I Would Build a Great Wall

"I would build a great wall!" These were the words spoken by Donald Trump from the lobby of the Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, when he announced his candidacy for President of the United States.

Most people took him to mean that he would build a physical wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and while that was certainly true, it only captured a small part of what he wanted to achieve. What the commentators failed to comprehend at the time is that Trump was, and continues to be, an anti-globalist who closely holds the parochial view that what we can't grow in or dig out of our own soil, or assemble with our own hands, we do not need. He rejects the post-WWII paradigm that guided U.S. domestic and foreign policy for the past 80 years in which the U.S. consumer was the engine of global growth, and that what is good for other countries is ultimately good for the United States. During that postwar period, the global GDP has grown by over 50 times (from $2T in 1965 to $105T in 2023) and the U.S. GDP has grown from $742B in 1965 to $28.5T in 2024, during which time the U.S. percentage of global GDP has remained relatively constant (from 38% in 1965 to 26% in 2023). What this means is that the world has grown wealthier on the back of the U.S. consumer, but the U.S. has grown wealthier as well.

However, what those numbers do not explain is why the median U.S. household feels less wealthy today than they did in the 1960's. In 1965, U.S. manufacturing accounted for 53% of U.S. GDP and the median U.S. household income was $6,900 ($69,585 in current dollars). By 2024, U.S. manufacturing as a percentage of GDP had fallen to 10%, while the median U.S. household income for 2024 was $80,020, only 15% higher in a time period in which the global GDP has increased 50 times and in which the U.S. share of global GDP has only decreased slightly. If we look at the U.S. stock market, the story is quite different. In 1965, the S&P Index of U.S. publicly traded companies peaked at $93.07 ($941.45 in today's dollars). The S&P Index peaked at an all-time high on February 19, 2025 at $6,144, or an increase of 553% since 1965. So, according to this metric, only 2.7% of the increase in U.S. wealth during the postwar period has flowed to U.S. households.

But wait, if the global GDP and U.S. GDP have grown so much in the post-war period, how is it possible that U.S. household income has only increased by 15%? How are these households able to afford this level of consumption with such meager wage increases? The short answer is by adding debt. In 1965 the national debt was 37% of the U.S. GDP; by 2024 that percentage had increased to 124%, a threefold increase. In 1965, the U.S. federal debt per capita was $1,632 ($16,444 in real terms). By 2024 the U.S. federal debt per capita had increased to $101,198, or a sixfold increase. Additionally, the U.S. household private debt has also increased dramatically, from 15% of GDP in 1965 to 62% of GDP in 2024. When you combine total public and private debt, the median U.S. household is currently carrying a debt load of $445,568 at a time when real household incomes have barely increased over time.

Median U.S. Household Income, 1975 - 2024

The combined pressures of stagnant wages and an increasing debt load generated the seismic forces that manifested themselves in tremors in Trump I (2016 - 2020) which are now full-blown earthquakes under Trump II.

As these earthquakes ripple out, they will create tremendous pain, dislocation, and economic loss to large swathes of the U.S. population and the U.S. and global economies. From the Trump Administration perspective, this is the shock therapy that the U.S. and world needs to reset the paradigm from one in which the world looks to the U.S. as the consumer of last resort and as the policeman overseeing the world order.

Assuming no radical changes to the current Trump trajectory, how might this play out in the short term (over the next 1-3 years)? In the short term, we can expect significant pain as prices for everything go up, as scarcity increases, as businesses dependent upon exports lose sales, as the unemployment rate goes up, as the U.S. GDP shrinks, and the U.S. dollar devalues. The drop in overall U.S. production, combined with the dramatic cuts to the federal workforce (particularly at the IRS) and the anticipated tax cuts, will cause the tax revenue collected to be reduced and will cause the U.S. debt to spike up even further, which could lead to a U.S. sovereign debt crisis that would most likely be temporarily resolved through a forced conversion of short term debt instruments into long term debt instruments.

In fact, the seemingly deliberate nature of the chaos that has been unleashed leads me to believe that the goal of the Trump Administration is some form of "creative destruction", leading to a "reset" where the debt gets wiped out (or, at least postponed into the far distant future) and all foreign alliances and obligations are severed to be reconstructed under different terms.

This sort of extreme, radical reset (akin to Mao's Cultural Revolution that led to as many as 2 million dead Chinese out of a population of 742 million) should never be undertaken by a liberal democracy without public debate and input from the people's representatives. While the problems that led to the seismic forces that allowed Trump to rise to power are as real as our elected representative's inability or unwillingness to do anything about them, the solution to the people's problems must come directly from the people, not through tyrannical rule. The test we face now is how our elected officials respond to the gauntlet that Trump has dropped before them. Let us pray they are up to the challenge, lest we go the way of the Weimar Republic.

Fortress North America

 

Greenland, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico Comprise North America

North America, which stretches from Alaska in the West to Mexico in the South and Greenland in the North and East, is a land mass that enjoys remarkable advantages:

• Wide oceans to the East and West providing protection against invasion.
• The world's largest proven reserves of fossil fuels.
• A population of almost 500 million individuals.
• A high literacy rate.
• The world's greatest basic research institutions.
• Ample bank reserves and highly liquid public markets.
• A low population density of only 21 people per square kilometer.
• Climate that ranges from tropical forest in the South to arctic tundra in the North.
• Massive boreal forests.
• Ample arable land.
• The world's largest reservoirs of fresh water.
• The longest coastline in the world (over 95,000 miles in total).
• Proven reserves of every critical mineral adequate for all forecast demand for the foreseeable future.

In other words, if North America were forced by world events to cut off trade with other economies it could survive with few dislocations. Areas where dislocations would occur are the following:

• Cutting edge microprocessors, which are mostly fabricated in Asia.
• Critical minerals such as cobalt and lithium, which are largely imported now.
• Solar panels, which are largely imported now.
• Clothing, which is mostly fabricated in Asia.

How can we mitigate these potential dislocations? By using a combination of tariffs, tax credits and other incentives we can increase the production of chips, critical minerals, solar panels, and clothing in North America.

On the chips front, the good news is that a lot is already happening. The 2022 Chips & Science Act appropriated $52.7 billion to boost research and manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States. In March 2025 the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company announced an additional $100 billion in planned investments in U.S. manufacturing capacity, above the $50 billion they have already committed to spend. South Korea's Samsung, another advanced chip fabricator, is taking advantage of $4.7 billion in incentives to build a massive fab in Taylor Texas. The U.S. company Intel is building a massive new state-of-the-art plant in Ohio. The Chinese company Foxconn is currently building an assembly plant in Mexico to assemble NVidia's GB200 super-chips, which are critical for artificial intelligence learning.

Regarding critical minerals, like Cobalt, the picture is not as clear. Between the United States and Canada, there are over a million metric tons of reserves. However, less than 1% of the global production comes from North America currently. The majority of the world's production comes from countries like Congo, where lax or non-existent environmental regulations allow the industry to grow unfettered. Cobalt production generates large amounts of wastewater which is expensive to treat properly. In order to properly incentivize North American production of cobalt more action is necessary. Regarding lithium, North America also holds ample reserves, with almost 15 million metric tons available in the United States and Canada. However, North America produces only a tiny fraction of the world's demand for the mineral, for many of the same reasons as apply to cobalt. Clearly, further action is required on this front to ensure that North America is capable of producing the amount of cobalt, lithium and rare earth minerals that would be needed in the event that foreign sources of supply were cut off.

Through focused industrial policy, China has evolved to become the largest supplier of solar panels to the world. Solar panels are critical to provide a complete mix of energy and lacking adequate North American manufacturing capacity is a liability and security risk. Fortunately, all the raw materials needed to produce solar panels (silicon, aluminum, glass, copper and silver) are in ample supply in North America, so the main obstacles are economic. This is an area where tariffs and tax credits can be put to effective use to incentivize additional North American production capacity.

Regarding the supply of clothing, the news is promising. The United States has ample productive capacity of fabrics and threads, and Mexico has ample labor for the final assembly. However, even cheaper labor in Asia has undercut this industry, but tariffs can be put to effective use to make North American clothing more competitive in the marketplace.

