What Trump Knew and When He Knew It

By Yuval Rosenberg

Trump Knew, Downplayed Coronavirus Threat: Woodward
Recordings

President Trump acknowledged in early February that the
coronavirus pandemic was more deadly than the flu and said in March
that he was intentionally playing down the severity of the virus
outbreak, according to recordings of interviews with journalist Bob
Woodward for a new book. The private comments contrast sharply with
the president’s public claims that the virus would simply
“disappear” and was “very much under control.”

In a February 7 phone interview, Trump made clear he knew the
threat the novel virus posed:

  • “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And
    so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also
    more deadly than even your strenuous flus. … This is deadly
    stuff.”

As The Washington Post
notes, Trump would go on to tell the public that
the virus was no worse than the flu, saying it would soon disappear
and that his administration had the outbreak under control. Trump
claimed later in February that the number of U.S. cases "within a
couple of days is going to be down close to zero," and he continued
to hold campaign rallies that experts warned could put attendees at
risk.

In a March 19 interview with Woodward, Trump admitted he
was purposely minimizing the threat from the virus:

  • “To be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down.
    I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a
    panic.”

In that March interview, Trump also told Woodward that “plenty
of young people” were contracting the virus. The president would
later claim publicly that children are “almost immune” to
infection.

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, blasted Trump
for the recorded comments, saying the president’s decisions
betrayed the American people and cost “tens of thousands of lives
and millions more of American livelihoods.”

“He knew how deadly it was. He knowingly and willingly lied
about the threat it posed for months,” Biden said at an event in
Michigan. “He failed to do his job, on purpose,” he said.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted Wednesday
that the president has never lied to the American public about
Covid and was exhibiting strong leadership by trying to maintain
confidence and calm. “The president never downplayed the virus,”
she said.

Trump later reiterated to reporters that he wanted to show
strength and avoid public panic. He said his administration has
done an “amazing job” in combatting the virus and that the country
otherwise would have seen millions of Covid-19 deaths.

Woodward conducted 18 interviews with Trump for his book,
“Rage,” due to be released next week. CNN and The Washington Post
obtained copies of the book and published details and audio
recordings on Wednesday. The book reportedly also includes brutal
criticisms of Trump from several of his former top national
security officials.

Why it matters: These are potential
bombshells that could have Trump again on the defensive about his
coronavirus response even as his campaign has tried to shift the
focus in the presidential race. Yes, Trump has managed to survive
and maintain the support of his base after past damaging comments,
but this time the revelations are more directly tied to the voting
public’s health and wellbeing — and the Covid death toll is nearing
190,000.

One thing is certain: You’ll be hearing a lot more about
Woodward’s book over the next week.

Read more about Woodward’s revelations at
The Washington Post and
CNN.

Biden Pitches Corporate Tax Changes to Boost
U.S. Jobs

Joe Biden rolled out corporate tax proposals Wednesday aimed at
protecting U.S. workers by encouraging companies to invest in jobs
domestically and punishing multinationals for moving jobs
overseas.

Biden’s proposals include:

  • A 10% surtax on profits of U.S. companies on products
    made overseas and then sold in the United States. Combined
    with Biden’s proposed 28% corporate tax rate, the plan means
    companies would pay a 30.8% tax rate on any such profits, Biden’s
    campaign said.
  • A 10% “Made in America” tax credit meant to spur job
    creation. The credit would be available to companies that invest in
    reopening or retooling U.S. facilities or bring back manufacturing
    or service jobs from foreign countries.
  • Closing what the Biden campaign calls “three major
    offshoring loopholes” in the 2017 Republican tax law that allow
    companies to shield profits from U.S. taxes.

Biden also said he would sign a series of executive actions in
his first week as president to strengthen the federal government’s
“Buy American” rules and support American supply chains.

Why it matters: The announcements mark
Biden’s latest effort to challenge Trump on the issue of the
economy and appeal to working-class voters in battleground
Midwestern states including Michigan, where he held his event
Wednesday. Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust and a
former official at the Chicago Federal Reserve, told
Bloomberg News that, since the tax changes would
require congressional action, they would depend on Democrats
winning a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in November’s
elections.

Reducing National Debt Will Be ‘Big Second-Term Priority’ for
Trump, White House Says

Donald Trump famously declared while running for president that
he would eliminate the national debt during two terms in
office.

"We're not a rich country. We're a debtor nation,” Trump

told The Washington Post in April of 2016. “We've
got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt.” Asked how long that
would take, Trump said, “I think I could do it fairly quickly ... I
would say over a period of eight years.”

But the debt has done nothing but grow under Trump. Even before
the federal response to the coronavirus crisis drove the annual
deficit over the $3 trillion mark and the national debt as a
percentage of the economy to its highest level since World War II,
Trump’s fiscal policies of tax cuts and higher spending were
driving the deficit and debt substantially higher. Three years into
his presidency, the deficit had grown by more than 60% and
trillions had been added to the national debt.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday White House Press Secretary Kayleigh
McEnany renewed the president’s vow to start reducing the debt —
just as soon as he wins reelection.

“The debt is a second-term priority of his,” McEnany told Fox
News Wednesday, citing “unprecedented growth” as a means of
accomplishing that goal.

Tax cuts won’t do it: In her response to a question about
the huge increase in the deficit this year, McEnany referred to
increases in federal revenues in 2018 and 2019, which she
attributed to the GOP tax cuts passed in 2017, while implying that
such revenues could help reduce the debt. But as The Washington
Post’s Dave Weigel
pointed out last week in response to a claim by Treasury
Secretary Steve Mnuchin that the Trump tax cuts “were creating
growth that would pay down the debt over time,” the deficit was
rising in the wake of the GOP tax cuts, and the debt was projected
to keep growing, not shrink. The coronavirus crisis simply
accelerated trends already in place. And Trump’s recent suggestion
that he might eliminate payroll taxes certainly wouldn’t help.

So what’s the plan? The Trump administration has released
virtually no details on its agenda for a second term. But the
president has indicated that, in addition to cutting taxes, he
wants to cut spending,
saying in May, "we're going to cut ... we're going
to cut back very substantially." Asked if he had a plan for
reducing the debt, Trump
told a conservative radio host, “I do, I do. That
bothers me too, but we’re going to get out of it.”

Trump’s track record, however, suggests that it is
unlikely that there is such plan. And aside from slashing spending,
which would require a Republican sweep of Congress in November in
addition to a Trump victory, faster economic growth is the only
tool the White House has cited for its budget reduction effort. The
prospects for such extraordinary growth, however, remain quite
poor, leaving a second Trump administration few options for
achieving its goal of debt reduction.

Deficit Hits $3 Trillion in 2020: CBO

The federal budget deficit was $198 billion in August, the
Congressional Budget Office projected
on Wednesday, bringing the deficit for the first 11 months of the
2020 fiscal year to $3 trillion. The CBO reiterated its projection
for a full year deficit of $3.3 trillion, or 16% of the size of the
economy — the highest level since 1945.

The chart below shows the effect of coronavirus spending
on the deficit this year compared to 2019.

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