Trump made a major misstatement on national TV, causes chaos

[Cimorene]

Trump made a major misstatement on national TV about how health insurers are paying for coronavirus care, and it reveals the dysfunction of his administration's response

In his nationally-televised address Wednesday night, President Donald Trump made a major misstatement about how health insurers are paying for services related to the testing and treatment of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 that revealed the dysfunction of his administration's response to the crisis.

The speech ended up raising more questions than it answered and sowed more confusion and fear about the administration's coronavirus response as officials -- including Trump -- had to clarify or walk back three of the major policy announcements Trump made in his speech.

After Trump sparked panic by announcing a 30-day ban on travel from Europe to the US to limit the virus' spread, his own Department of Homeland Security clarified that the ban would exempt US citizens and permanent citizens and exclude major regions, including the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Trump made another major announcement in his speech by telling Americans — many of them anxious about affording coronavirus testing or treatment — that many major health insurers would not only cover the costs of coronavirus treatment in insurance plans, but also waive co-payments for all coronavirus treatments.

In his speech, Trump said: "Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing."

Frequently Trump's base is extremely concerned whenever VP Biden misspeaks. They race to repeat the conspiracy theory that Biden has dementia that was maliciously started by his opponents & fueled by Russian troll farms. Simply misspeaking while making unscripted comments isn't a sign of dementia. Trump's comments weren't just off-the-cuff. They weren't trivial like goofing up about a line in the Declaration of Independence.

His speech was planned out & hugely important. His error had huge consequence, not a trivial one. I do think it's important to discuss Trump having misspoken since it IMMENSE impact, with the Dow plummeting today due to increased worry about his competency.

Zoomers what are your thoughts on this?

Please don't post here if you weren't born during /after 1999 but feel free to read the article.

 

[Ada Lovelace]

Trump made a major misstatement on national TV about how health insurers are paying for coronavirus care, and it reveals the dysfunction of his administration's response




Frequently Trump's base is extremely concerned whenever VP Biden misspeaks. They race to repeat the conspiracy theory that Biden has dementia that was maliciously started by his opponents & fueled by Russian troll farms. Simply misspeaking while making unscripted comments isn't a sign of dementia. Trump's comments weren't just off-the-cuff. They weren't trivial like goofing up about a line in the Declaration of Independence.

His speech was planned out & hugely important. His error had huge consequence, not a trivial one. I do think it's important to discuss Trump having misspoken since it IMMENSE impact, with the Dow plummeting today due to increased worry about his competency.

Zoomers what are your thoughts on this?

Please don't post here if you weren't born during /after 1999 but feel free to read the article.

Thank you for making this thread.

In a time of crisis what is most paramount is unambiguous, honest, accurate, and timely communication.
Any successful response to a public health emergency must start with the truth. The denial, lack of preparation, muzzling of exports and other failures of the Trump Administration with coronavirus has inflicted unnecessary chaos to a crisis. His misstatements in an address to the nation, of grave magnitude, definitely underscores the dysfunctions of his administration's response. People need correct information to base their decisions on, especially when it pertains to healthcare during a global pandemic.

I very much wish Trump's claim that major health insurers would not only cover the costs of coronavirus treatment in insurance plans, but also waive co-payments for all coronavirus treatments was actually true. This is the precise form of democratic socialism desperately needed at this moment. Medical costs in the United States can be staggeringly high, and debt caused by them is a leading cause of bankruptcy.
But his statement was false, and not in an insignificant way but a colossal one. Major health insurers had largely agreed to waive co-pays only for coronavirus testing, not the far substantially costlier coronavirus treatments.

As the article notes, Trump's speech sowed chaos and confusion. The US stock market has now wiped out the entire $11.5 trillion of value it gained since Trump's 2016 election victory. Investing into universal healthcare would have been far more prudent and much less fleeting. In addition to his misinformation, it fails to sufficiently address the predicament millions of Americans who lack coverage from a major health insurance, or any insurance at all are in, and how an individual's decision to delay or altogether decline seeking necessary treatment, and continue working (as Trump previously advised) endanger society as a whole.

Frequently Trump's base is extremely concerned whenever VP Biden misspeaks. They race to repeat the conspiracy theory that Biden has dementia that was maliciously started by his opponents & fueled by Russian troll farms. Simply misspeaking while making unscripted comments isn't a sign of dementia. Trump's comments weren't just off-the-cuff. They weren't trivial like goofing up about a line in the Declaration of Independence.

As you can see, there's obvious cognitive dissonance with how Trump's base reacts to his own misstatements, even ones of magnitude, and those of his opponent's, no matter how benign or trivial. That won't change. There's a billion dollar disinformation campaign to reelect Trump. That's not a hyperbolic statement. It's factual. One of the strategies is to portray Biden as being in a state of cognitive decline, so any time he mispronounces a word that will be pounced upon along with malicious conjecture in the guise of "concern." Yes, it's ignorant, and it's cruel, since as you noted misspeaking is not symptomatic of cognitive decline. But Trump's proxies along with a militia of bots will spread every incident around the internet nevertheless.

Trump is also elderly. He has habits that are symptomatic of cognitive decline, including prevaricating, but none of us should play armchair geriatrician. All three candidates need to voluntarily undergo a complete medical examination that includes testing their cognitive functioning abilities, and release the findings to the public.