North America sits in an enviable position on the world stage. However, as recent political upheaval shows, there are trade issues that must be addressed before this unified market can function properly. Most importantly, for the tariff structure that will incentivize the construction of new North American productive capacity to work, the tariffs applied to imports into Canada, the United States, and Mexico from nations outside of North America MUST BE UNIFORM. The unified market can be free of internal duties, but the duties for commodities entering the bloc must be the same, regardless of which member country is the importer.

North America is not just a powerful trading bloc, but it is also a powerful security bloc. For North American free trade to properly function, there must be control of the borders to properly regulate the flow of migrants and contraband, which is currently not the case. It is the responsibility of each member nation to protect its borders and to restrict undocumented migration and the passage of illegal substances or other types of contraband. In particular, the illegal trade in Fentanyl which is put into counterfeit pain pills with deadly results, must be stopped. Mexico in particular must crack down internally on the drug cartels that engage in this deadly trade.

Hopefully, the enormous value of preserving and investing in the greatest economic union the world has ever seen will be understood and the challenges it faces met.

En español

América del Norte, que se extiende desde Alaska en el oeste hasta México en el sur y Groenlandia en el norte y el este, es una masa de tierra que goza de ventajas notables:

• Océanos amplios al este y al oeste que brindan protección contra invasiones.
• Las mayores reservas comprobadas de combustibles fósiles del mundo.
• Una población de casi 400 millones de personas.
• Una alta tasa de alfabetización.
• Las mayores instituciones de investigación básica del mundo.
• Amplias reservas bancarias y mercados públicos altamente líquidos.
• Una baja densidad de población de sólo 21 personas por kilómetro cuadrado.
• Un clima que varía desde los bosques tropicales en el sur hasta la tundra ártica en el norte.
• Enormes bosques boreales.
• Amplia tierra cultivable.
• Las mayores reservas de agua dulce del mundo.
• La costa más larga del mundo (más de 95.000 millas en total).
• Reservas comprobadas de todos los minerales críticos adecuadas para toda la demanda prevista para el futuro previsible.

En otras palabras, si América del Norte se viera obligada por los acontecimientos mundiales a cortar el comercio con otras economías, podría sobrevivir con pocas dislocaciones. Las áreas en las que se producirían dislocaciones son las siguientes:

• Microprocesadores de última generación, que se fabrican principalmente en Asia.
• Minerales críticos como el cobalto y el litio, que ahora se importan en gran medida.
• Paneles solares, que ahora se importan en gran medida.
• Prendas de vestir, que se fabrican principalmente en Asia.

¿Cómo podemos mitigar estas posibles dislocaciones? Mediante una combinación de aranceles, créditos fiscales y otros incentivos, podemos aumentar la producción de chips, minerales críticos, paneles solares y prendas de vestir en América del Norte.

En el frente de los chips, la buena noticia es que ya se está haciendo mucho. La Ley de Chips y Ciencia de 2022, que asignó 52.700 millones de dólares para impulsar la investigación y la fabricación de semiconductores en los Estados Unidos. En marzo de 2025, la Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company anunció 100.000 millones de dólares adicionales en inversiones planificadas en capacidad de fabricación estadounidense, por encima de los 50.000 millones que ya se han comprometido a gastar. El surcoreano Samsung, otro fabricante de chips avanzados, está aprovechando incentivos por 4.700 millones de dólares para construir una enorme fábrica en Taylor, Texas. La empresa estadounidense Intel está construyendo una enorme planta de última generación en Ohio. La empresa china Foxconn está construyendo actualmente una planta de ensamblaje en México para ensamblar los superchips GB200 de NVidia, que son fundamentales para el aprendizaje de la inteligencia artificial.

En cuanto a los minerales críticos, el panorama no es tan claro. Entre Estados Unidos y Canadá, hay más de un millón de toneladas métricas de reservas. Sin embargo, menos del 1% de la producción mundial proviene actualmente de América del Norte. La mayor parte de la producción mundial proviene de países como el Congo, donde las regulaciones ambientales laxas o inexistentes permiten que la industria crezca sin trabas. La producción de cobalto genera grandes cantidades de aguas residuales que son caras de tratar adecuadamente. Para incentivar adecuadamente la producción norteamericana de cobalto es necesario tomar más medidas. En cuanto al litio, América del Norte también posee amplias reservas, con casi 15 millones de toneladas métricas disponibles en Estados Unidos y Canadá. Sin embargo, América del Norte produce sólo una pequeña fracción de la demanda mundial de este mineral, por muchas de las mismas razones que se aplican al cobalto. Claramente, se requieren más acciones en este frente para asegurar que América del Norte sea capaz de producir la cantidad de cobalto, litio y tierras raras que se necesitaría en caso de que se cortaran las fuentes de suministro extranjeras.

Mediante una política industrial enfocada, China ha evolucionado hasta convertirse en el mayor proveedor de paneles solares del mundo. Los paneles solares son fundamentales para proporcionar una combinación completa de energía y la falta de una capacidad de fabricación adecuada en América del Norte es un riesgo de responsabilidad y de seguridad. Afortunadamente, todas las materias primas necesarias para producir paneles solares (silicio, aluminio, vidrio, cobre y plata) están en abundancia en América del Norte, por lo que los principales obstáculos son económicos. Este es un área en el que los aranceles y los créditos fiscales se pueden utilizar de manera efectiva para incentivar una mayor capacidad de producción en América del Norte.

En cuanto al suministro de prendas de vestir, las noticias son prometedoras. Estados Unidos tiene una amplia capacidad productiva de telas e hilos, y México tiene abundante mano de obra para el ensamblaje final. Sin embargo, la mano de obra más barata en Asia ha socavado esta industria, pero los aranceles pueden utilizarse de manera eficaz para hacer que la indumentaria norteamericana sea más competitiva en el mercado.

América del Norte ocupa una posición envidiable en el escenario mundial. Sin embargo, como lo demuestra la reciente agitación política, hay cuestiones comerciales que deben abordarse antes de que este mercado unificado pueda funcionar adecuadamente. Lo más importante es que, para que funcione la estructura arancelaria que incentiva la construcción de nueva capacidad productiva en América del Norte, los aranceles aplicados a las importaciones en Canadá, Estados Unidos y México DEBEN SER UNIFORMES. El mercado unificado puede estar libre de aranceles internos, pero los aranceles para las mercancías que ingresan al bloque deben ser los mismos, independientemente de qué país miembro sea el importador.

América del Norte no es sólo un poderoso bloque comercial, sino también un poderoso bloque de seguridad. Para que el libre comercio norteamericano funcione adecuadamente, debe haber control de las fronteras para regular adecuadamente el flujo de migrantes y contrabando, lo que actualmente no es el caso. Es responsabilidad de cada nación miembro proteger sus fronteras y restringir la migración indocumentada y el paso de sustancias ilegales u otros tipos de contrabando. En particular, se debe detener el comercio ilegal de fentanilo, que se utiliza en analgésicos falsificados y que tiene resultados letales. México, en particular, debe tomar medidas enérgicas a nivel interno contra los cárteles de la droga que participan en este comercio letal.

Es de esperar que se comprenda el enorme valor de preservar e invertir en la mayor unión económica que el mundo haya visto jamás y se afronten los desafíos que enfrenta.

An Arab Riviera

 

Now that the Gaza War is winding down the hard work is set to begin.

President Trump has waded into the debate and proposed a "Riviera of the Middle East" in the Gaza Strip.

I agree that we face a unique, historic opportunity to rebuild Gaza into a prosperous, luxurious destination for world travelers to the benefit of the Gazans.

Here is my plan:

• Form a coalition between the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the UAE to finance the reconstruction and administer the territory.
• Quickly construct temporary housing for Gazans and their families where they can live during the reconstruction.
• Employ the Gazans and others to work on the reconstruction.
• Establish the principle of non-violence and disarmament to prevent future extremist violence, to be enforced by military police from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and UAE, and by military contractors.

This plan will provide safety, security and prosperity for the Gazans for generations to come.

Because of the troubled history and the distrust that exists between the Gazans and the Israelis, it is critical that the security be guaranteed by the US/Saudi/UAE coalition and that the administration and management of the territory be handled by this coalition.

