Fact Checking Donald Trump’s Cringy Mother’s Day Pandemic Brag
Donald Trump just couldn't let Melania win Mother's Day. | Source: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
- Trump can’t give the petty bragging a rest, even on Mother’s Day.
- He trashed Barack Obama’s H1N1 response on Twitter while touting his administration’s response to coronavirus.
- But he’s got some key facts wrong, especially about the poll numbers.
It’s Mother’s Day, but don’t expect Donald Trump to take a break from campaigning to celebrate families. Instead, the president took to Twitter to brag about his response to coronavirus and attack Barack Obama.
Trump touted “great marks” for his early response to the pandemic and oddly compared it to Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s H1N1 “swine flu” response.
The media has breathlessly covered Donald Trump’s every word about coronavirus. His long, boring pressers have dragged on without end. They were so predictable that even The Onion guessed a month ahead of time that Trump would recommend household surface disinfectants as a COVID-19 cure.
It’s Mother’s Day, Just Say Something Nice About Melania
You’d think this Sunday morning, it would be enough for the president just to say something nice about Melania. Then he could have wished everyone a Happy Mother’s Day and taken her to brunch. For all his flaws, at least President Obama had the good sense to act with that level of decency.
It’s ironic that Trump is comparing himself to Obama today because the difference between them on Mother’s Day couldn’t be more glaring. In 2012, when Obama was up for reelection, he celebrated mothers on Mother’s Day, not himself.
And Barack Obama was notorious for having a big ego too . But even his extraordinary level of narcissism (which is almost a requirement to run for president) had its limits. Donald Trump’s knows no bounds.
Trump’s Ridiculous Pandemic Comparison to Obama
As for Obama’s specific comparison between the government’s H1N1 swine flu and SARS coronavirus response, they’re patently ridiculous. To begin with, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump’s lead on the coronavirus response, was a key player in the Obama Administration’s swine flu response.
Furthermore, it’s bizarre for Trump to dredge up swine flu as a stain on the Obama Administration. It was a relatively mild pandemic .
But most glaringly of all, Donald Trump blasted Obama’s poll numbers during swine flu. Yet Obama’s job approval rating was 17% higher than Donald Trump’s this many days into the swine flu pandemic.
Today the president’s job approval numbers are 49% . Swine flu began in Jan 2009 and lasted until Aug 2010. This many days into the epidemic, Barack Obama’s job approval rating was soaring at 66% .
To be fair, his polls numbers were falling, and they continued to drop over the rest of the year. But that’s a typical historical pattern. After the euphoria of electing a new president wears off, the honeymoon period ends as reality sets in. Poll numbers tend to steadily drop over a president’s entire time in office.
And if you asked people back then what they were unhappy about, it wasn’t H1N1. They didn’t like the nearly $1 trillion Obama emergency stimulus package. It was too much many taken from taxpayers to well-connected corporate interests. And you can bet Trump will be on the hook for his $2 trillion CARES Act, which did more of the same.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.