You told me about how you encountered belligerence weeks ago when starting a discussion about the coronavirus being a global public health crisis, with people maligning that prescient fact as ridiculous, parroting the Rush Limbaugh / Trump so the silver lining in the current belligerence is that at least there's finally (overdue) acknowledgement that this is indeed a crisis.

 

[Ada Lovelace]

Trump made multiple misstatements of colossal consequence in his address beyond the one discussed in the OP.

During a worldwide pandemic creating ongoing economic shock Trump announced a ban of cargo ships from Europe.

This is false. But "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes," so by the time the correction was made, it'd already circulated the globe to huge impact.

As I noted in the post above, the US stock market has now wiped out the entire $11.5 trillion of value it gained since Trump's 2016 election victory. The misinformation in tandem with Trump's epic blunders in the Middle East, and the worldwide lack of confidence in his response to this global pandemic have taken tremendous tolls. The gains literally cost trillions of dollars, and basically none of that money went to anything material or durable, just straight discretionary cash mostly to the rich. The money could have been spent on funding higher education to have a society with greater prospects. Or on our K-12 schools, or bridges and those. Those don't get wiped out by viruses and stock market plunges. Instead trillions were spent on artificially juicing the stock market, and it's just vaporized.

 

[Cimorene]

Can't let your obsession go even in a crisis?

Thank you for letting me know you finally do recognize that this is a crisis! Not a hoax by the Democrats as Trump falsely claimed. It was impossible to have any kind of productive conversation about coronavirus last month when ppl needed to be making sensible preparations for the disruption to daily life bc his base would attack every thread w ridicule & say it was ridiculous. Now Trump has finally - belatedly - declared a national emergency. Too late.

Are you going to ask those who make a thread every single time Biden misspeaks the same question? Even though his errors aren't going to cause the stock market to crash & other hugely consequential harm.

 

[Cimorene]

Limit 2 packs
if you can find it.

M-Bob

This is what I'll be thinking about when new threads are made with the sole purpose of deriding Biden or someone else for misspeaking even when the gaffe is not of consequence, it's just petty, unlike w Trump's huge errors in giving a national address that caused chaos & the dow to plummet:

Can't let your obsession go even in a crisis?

 

[Cimorene]

Thank you for making this thread.

In a time of crisis what is most paramount is unambiguous, honest, accurate, and timely communication.
Any successful response to a public health emergency must start with the truth. The denial, lack of preparation, muzzling of exports and other failures of the Trump Administration with coronavirus has inflicted unnecessary chaos to a crisis. His misstatements in an address to the nation, of grave magnitude, definitely underscores the dysfunctions of his administration's response. People need correct information to base their decisions on, especially when it pertains to healthcare during a global pandemic.

I very much wish Trump's claim that major health insurers would not only cover the costs of coronavirus treatment in insurance plans, but also waive co-payments for all coronavirus treatments was actually true. This is the precise form of democratic socialism desperately needed at this moment. Medical costs in the United States can be staggeringly high, and debt caused by them is a leading cause of bankruptcy.
But his statement was false, and not in an insignificant way but a colossal one. Major health insurers had largely agreed to waive co-pays only for coronavirus testing, not the far substantially costlier coronavirus treatments.

As the article notes, Trump's speech sowed chaos and confusion. The US stock market has now wiped out the entire $11.5 trillion of value it gained since Trump's 2016 election victory. Investing into universal healthcare would have been far more prudent and much less fleeting. In addition to his misinformation, it fails to sufficiently address the predicament millions of Americans who lack coverage from a major health insurance, or any insurance at all are in, and how an individual's decision to delay or altogether decline seeking necessary treatment, and continue working (as Trump previously advised) endanger society as a whole.



As you can see, there's obvious cognitive dissonance with how Trump's base reacts to his own misstatements, even ones of magnitude, and those of his opponent's, no matter how benign or trivial. That won't change. There's a billion dollar disinformation campaign to reelect Trump. That's not a hyperbolic statement. It's factual. One of the strategies is to portray Biden as being in a state of cognitive decline, so any time he mispronounces a word that will be pounced upon along with malicious conjecture in the guise of "concern." Yes, it's ignorant, and it's cruel, since as you noted misspeaking is not symptomatic of cognitive decline. But Trump's proxies along with a militia of bots will spread every incident around the internet nevertheless.

Trump is also elderly. He has habits that are symptomatic of cognitive decline, including prevaricating, but none of us should play armchair geriatrician. All three candidates need to voluntarily undergo a complete medical examination that includes testing their cognitive functioning abilities, and release the findings to the public.

You told me about how you encountered belligerence weeks ago when starting a discussion about the coronavirus being a global public health crisis, with people maligning that prescient fact as ridiculous, parroting the Rush Limbaugh / Trump so the silver lining in the current belligerence is that at least there's finally (overdue) acknowledgement that this is indeed a crisis.

Thank YOU.

 

[FreeinChrist]

ADVISOR HAT

This thread had a clean up. It is also closed for review and possible move. ​

 

[St. Helens]

ADMIN HAT ON
Thread moved to the Gen Z forum and now open for posting.
ADMIN HAT OFF​