While this may be viewed as a disenfranchisement of the Gazans, it is the only way to avoid allowing extremism to rise again, leading to another cycle of violence.

Time to Bring the War in Ukraine to an End

 

The Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance has publicly stated that the time has probably come to negotiate an armistice to end the War in Ukraine.

I agree with him. The opportunity for Ukraine to gain the upper hand came and went this summer and the front line has barely moved. Russia is deeply entrenched, they have access to a much larger fighting force, and the Russian economy has proven to be much more resilient than many expected. If Ukraine persists in seeking to regain all the territory seized by the Russians, they risk losing the entire country.

What might this armistice look like? First of all, Ukraine needs security guarantees from NATO and economic guarantees from the EU. For these reasons I support Ukrainian accession to both organizations. The Russians must repay Ukraine for the death and destruction inflicted in their illegal military operation, and the sanctions regime against Russia must continue until that debt is satisfied.

Will it be possible to negotiate an agreement with Russia that provides Ukraine with all the guarantees that it needs? I believe that it is possible. Russia has achieved is main military objective, which was to secure their claim to the Crimean Peninsula. The Ukrainians have only lost regions that have been historically pro-Russian (with certain crucial exceptions, such as in the area around Mariupol). And, both the EU and NATO largely favor Ukrainian membership, even though there do exist certain prominent detractors such as Orban in Hungary. 

What might happen if Ukraine continues to fight to a stalemate with Russia without a negotiated peace agreement? There are many possible outcomes, but a few seem salient:

• Western support for Ukraine wanes and the tide of war shifts to the Russians.
• Ukrainian domestic support for the war wanes and the tide of war shifts to the Russians.
• Putin dies and is replaced by members of his party who are even more hawkish than he, leading to more war and a higher probability of the use of nuclear weapons.
• Putin dies and is replaced by a more centrist government that returns the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainian recognition of Russia's claim to Crimea.

Of these four possible outcomes, only one is favorable to the Ukrainians and the West. It should be pointed out that the Ukrainians have prosecuted this war honorably and admirably. If the new borders of Ukraine are redrawn along the current lines of engagement the Ukrainians should feel no shame.

Hamas Needs to Lay Down Their Arms NOW

After launching their suicidal, murderous and self-defeating incursion into Israel (dubbed the “Al Aqsa Flood”), Hamas fighters have continued to fight the Israelis by any means at their disposal, even as Gaza crumbles around them. 

Their resistance is futile. If their aim is to continue antagonizing Israel until every square meter of the Gaza Strip is pulverized, then they are achieving that goal. But why would Hamas want to see Gaza in ruins and many thousands of women and children dead?

Informal analysis of Al Jazeera coverage shows that the Arabic-language feed offers footage of Hamas guerrilla fighters sporting Go Pro cameras poking their heads out to launch RPGs against IDF targets, and the English-language feed offers footage of the injuries that result from IDF responses to Hamas attacks. In other words, Al Jazeera is providing a message of "glorious resistance to the occupiers" to their Arab audience and a message of human suffering to their Western audience. These two messages cannot be separated, since the violent uprising in Gaza precipitated the IDF bombardment and subsequent invasion and every subsequent violent action by Hamas seems guaranteed to trigger a disproportionate reaction by the IDF.

Why is Hamas all but guaranteeing the complete destruction of Gaza and its inhabitants? Hamas seems to be desperately trying to draw neighboring countries into the fight to trigger a wider Middle East war. However, apart from increased activity by Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon and attacks by the Houthi rebels in Yemen, no other Middle East country has shown even the least inclination to wade into the conflict, which is quite understandable. Lebanon, Syria, and to a lesser extent Iran are all in the midst of severe economic crises. In Lebanon this is the result of serious economic mismanagement and the failure of democratic institutions. In Syria it is the result of the ongoing civil war, and in Iran it is the result of international sanctions.  While it is true that there may be a tipping point beyond which the anguish in the Muslim world grows so great that all instincts for self-preservation are cast aside and a wider war erupts, the longer the conflict goes on the less likely the outcome becomes.

While Hamas prays for a wider war, Gaza is getting pulverized, and its inhabitants buried under the rubble. As long as Hamas is able to resist the IDF the Israelis will not let up. Before every last Hamas fighter achieves martyrdom, I estimate that well over 100,000 non-combatants will be dead and the Gaza Strip will be completely uninhabitable. The "Al Aqsa Flood" has drowned Gaza in blood.

For that reason, I believe that the best course of action is for Hamas to lay down their arms and negotiate a cessation of the violence so that a process of healing and reconstruction can begin for a Gaza Strip that is demilitarized and free from violence. 

We Need to Hold Israel to a Higher Standard

 

According to the organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip since the start of its large-scale war on 7 October, equivalent to two nuclear bombs.

The actions of Hamas militants on October 7th were horrific war crimes as is the Israeli Defense Force's (IDF) massive bombing campaign, which is killing and maiming huge numbers of non-combatants, including over 4,000 children according to the Hamas Health Ministry, numbers that have been independently corroborated by UN observers. Numbers that will inevitably rise as the bodies of victims trapped under the rubble of their homes are counted.

However, Hamas is a terrorist organization with no political legitimacy (there hasn't been an election in Gaza in over a decade) led by fanatics sworn to violence, while Israel is a liberal democracy that ratified the Geneva Convention. Western Democracies have every right, and indeed an obligation, to hold Israel to a high standard in terms of their respect of human rights and in their protection of non-combatants in the war zone.

Quite clearly, Israel has not taken into adequate consideration the risks to women and children of their bombing campaign in which they are ostensibly targeting Hamas militants and their network of subterranean tunnels.

However, as former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (who led Israel on a previous expedition into Gaza) recently pointed out, it is impossible to reach Hamas from the air. Hamas is sheltering in a deep and extensive network of subterranean tunnels that bombs cannot easily reach, so the bombs only serve to destroy the buildings and kill the people living above the tunnels. The IDF, knowing this fact, have persisted in their bombing campaign with a seeming capricious and arbitrary plan whose tenor very early on seemed more rooted in rage and vengeance than in any legitimate military objective. The selection of targets has been hard to understand for outside observers. For example, the IDF recently demolished three blocks of luxury high-rise towers in a middle-class section of Gaza City. It seems as if the IDF is identifying assets linked to the Hamas leadership and targeting those for destruction.

All of this is regrettable. The Palestinians have long accused the Israeli Government of a disregard for human rights and Israeli prosecution of this war is causing countries all over the world, including countries like Spain who are allies of Israel, to call for a break with Israel. I fear that the damage to Israel's reputation and prestige in the world will last for decades after this struggle is over.

Apart from having responded faster to the Hamas incursion on October 7th, what could Israel have done differently? I have formulated an action list that I would have advised Israel to undertake:

• On Day One, secure the Egyptian border by entering Gaza in the South at Kerem Shalom and by sea near the Gaza/Egypt border, creating a secure zone along the border under Israeli control (to include the city of Rafah, population 160,000) in order to control who and what gets in, and more importantly who gets out, with the objective of preventing the escape of Hamas leadership and preventing them from rearming.
• Continue to supply Gaza with water, electricity, food and medical supplies, making it clear to the Gazans that they are not the enemy.
• Take time to mourn and bury the dead, time in which Israel can consolidate global public opinion in their favor and prepare the global consciousness for the coming conflict.
• Construct large refugee camps in the zone in Southern Gaza annexed at the outset of the conflict.
• Open up the camps to women, children and the elderly, focusing first on refugees from Gaza City.
• Enter the Gaza Strip in two locations: from the east between Khan Younis and Gaza City and from the north near the Erez Crossing. (This is how the IDF have initiated the land invasion of Gaza).
• Moving from north to south, and using artillery and air support as needed, root out the entire Hamas tunnel infrastructure with the goal being the complete demilitarization of the Gaza Strip (this operation is currently underway).
• Remain in Gaza until a pan-Arab security force, led by Egypt, can be readied to take over security responsibilities.

