that are such Trump humpers aren’t all up in arms about his total lack of respect for Memorial Day?
Cringeworthy. Another day to avoid Drumpf and grieve past and present loss. I belong to several groups who continue our concern for our community and country due to Covid-19. Watching news report, 18 states with an increase in new virus cases.
Aren’t most of the covid-19 victims in the USA people of color and rather poor? if so, no wonder he goes to celebrate by playing golf. If it were rich people or his base he’d sing a different tune.
I thought the same. He thinks he’s celebrating the deaths of democrats because most are from NY and PoC or poor.
I took a gander at Trump’s Twitter. Don’t ask me why but I did. It’s like catching a glimpse at some deranged alternative reality and a lot of people think it’s just hunky-dory.
Lordy, it’s not even 9 AM yet and I feel like drinking something alcoholic.
My great uncle was lost at sea during World War II. His mother grieved every day of her life for his loss, never believing he was gone because no body was ever returned to her. Yesterday, I took his sister to place flowers on the marker the city installed to honor him and the empty grave his parents had made for him. Their other brother, now 94, was there too with his children. We stood silently apart from one another as these two shed tears for the brother they lost so long ago.
This morning, Trump interrupted his rants about Obama to tweet: “Happy Memorial Day!” Happy Memorial Day; the meaning of the day is lost on that heartless monster. He then tweeted pictures of himself placing wreaths. Because it is all about him.
The attack pictures of Pelosi he tweeted the other night included ones of her bound in duct tape, because violence against a 78 year old woman is so funny. Such an advocate for woman that Ivanka has been. I do hope she enjoys her Memorial Day Champagne Popsicles.
Veteran here. Seeing 45 dodged any kind of service during the Vietnam war, I really think he should have had someone else place the wreath.
Excellent point there, Poisonella. And thank you for your service.
Thanks to your family, LightPurple, for the sacrifice they made.
It still amazes me how so many parts are being relaxed now. There’s no vaccine or treatment that has bee successful yet and we are coming out from months of being indoors with little exposure. A second wave is more than sure at this point and people in the cold north thinks the virus dies with the heat. If you look up to the Covid news it has been lashing out on tropical and warm weather countries for months now. Summer will not stop it but can make it worse if we relax the guard now.
oh, but it isn’t real!!!11 They just want to chip us! lol. People really don’t fucking get it. Maybe they’ll understand when they themselves or someone they love–a parent, child, grandparent–needs medical attention. They won’t be railing against big pharma then.
My mother and I went out to a local nature preserve on Sunday, and while we were masked up in the busier sections, the vast majority of people were not. I guarantee you we will see a bump in two weeks. People really don’t get that this is a long term situation.
I don’t understand the careless disregard “the unmasked” flaunt when they go about their business or pleasure. It took every bit of strength I had not to lash out at the woman happily gabbing away to the post office clerk, who was masked and shielded behind protective plexiglass, while a few masked patrons and I waited in line, six feet distanced. She walked within two feet of me to exit, and I wanted grab her and shout, “WHO do you think YOU are to spew your germs all over this small area while we keep our germs off you, you imbecile?” Arghhhh. It’s beyond annoying. The lack of basic consideration is showing itself in our “civilized” world.
I thought he was a wartime president because we were at war with the virus and the American people were warriors. I guess he and his followers are bored with that narrative now. So Memorial Day is about having a long weekend to enjoy the great outdoors for our wartime president.
He has the Sasquatch walk, so I think it’s him. Whether he has a body double or not, two things are almost certain: He either has an STD (tertiary syphilis) or frontotemporal dementia, or both, which are rapidly worsening. Given his gait and posture problems, I don’t know how he hasn’t faceplanted, especially on a golf course where there’s nothing but another person to grab onto if he falls down.
Trump golfs while this virus rages on… it’s so flipping exasperating.
I’ve been told twice in the last 3 days that there’s nothing wrong with asking the old and sick to stay home while everyone else goes about their business and goes back to “normal.”
Ahem… the old and sick would like a word with those selfish people. Those vulnerable people are perfectly capable of living full lives and do not need to be told it is okay for them to stay home longer than necessary because everyone else inconsiderately keeps this virus alive.
I’m a diabetic with hypothyroidism and a chromosomal disorder. I too want to shop… without worrying it’s going to kill me. I too want to go out to dinner. I too want to go to the beach. I need a vacation. I need to be in the classroom again with my students, teaching.
What I don’t need is selfish mofos making me go without those things longer than necessary because impatient children are discounting me in their haste to get their lives back to “normal.”
How insulting is it for a whole selfish segment of society to treat me like my desires don’t matter too. And to be told I’m exaggerating my risk (true story). Or that if I get COVID-19 and die my death shouldn’t be counted because it’s not “pure.”
Can this offensive nonsense stop, please?
All this and more! Thank you.
Rapunzel, I look forward to the day when you can go out in the air without worry.
In the meantime, we’re listening. The way people act, you would think we’re in the Middle Ages, no one seems to comprehend germ theory at all. I have a 95 y/o dad in a nursing home, and I know 6 pregnant women. Thankfully, 2 of them have delivered without getting infected, to my knowledge.
Also, if these people keep getting infected and bringing more cases to the hospital, who do they think is going to take care of them? I know 3 nurses in my city who have DIED fighting this thing.
Trashaddict, I back you 100%! It is a poor reflection on our supposedly civilized society.
Rapunzel, my thoughts are with you as we ride this out (high risk here, too). It truly does feel like we’re living in an alternate reality. Isn’t there an old saying about how people show their true colors when times get tough? I’m taking notes.
I am also holding my breath waiting for a 24-y.o. relative, a respiratory therapist at a major Detroit hospital, to return home sick one day soon. She has such a positive attitude while assisting her (mostly) Covid19s saying, “Here Comes the Sun” is the song we chose to play on our floor each time one of our patients is discharged. I live for and love being a part of their recovery.”