Trump's "Shit Show" Call To CEOs

Malignant narcissist and Very Stable Genius Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump will accelerate the spread of the coronavirus by what he calls "reopening America" before widespread testing can isolate asymptomatic carriers of the disease from the general population. It's all about him and his fading reelection chances, which he had pegged on a strong economy. Yesterday, he had a poorly planned call to a number of CEOs and Wall Street executives, and, shall we say, it bombed bigly:

"Many of the bankers said they knew nothing about the call until late Tuesday night. Several had quarterly earnings calls this morning that directly conflicted with the timing of the White House summons. [snip]

Another senior executive from JPMorgan attempted to get on the call in [CEO Jaime] Dimon’s place, two people briefed on the call told POLITICO, but couldn’t get through for 20 minutes and finally gave up.

One top executive described the call as a 'shit show' that produced little of substance. Trump asked several questions, including to Moynihan about how the small business loan program was going. That program is now slated to run out of money soon." (our emphasis)

Apparently, some on the call were unaware that they had been named to another of Trump's blame-shifting "committees" advising on the re-start of the economy. Some on the call were blunt in telling a clueless Trump what was needed first:

"Beyond the haphazard nature of the call, senior bankers are getting increasingly frustrated with Trump’s approach to the crisis. They say pressure tactics to reopen the economy as fast as possible make no sense if the virus isn’t fully under control and consumers and businesses don’t feel safe to resume anything close to normal activities.

'I really don’t understand how they are communicating on this,' one CEO told POLITICO on condition that neither they nor their firm be named for fear of angering the White House. 'He’s got to stop talking about turning the economy back on and start talking about making people feel safe, things that are happening around testing and the health care system. That’s the only way you will really get the economy reopened over a period of time.'” (our emphasis)

Trump can't stop talking about "reopening" the economy and start talking about making people safe through widespread testing because he failed to get those tests produced en masse by activating the Defense Production Act weeks and weeks ago. It's one of his signature failures, and it's cost lives.

(gif: "Can someone show me how to work this thing?")