It is regrettable that there has been so much destruction and death in Gaza. Revenge cannot and must not be a public policy, even if biblical. cultural and historical mores call for it (Exodus 21:23-27). The United States failed Israel, failed the Palestinians and failed the World by not talking down Israel from the edge when the rage and anger was at a crescendo. The Gazans (and Hamas alongside them) are trapped like fish in a barrel. There was no reason to move hastily. The operation could have been executed in a way that had the least effect on the Gazans, the greatest effect on Hamas, and the best reputational outcome for Israel in the eyes of the World.

Xinjiang Sanctions Hurt the Uyghurs

 

The U.S. sanctions on products produced in the Xinjiang Region will not be effective and will tend to harm the Uyghurs more than the Han Chinese.

Xinjiang is over 50% Uyghur and Uyghurs produce the majority of the goods there.

Sanctions against products manufactured in Xinjiang using "slave labor" will have a generally depressive effect on demand for all products produced in the region, not just those produced in prison camps.

Therefore, the worst impact will be on the Uyghur majority in Xinjiang and will only have a slight effect on Han Chinese generally.

The repressive policies in Xinjiang come out of Beijing and Beijing should be held responsible.

If sanctions are to be used, they should be on Chinese exports generally, not exports from the Xinjiang Region specifically.

Other policies should be studied that might be of assistance to the Uyghurs.

However, we should temper our expectations, particularly when we consider the abject failure of international efforts to free Tibet, which is a region bordering Xinjiang that is also subject to severe Chinese persecution and control.

Expand NATO to Include Russia

 

This is about as friendly as it got in Geneva.

While the United States and Europe have grown since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, Russia has steadily gotten smaller and weaker, such that Moscow now commands 76% of the geographic area, 51% of the population, and only 26% of its former gross national product. This puts Russian somewhere between Mexico and Nigeria in terms of overall population and somewhere between Kazakhstan and Panama in terms of per capita GDP.

What Russia has in abundance are nuclear warheads (#1), geographic area (#1) and proven oil reserves (#8).

But, the clock is ticking on Russia, because many of those warheads date back to the Cold War and will soon be unreliable (and are exorbitantly expensive to upgrade), the Russian population is ageing and shrinking, the Russian economy is stagnant and in forty or fifty years future fossil fuels will become an anachronism, making all those reserves virtually worthless.

Vladimir Putin must be acutely aware of this predicament. It seems to me that he may yearn for the Soviet heydays when Russian power rivaled that of the United States. However, those days are long past, and unlikely to ever return. Today, Russia wields the purchasing power of the State of New York, which is not the hallmark of of a global superpower (no offence intended toward New Yorkers, of course, who similarly yearn for superpower status).

Geopolitically, the world is fast approaching a tipping point, where the center of the world, in terms of economic and military power, is shifting closer and closer to Beijing. Russia, literally and figuratively, straddles this divide. If Putin wants to see Russian greatness restored in his lifetime, does he hitch his cart to the economic engine of China or does he soften his tone and seek alliances with the West?

At the present, Putin seems to be eyeing China. For example, in December of 2020, Russian and Chinese heavy bombers flew a training mission that included a brief incursion into Japanese and South Korean defense zones, prompting the scrambling of jet fighters from both countries. In September 2020 China participated with Russia in massive military exercises in the Caucasus region of southern Russia. Most recently, in the lead-up to the Geneva summit, Russia conducted naval maneuvers near Hawaii while Chinese warplanes repeatedly invaded Taiwanese airspace.

So, is it too late to swivel the Russian gaze back toward the West? What can the U.S. and NATO offer Russia in exchange for an alliance and a lasting peace? Can we finally bury the skeletons of the Cold War and move toward denuclearization? Will Russia ally itself with the West as a bulwark against Chinese hegemony?

The problem lies in what fundamentally links Russia and China: authoritarianism. Authoritarian leaders do not like to share power within their sphere of influence. Authoritarian leaders can work with other authoritarian leaders without having to endure the constant, annoying buzzing of human rights groups protesting this or that abuse of human rights. Authoritarian leaders take pleasure when other authoritarians annex land and expel people (as long as it isn't their land or their people, of course). Authoritarian leaders seek to work with other leaders whose power is absolute in order to have confidence that their secret agreements won't be subject to the vagaries of the next election cycle.

So, at least from the perspective of two authoritarian leaders, Xi and Putin seem to be a match made in heaven, and what can the U.S. and NATO possibly offer to lure Russia into the fold?

It all depends upon Vladimir Putin and what he, in his heart of hearts, values most. Does Putin value the interests of the Russian people over the desire to see Russia command respect on a global scale, even if that respect has to be coerced at the point of a tactical nuclear warhead?

Unfortunately, the prospects of bringing Putin around to our way of seeing things doesn't look very good on that front, either. If you analyze Putin's domestic political strategy, he is certainly not seeking any sort of consensus of political views. He is actively involved in a war against progressive values and is accelerating the debasement of Russian democratic institutions. Putin is effectively a fascist dictator (think Stalin without Marx) seeking to rid the nation of "undesirables" and coalesce the population into a force that will do his bidding without question. In Stalin's time as many as 20 million "undesirables" perished during a period referred to as the "Great Purge" (out of a population of 168 million at the time, or more than one person in ten). Under Putin's leadership, Stalin's image in Russia has seen a tremendous resurgence. Today, 45% of Russians have a positive view of Stalin, a man who was the greatest genocidal megalomaniac the world has ever seen. Putin believes that Stalin was a man of "good intentions" and that the 20 million who died was a sacrifice that was justified by the country's great goals at the time.

So, it seems fairly clear that Putin's management style isn't necessarily a good fit for roundtable discussions with the leaders of the great Western democracies, as the failed summit in Geneva served to prove. But, what is Vladimir Putin's end game? It seems that he is starting to follow the North Korean playbook, another autocratic nation with nuclear weapons that periodically engages in bad behavior to try and keep itself relevant in a world that is literally racing ahead of it. If Putin seems poised to bet everything on China, what could China be possibly promising him in return?

It is starting to become clear that China is looking to escalate existing confrontations beyond the breaking point, particularly in the case of Taiwan and the South China Sea. Their actions in these areas, when combined with their brazen abrogation of the "Handover Treaty" that protected civil rights in Hong Kong and the consolidation of power around Xi, point to a probing and testing of Western resolve that seems to inevitably lead to the occupation of Taiwan and the full-scale exploitation of energy resources in the South China Sea. Either of these actions would lead to a break with the West and the imposition of strict sanctions against China which would effectively shut off oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. However, China has been slowly but surely transitioning from Saudi oil to Russian oil, up from 11% in 2014 to over 16% today, and is prepared to import more. When China decides to seize Taiwan they will be solely dependent on Russia, Iran and Malaysia for their oil supplies. Additionally, China dramatically accelerated their oil stockpiling when COVID-19 made oil cheap and are adding additional storage tank capacity at the rate of over 100 million additional barrels per year. In other words, China is preparing to lose access to its Saudi pipeline and will depend on its stockpiles, Russia and Iran for its supply.

Putin, on the other hand, would be in a position to demand a significant premium over market oil prices if China were become almost solely dependent upon him for oil. With China being the largest oil consumer in the world, this would be quite the choice customer to command.

So, the answer seems to be that Russia is allying itself with China in anticipation of the reunification of Taiwan with Mainland China and the geopolitical shock waves that this will create, in the interest of profiting mightily by supplying energy to China.

How did we get into this situation in the first place? When NATO won the Cold War and the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States and Russia had a unique opportunity to forge peace out of the fallen Iron Curtain. However, instead of working with Russia to develop their economy, build a democracy and to integrate economically with the West (like we had done at great expense with Germany and Japan post WWII), the United States and Europe virtually turned their back on Russia, gloating in their victory and instead focusing on helping the Soviet satellite states break away and gain their footing. Over this time massive Soviet-era industries were privatized and fell into the hands of the cronies of Boris Yeltsin for pennies on the dollar, financed by loans from European banks. These oligarchs are who now run Russia, with Putin overseeing everything. Instead of helping Russia to develop an evolved system of government they were left, essentially, to their own devices and Russia devolved in something akin to a Mafia State.

On the military front, NATO never altered it mission from one of containing Russia, even when the idea of containing Russia had become quaint at best and ridiculous at worst. Apart from its ability to launch a nuclear attack, Russia posed no real threat to the West. Toward the end of the Soviet Empire, the size of its military began to shrink dramatically, which only accelerated after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, Russia has 15,000 tanks versus the 55,000 that it had in 1990. In spite of knowing that Russia was a mere shadow of its former Soviet self, NATO kept its gunsights trained on Moscow.

I mentioned earlier that Russia, on a per capita basis, is not a wealthy country. Can you imagine if you were a Russian in 2010, earning less than $10K per year and having wealthy neighbors like Germany ($41K/yr) performing war games and continually expanding those war games into countries that were former members of the Soviet Bloc, right up to your borders?

How about when you, as a Russian, try to build a pipeline to export natural gas to Europe, only to have the United States oppose the project every step of the way on security grounds based on Cold War logic? Would you be made to feel that NATO and the United States wished to be your friends or were, in fact, rivals and antagonists?

I think you understand where I am going with this. Russia is in something of a sorry state for a country of its size and rich history, and that in and of itself is a difficult pill to swallow for the Russians. NATO needs to acknowledge this and reach out to Russia to facilitate solutions to some of their most enduring problems such as an extreme overdependence on energy production, weak governmental institutions and poor social cohesion (including the highest rate of alcoholism in the world and a declining life expectancy). We should be trading MORE with Russia, not less. We should be providing humanitarian aid and social services to Russia. We should be figuring out how to bring Moscow into Europe where it belongs.

If the NATO can openly admit to its mistakes and convince Russia to trust it we will pull an important leg out from under China's expansionist ambitions and will facilitate a free and modern Russia to the benefit of the European continent and the world.

If Putin agrees, of course.

Replace the Corporate Tax with a National Sales Tax

Source: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/

Why should the government tax corporate earnings if they will be taxed as soon as they are distributed anyway? That is a good question, and many economists argue that corporate earning should NOT be taxed. However, there are issues with the elimination of the corporate tax that should be discussed.

The primary problem with a zero corporate tax rate is that the corporations depend heavily on the government for support. Corporation use roads and highways, they utilize the communications networks, they depend on law enforcement and border protection, they engage in interstate commerce, they export goods to other countries, etc. All of these activities have a cost, and if the corporations are paying taxes on their income at a zero rate all of these costs will be passed along to the investors and other taxpayers which may not sufficiently cover the impact of corporate activities on society at large.

Therefore, I propose, as an alternative to the corporate income tax, a national sales tax on all revenue generation, including foreign revenue that is generated when goods are imported into the United States. Since a sale typically involves the movement of goods or of intellectual capital across our physical and digital highways, a national sales tax will directly address the related costs. Also, by taxing foreign revenue in the form of a duty on imports, the impact of foreign goods entering the U.S. will be similarly mitigated.

I estimate that a national sales tax rate of 2% would be more than adequate to replace the revenue lost to the government by the elimination of corporate income tax.

By eliminating the corporate income tax and replacing it with a national sales tax, the United States will benefit in several ways:

• Greater fairness in taxation by eliminating the double-taxation of corporate earnings.
• Increase in domestic savings which can be used to finance loans by eliminating all incentives to shelter corporate earnings in foreign tax havens.
• Greater potential for economic growth and employment since the money saved by corporations can be plowed back into their operations.
• The capture of income on revenue earned by foreign corporations who wish to access our market.

Prosecute Cops and Watch Crime Rates Spike

 

Freddy Gray Struggles to Avoid Being Detained

In April 2015, Freddy Gray was arrested in West Baltimore, after a foot chase, for carrying a spring-assisted knife that was legal in Maryland but illegal in Baltimore City.

He was handcuffed and shackled, placed in the back of a paddy wagon and was driven around West Baltimore before arriving at the police precinct for booking. At some point he suffered a spinal injury that led to his death. It was alleged that the driver of the van deliberately accelerated and braked in such a way that Mr. Gray, who was not belted in, would fly around in the back.

Subsequent to Freddy Gray's death, the City of Baltimore brought charges against all six officers involved in the arrest, including the driver, Caesar Goodson, Jr.

The six officers prosecuted for the death of Freddy Gray

The decision to charge these officers was extremely unpopular amongst the rank-and-file officers of the Baltimore Police Department. After a series of mistrials, all officers either had the charges dismissed or were found not guilty, and they proceeded to sue the City of Baltimore for the way that they were treated.

In the month after the death of Freddy Gray, Baltimore experienced a massive spike in homicides, to the highest level in over forty years, and the year-end total ranked as the third highest rate ever recorded.

Washington, DC, which is only about 50 miles from Baltimore and which has many criminal connections to Baltimore, also experienced a spike in crime during this same period.

Philadelphia, PA, which is about 100 miles north of Baltimore, also experienced an increase in murders, although to a lesser extent.

It should be pointed out that the prosecution of the six Baltimore police officers was closely watched by police forces nationwide, but in particular in neighboring cities like Washington DC and Philadelphia. The displeasure felt by the police in these cities was expressed through an unwillingness to perform dangerous foot and bicycle patrols, an unwillingness to chase suspects, and an unwillingness to arrest suspects for low-level criminal activity.

Freddy Gray was someone the Baltimore Police Department knew well and someone they hoped to get off the streets. At 25 years of age, Freddy Gray had a long arrest record, having been arrested eighteen times, including four times in 2015 prior to his final arrest in April 2015.

Today there are unprecedent calls across the country to defund police departments and prosecute police officers, and crime in areas where police have been prosecuted all have shown spikes in crime similar to what was seen in Baltimore in May of 2015.

While it is important to weed out bad cops who are guilty of using excessive force in the execution of their duties, it is important to distinguish clearly between "good cops" and "bad cops" and to make it clear that society is not at war with law enforcement personnel IN GENERAL. Unfortunately, that is exactly the feeling that we, as a society, are giving the police officers who risk their lives to get illegal guns and other weapons off the streets.

Therefore, expect to see dramatic increases in violent crime in urban centers across the country, which is going to cause untold heartbreak and loss.

Gun Control is a State's Rights Issue

 

Every time there is a mass shooting in America, the Federal Government makes another power grab in an effort to limit or restrict the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The problem with this is that the Second Amendment exists precisely as a limit on Federal Authority and efforts to undermine it are unconstitutional.

The text of the Second Amendment is as follows:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

At the time this amendment was penned, each state fielded its own militia, and it was these militias that waged war on England during the U.S. Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). These militias were comprised largely of citizen volunteers, mainly farmers, who owned their own muskets and who were available at a moment's notice to rally to the defense of the fledgling nation.

It is precisely these citizen warriors, who served by authority of their own state's militia, that the Founding Fathers were thinking of when they penned "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

The fear of the Founding Fathers was that a national army would come to replace the militia system and that the Federal Government would concentrate power and seek to confiscate weapons from the citizenry to prevent rebellion and insurrection. It is well documented that the formation of a standing army was one of the Founding Father's greatest fears. They believed that keeping a standing army at the ready in times of peace could only lead to mischief and to a loss of freedom generally.

Instead, they preferred the concept of state militias over that of a national standing army, to be regulated by each State's legislature. Basically, each state was to maintain its own militia to be organized (and armed) as that state saw fit, and that the new federal government must not take any action to disarm the citizens that comprise these militias.

However, the Founding Fathers did not want the nascent nation to devolve into the chaos of internecine violence. For this reason, they imagined (or hoped, really) that each state would field a "well regulated" militia, with proper discipline and training. They always felt that the right to keep and bear arms must be for a specific purpose, that being in support of the state militias in defense of each state and, by extension, the defense of the nation.

Therefore, the Constitution strictly outlaws the regulation of arms at the federal level, but not at the state level. In fact, the Constitution demands the regulation of arms at the state level. The problem we are facing as a nation is that too many states have failed to properly regulate their own citizens which has led to the chaos and internecine violence that the Founding Fathers feared could emerge.

The solution is for state legislatures to take up this matter and enact regulations that will make their states safer from gun violence. The Federal Government can enact legislation to help states fund these efforts, but they must not enact legislation that usurps this essential authority.

Split Afghanistan Across the Middle

The United States is attempting to broker a power-sharing arrangement between the secular government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, but it is not going to work. 

The Taliban have proven themselves to be too persistent and too durable, and the secular government too weak and too corrupt. 

And, perhaps more importantly, the vision that the Taliban has for the future of women in Afghanistan is incompatible with the secular model and will be impossible to reconcile. 

If the United States pulls out, the secular government will quickly fall and Afghan women and girls will lose their freedoms.

I propose dividing Afghanistan across the middle, along a line that is roughly defined by Herat in the West and Jalalabad in the East, making good use of the Koh-I-Baba mountain range that runs through the middle of the country as a natural border. The vast majority of the residents of the three cities that fall along this line, Herat, Kabul, and Jalalabad, are opposed to Taliban rule and so are automatic candidates for inclusion in a secular Afghanistan. Also, creating an international border between the southern and northern areas will help prevent the incursion of Taliban assassins and spies who have been responsible for such suffering amongst the educated class of Afghanistan.

The fine points of the geographical division can be left to the negotiators, but physically separating the two warring groups will present the best chance of a lasting peace and will make the work of defending the secular government much easier by keeping the NATO forces out of areas controlled by Taliban sympathizers.  

Lie to Yourself at Your Own Risk

 

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower Tours Taipei in 1960

After the People's Liberation Army ran Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters out of mainland China and onto Formosa Island in 1949 the U.S. made the stupid decision to only recognize Taiwan with only 0.3% of the landmass and 2% of the population of the People's Republic of China, and not the communist government led by Mao Tse Tung. This stupidity continued all the way to 1970 when the U.S. replaced one idiocy with another: to recognize the PRC as the legitimate Chinese government and to withdraw official recognition of Taiwan.

Neither decision was smart or forward-thinking. After the Chinese Civil War, it was clear that Chiang Kai-shek had zero chance of regaining control of China. Therefore, the immature denial of obvious facts created a tense and irrational dynamic.

The facts are obvious: the People's Republic of China is the legitimate government of China and the Republic of China (the official name of the Taiwanese government), is the legitimate government of Taiwan.

Instead of recognizing these facts for what they were, the U.S. and its allies lost the opportunity to officially end the Chinese Civil War and convince the PRC to recognize Taiwan, with disastrous consequences.

Now, Taiwan is probably going to be overrun by the People's Liberation Army, the U.S. is going to be chased out of the Pacific region and Japan is in serious danger, all because the U.S. and its allies perpetuated a foolish myth.

The United States should never again perpetuate a diplomatic policy that does not fully recognize the facts as they are and that respects the diplomatic rights of all parties. We should have recognized the PRC in 1949 and we should have never agreed to go along with the "One China" policy.

Support a Direct Central American Immigration Route

 

Guatemalans burned to a crisp in Mexico

Something must be done to stop Central American immigration through Mexico. This immigration fuels wars between cartels who seek to control this lucrative human trade and results in dramatic cases of exploitation as exemplified by the recent death of 19 Guatemalans who were forced to fight with the Mexican cartels. I am not suggesting that we halt immigration from Central America; instead, what I am suggesting is that we bar all immigration of Central Americans across the US/Mexico border. What we need to do is to work closely with governments in Central America, and nonprofits working in those countries to facilitate immigration documents including asylum documents for Central Americans so that they can board airplanes and fly to the United States.

We must make it clear that anyone who arrives to the US border with Mexico who is not Mexican and who seeks asylum in the United States, or who wishes to cross illegally will be stopped. The alternative is to subject these immigrants to extortion, kidnap, torture, forced prostitution, rape, and murder. Additionally, the money that human trafficking supplies serves to strengthen the cartels, helping to ensure their survival.

There are currently programs in place supported by Mexican President Lopez Obrador with the support of the Mexican Guardia Nacional that have been effective in discouraging the large caravans of Central Americans who have sought to march through Mexico to the US border in order to cross illegally or seek asylum. These programs should be bolstered and additional efforts should be made to defend the border such that the Mexican route becomes exceedingly difficult and unproductive.

Simultaneously, the United States should expand outreach from our embassies in Central American countries to enable asylum applications in the home countries with processing in the home countries. Funds, both public and private, should be allocated to help subsidize flights for those who are successful in earning entry into the United States. It should be noted however, that Central Americans currently pay cartel coyotes thousands of dollars per person to cross them over the river and into the United States, so a one-way airplane ticket is actually a very small price to pay and something that Central Americans would agree is a very smart investment considering the extreme risk of attempting to traverse Mexico.

Ultimately, of course, Central Americans would prefer to live a prosperous and safe life in the countries of their birth. But, weak economies and widespread violence ultimately drive them out of their homes. A big part of the solution must to find ways to alleviate these problems which will automatically eliminate the problem of illegal immigration and its human and societal costs.

Are Twitter's Policies an Affront to our First Amendment Rights?

 

I never thought I would agree with a Tweet published by Donald J. Trump, Jr., but it is true that we are, in fact, entering into an Orwellian future where it will be much more difficult to express our own point of view.

Before anyone misconstrues this post as a moral defense of President Trump, let me state for the record that the President is clearly a traitor to our Constitution who is guilty of sedition for organizing the storming of the Capitol and should be convicted and hung from the neck until dead. In spite of that, and in spite of the fear that he may foment additional unrest, his speech is protected by the First Amendment and the Twitter ban runs afoul of those rights. He should be allowed to say whatever he wants right up to the moment that the rope snaps his neck.

So, Twitter is already censoring free speech by suspending his account, and one could argue that as a private company Twitter may have the right to moderate all uses of their platform. And, this could be okay if people know clearly upfront that Twitter is not a free speech platform. Twitter is like a private meeting hall and technically the company has the right to kick people out if they want to. However, this won’t stop those people from going to a different meeting hall that is friendlier to them. In fact, this is exactly what is happening. Parler (https://www.parler.com/) is a web application similar to Twitter launched by well-heeled Trump supporters such as the Mercers (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Mercer). However, in a clear sign of things to come, the Parler app has been banned by Apple and Google and Amazon Web Services has canceled their hosting contract.

The next front in the war to regulate Trumpian speech will center on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230). At the heart of Section 230 currently are protections of free speech:

"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

However, there are efforts afoot to strip companies like Twitter and Facebook of these protections which would make them potential targets of lawsuits designed to squelch certain points of view. Ironically, President Trump has called for these protections to be removed and even vetoed the Defense Spending Bill to emphasize the point (the veto was overturned). If these protections are revoked, companies will be forced to ramp up the moderation of the content providers and will be much faster to suspend accounts that are seen to be spreading polemical views. In other words, absent Section 230, Trump would have faced a Twitter ban years ago.

Additionally, the FCC has publicly affirmed its authority to interpret Section 230 as they deem fit (The FCC's Authority to Interpret Section 230 of the Communications Act | Federal Communications Commission), stating that the FCC can feel confident proceeding with rulemaking to clarify the scope of the Section 230 immunity shield. How might this translate into policy? That will depend entirely on the discretion of the FCC Commissioner who acts at the pleasure of the President of the United States. For example, could the FCC remove Section 230 protections from any Twitter posts that are deemed to be based on inaccurate information? How about ad hominem attacks that could be construed as slander? All of these things are possible, and they would subject the host (i.e. publically traded companies like Twitter and Facebook) to massive civil liability.

Do we want to give an appointed public servant the power to restrict wide swathes of previously accepted speech? Do we want to give a U.S. President this authority? Even this blog could wind up getting deleted if Google determined that something that I have written potentially exposes them to liability under a new interpretation of Section 230.

How far this goes is hard to predict, but I can envision a future where search engines like Google or Bing are held liable for linking to websites or commentary that has been previously flagged by the FCC as being unprotected speech out of a fear that the act of serving pages with questionable content could, in and of itself, expose the company to liability.

All of this will have an extreme, Orwellian, chilling effect on freedom of expression on the Internet, and the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment in general. It will force commentators with viewpoints far diverged from the mainstream into a virtual cyber "wilderness" where they will be all but impossible to find.

What can be done to fix this?

• Pass legislation to prevent Google and Apple from blocking applications for political reasons.
• Pass legislation SEPARATE from the Communications Act of 1934 to enshrine the protections from liability present in Section 230, thereby taking the issue out of the hands of the FCC.

Remember, as John Adams so eloquently stated, "Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." If we are going to err in this, we must err to the conservative and protect the vibrant (and sometimes ugly) online debate forums that now exist.

To further explain how important Section 230 is, and why it needs to be protected, I offer the following infographic (courtesy of the EFF):

Why Trump Lost

 

In Tweet after Tweet, and in press conference after press conference, Trump pushed the narrative that COVID-19 was not anything to be worried about. The problem with that is that most Americans were watching in horror as the death toll skyrocketed and they were very worried. Had Trump properly managed the COVID-19 response and spoken truthfully about the pandemic he would have won re-election.

Here is a timeline of the Administration's statements and actions as they relate to pandemic response:

May 2018

The Administration disbands the White House pandemic response team.

July 2019

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency left her post, and the Administration decided to eliminate the role.

October 2019

“Currently, there are insufficient funding sources designated for the federal government to use in response to a severe influenza pandemic.” [Crimson Contagion exercise findings]

January 22

“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

January 24

Trump praises China’s handling of the coronavirus: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

January 28

“This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency...This is going to be the roughest thing you face" Trump’s National Security Advisor to Trump

January 30

"The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil,...This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” [Memo from Trump Trade Advisor Peter Navarro]

February 2

“We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”

February 7

“It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu... This is deadly stuff” [Trump in a private taped interview with Bob Woodward, made public September 9]

February 10

“I think the virus is going to be—it’s going to be fine.”

February 10

“Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

February 24

“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

February 25

“CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”

February 25

“I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”

February 26

“The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”

February 26

“We're going very substantially down, not up.”

February 26

“Well, we're testing everybody that we need to test. And we're finding very little problem. Very little problem.”

February 26

"This is a flu. This is like a flu."

February 27

“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”

February 28

“We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”

March 2

“You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”

March 2

“A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”

March 4

“Now, and this is just my hunch, and — but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot people will have this and it's very mild.”

March 4

“If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”

March 5

“I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”

March 5

“The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”

March 6

“I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”

March 6

“You have to be calm. It’ll go away.”

March 6

“Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”

March 6

“I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”

March 6

“I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”

March 7

“When we get into April, in the warmer weather—that has a very negative effect on that, and that type of a virus.”

March 7

“No, I’m not concerned at all.

March 8

“We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”

March 9

During a news conference, White House officials say the U.S. will have tested one million people that week and thereafter would complete 4 million tests per week. By the end of the week, the CDC had only completed a paltry 4,000 tests.

March 9

“This blindsided the world.”

March 10

“Just stay calm. It will go away.”

March 11

“It goes away….It’s going away. We want it to go away with very, very few deaths.”

March 12

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, tells Congress that the country does not have sufficient testing. “The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” he said. “That is a failing. Let’s admit it.”

March 12

"You know, you see what's going on. And so I just wanted that to stop as it pertains to the United States. And that's what we've done. We've stopped it."

March 13

“I don’t take responsibility at all.”

March 13

The Atlantic reported that less than 14,000 tests had been done in the ten weeks since the administration had first been notified of the virus, though Mike Pence had promised the week prior that 1.5 million tests would be available by this time.

March 14

“I’d rate it a ten,” [Trump’s rating of his coronavirus response]

March 15

“Relax”

March 15

“This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something that we have tremendous control over.”

March 16

“Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment-try getting it yourselves,”

March 17

“The only thing we haven’t done well is get good press.”

March 17

“I felt like it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

March 19

I intended "to always play it down.”  [Trump in a private taped interview with Bob Woodward, made public September 9]

March 20

“I say that you're a terrible reporter, that's what I say. I think it's a very nasty question, and I think it's a very bad signal that you're putting out to the American people." [Response to reporter’s question: "What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?"]

March 22

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”

March 24  

“I'm also hopeful to have Americans working again by that Easter - that beautiful Easter day.”

March 24

“We’ve never closed down the country for the flu,” Trump said. “So you say to yourself, what is this all about?”

March 24

“They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”

March 25

“The faster we go back, the better it’s going to be.”

March 26

“Congratulations AMERICA!” [On Senate passage of third relief bill]

March 26

“I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”

March 26

“We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor from — you know who I’m talking about — from Michigan,”

March 27

“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!”

March 27

“Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington. You’re wasting your time with him…”

March 27

“I want them to be appreciative. We've done a great job.”

March 27

“We’re doing a great job for the state of Washington and I think the Governor...he’s constantly chirping and I guess complaining would be a nice way of saying it.”

March 29

“Where are the masks going? Are they going out the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000?”

March 29

“Unfortunately the enemy is death. It's death. A lot of people are dying. So it's very unpleasant.”

March 30

"Stay calm, it will go away. You know it -- you know it is going away, and it will go away, and we're going to have a great victory."

March 30

“I think New York should be fine, based on the numbers that we see, they should have more than enough. I mean, I’m hearing stories that they’re not used or they’re not used right.”

March 30

“I haven’t heard about testing in weeks. We’re testing more than any other nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests...But I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.”

March 30

“We inherited a broken test — the whole thing was broken.”

March 31

“...it’s not the flu. It’s vicious.”

April 1

“They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”

April 2

“Massive amounts of medical supplies... are being delivered directly to states...Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?). The complainers should have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit.”

April 2

“...the Federal Government is merely a back-up for state governments.”

April 3

“I’m feeling good. I just don’t want to be doing -- somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful resolute desk, the great resolute desk, I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself. I just don’t. Maybe I’ll change my mind.”

April 5

“FEMA, the military — what they’ve done is a miracle...And you should be thanking them for what they’ve done, not always asking wise-guy questions.”

April 6

“LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!”

April 6

U.S. death toll passes 10,000

April 7

"So, you know, things are happening. It's a -- it's -- I haven't seen bad. I've not seen bad."

April 7

"You are not going to die from this pill...I really think it's a great thing to try."

April 7

“That was a flu. OK. So you could say that I said it was a flu, or you could say the flu is nothing to -- sneeze at," [Regarding Spanish Flu]

April 8

"I read about it maybe a day, two days ago,...It was a recommendation that he had, I think he told certain people on the staff, but it didn't matter. I didn't see it." [Regarding Peter Navarro’s January warning]

April 9

“I couldn’t have done it any better,” [When asked if his coronavirus response could have been better]

April 11

U.S. death toll passes 20,000

April 13

“But I guess I'm doing OK, because, to the best of my knowledge, I'm the President of the United States, despite the things that are said."

April 14

“Enough!” [When a reporter questioned his claim that his authority as president is “total”]

April 14

“[w]hen somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.”

April 15

U.S. death toll passes 30,000

April 15

As Trump focuses on reopening, a leaked CDC and FEMA report warns of “significant risk of resurgence of the virus” with phased reopening.

April 19

 “Now we’re going toward 50, I’m hearing, or 60,000 people [dead from the coronavirus]”

April 22

“If [coronavirus] comes back though, it won’t be coming back in the form that it was, it will be coming back in smaller doses that we can contain….it’s also possible it doesn’t come back at all.”

April 23

"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

April 23

“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn't been checked but you're gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way…”

April 23

“You see states are starting to open up now, and it’s very exciting to see,”

April 23

26 million jobless claims

April 24

U.S. death toll passes 50,000

April 26

“The people that know me and know the history of our Country say that I am the hardest working President in history.”

April 27

"I can't imagine why," [Regarding influx in poison control calls about disinfectant]

April 29

“It’s gonna go away, this is going to go away.”

May 3

“Look, we're going to lose anywhere from 75,000, 80,000 to 100,000 people,”

May 5

U.S. death toll passes 70,000

May 5

Consumer debt hits an all-time high

May 5

“Well run States should not be bailing out poorly run States, using CoronaVirus as the excuse!”

May 5

“I always felt 60, 65, 70, as horrible as that is. I mean, you’re talking about filling up Yankee Stadium with death! So I thought it was horrible. But it’s probably going to be somewhat higher than that,”

May 5

“There’ll be more death, that the virus will pass, with or without a vaccine. And I think we’re doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it’s going to pass, and we’re going to be back to normal,”

May 5

“I don’t want to be Mr. Gloom-and-Doom. It’s a very bad subject,...I’m not looking to tell the American people when nobody really knows what’s happening yet, ‘Oh, this is going to be so tragic.’”

May 6

Brookings reports that children were “experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times” and “40.9 percent of mothers with children ages 12 and under reported household food insecurity since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Republicans block proposals to expand food stamps.

May 6

“Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other people.” [In response to a nurse telling him that equipment supply has been “sporadic”]

May 7

33 million jobless claims

May 8

“This is going to go away without a vaccine. It is going to go away.  We are not going to see it again.”

May 9

“This is going to go away without a vaccine.”

May 11

“Coronavirus numbers are looking MUCH better, going down almost everywhere. Big progress being made!”

May 11

“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,”

May 14

“Could be that testing’s, frankly, overrated. Maybe it is overrated.”

May 14

“Don’t forget, we have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing,”

May 15

“Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back. And we’re starting the process. In many cases, they don’t have vaccines and a virus or a flu comes and you fight through it.

May 16

“We’ve done a GREAT job on Covid response, making all Governors look good, some fantastic (and that’s OK), but the Lamestream Media doesn’t want to go with that narrative, and the Do Nothing Dems talking point is to say only bad about “Trump”. I made everybody look good, but me!”

May 18

U.S. death toll passes 90,000

May 19

“When we have a lot of cases, I don't look at that as a bad thing, I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing,...Because it means our testing is much better. I view it as a badge of honor, really, it's a badge of honor.”

May 21

USA Today reports that mortgage delinquencies surged by 1.6 million in April, the largest single-month jump in history.

May 22

38 million jobless claims

May 27

U.S. death toll passes 100,000

May 29

“We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization”

June 6

U.S death toll passes 110,000

June 6

“Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country...This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality.”

June 15

“At some point this stuff goes away and it’s going away.”

June 17

“It’s fading away. It’s going to fade away.”

June 18

“And it is dying out. The numbers are starting to get very good.”

June 20

"Testing is a double-edged sword,...When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people, you're going to find more cases, so I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.'"

June 22

U.S death toll passes 120,000

June 23

“Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!”

June 23

"It's going away,"       

June 25

“The number of ChinaVirus cases goes up, because of GREAT TESTING, while the number of deaths (mortality rate), goes way down. The Fake News doesn’t like telling you that!”

June 25

“Coronavirus deaths are way down. Mortality rate is one of the lowest in the World. Our Economy is roaring back and will NOT be shut down. “Embers” or flare ups will be put out, as necessary!”

June 30

U.S. has just 4% of the global population, but 25% of global coronavirus cases and the second highest death rate per capita.

July 1

“I think we’re going to be very good with the coronavirus.” “I think that, at some point, that’s going to sort of disappear, I hope.”

July 6

U.S. death toll passes 130,000

July 7

"I think we are in a good place." 

July 7

The president predicted that in the next two to four weeks, "I think we're going to be in very good shape."

July 8

“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November election, but it is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!”

July 8

“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking school [sic] to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!”

July 18

U.S. death toll passes 140,000

July 19

“I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world”

July 19

“Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day”

“They have the sniffles, and we put it down as a test”

July 21

"You will never hear this on the Fake News concerning the China Virus, but by comparison to most other countries, who are suffering greatly, we are doing very well - and we have done things that few other countries could have done!”

July 27

"America will develop a vaccine very soon, and we will defeat the virus. We will have it delivered in record time."  

July 28

U.S. death toll passes 150,000

July 28

"He's got this high approval rating. So why don't I have a high approval rating with respect -- and the administration -- with respect to the virus?" (Trump referring to Anthony Fauci)

August 1

“Wrong! We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would be less cases,”  (Donald Trump in a retweet of Anthony Fauci saying the U.S. has seen more cases than European countries because it only shut down a fraction of its economy amid the pandemic)

August 3

"I think we are doing very well and I think ... as well as any nation,"

August 3

"They are dying. That's true. And you — it is what it is.”

August 3

“OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!”

August 3

“Right now I think it’s under control.”

August 3

“You know, there are those that say you can test too much, you do know that.”

August 4

"...we have among the lowest numbers." - White House Press Briefing

August 5

“If you look at children, children are almost - and I would almost say definitely - but almost immune from this disease.” 

August 5

“We’re supplying the world now with ventilators. You go back four months, we didn’t have any” - Fox and Friends

August 5

“It will go away like things go away”

August 6

U.S. death toll passes 160,000

August 12

U.S. reports highest number of COVID-19 deaths in one day since mid-May

August 16

U.S. death toll passes 170,000

August 22

“Many doctors and studies disagree with this!” (Donald Trump in a quote tweet of a Twitter moment stating that the FDA is revoking hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for COVID-19 treatment, as they are “unlikely to be effective”)

August 22

“The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!”

August 23

The President claims that ballot drop boxes are a “voter security disaster” and a “big fraud,” “possible for a person to vote multiple times” and that they aren’t “Covid sanitized.”

August 26

U.S. death toll passes 180,000

August 31

"We've done a great job in Covid but we don't get the credit."

August 31

Six million Americans have now been infected by the coronavirus.

September 4

There will be a vaccine “before the end of the year and maybe even before Nov. 1. I think we can probably have it sometime in October.”

September 9

U.S. death toll passes 190,000

September 10

“I really do believe that we are rounding the corner. The vaccines are right there”

September 10

“This is nobody's fault but China.”

September 10

“We've possibly done the best job”

September 10

“We have rounded the final turn”

September 10

“I think that we've probably done the best job of any country”

September 14

Trump, was asked if he is afraid of Coronavirus risk at his rallies: “I’m on a stage, it’s very far away, so I’m not at all concerned.”

September 16

“If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.”

September 16

Reporter: “[The head of the CDC] said that the vaccine for the general public wouldn’t be available until next Summer or maybe even early fall. Are you comfortable with that timeline?” Trump: “I think he made a mistake when he said that. That’s just incorrect information.”

September 19

U.S. death toll passes 200,000

September 21

“Take your hat off to the young because they have a hell of an immune system. But [the virus] affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing. By the way, open your schools everybody, open your schools.”

September 21

"We're rounding the corner," "With or without a vaccine. They hate when I say that but that's the way it is. ... We've done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job, a phenomenal job. Other than public relations, but that's because I have fake news. On public relations, I give myself a D. On the job itself, we take an A+."

September 21

"In some states, thousands of people — nobody young. Below the age of 18, like, nobody. They have a strong immune system, who knows? Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtually nobody. It’s an amazing thing.”

September 23

"I think we’re rounding the turn very much."

September 28

"And I say, and I’ll say it all the time: We’re rounding the corner.  And, very importantly, vaccines are coming, but we’re rounding the corner regardless.  But vaccines are coming, and they’re coming fast. "

September 29

"Well, so far we have had no problem whatsoever. " (referring to crowds of thousands at rallies)

 

"I don’t wear a mask like him. Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen."

October 2

Trump and First Lady test positive for Coronavirus. Also, more than a dozen White House staff and aides tested positive.

October 5

U.S. death toll passes 210,000

October 5

“Don’t be afraid of Covid.”

October 6

"Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu, Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!" - Trump post, taken down by Facebook and Twitter

October 10

"But it’s going to disappear; it is disappearing."

October 11

"...We have done a “phenomenal” job, according to certain governors. Many people agree...And now come the Vaccines & Cures, long ahead of projections!"

October 12

"Under my leadership, we're delivering a safe vaccine and a rapid recovery like nobody can even believe. And if you look at our upward path, no country in the world has recovered the way we've recovered economically or otherwise, not even close."

October 12

“I went through it. Now, they say I'm immune. I can feel—I feel so powerful.”

October 12

“When this first came out, if we didn't do a good job, they predicted 2.2 million people would die, we're 210,000. We shouldn't be at, one, it's China's fault. They allowed this to happen.”

October 15

“Excess mortality, we’re a winner on the excess mortality. And what we’ve done has been amazing. And we have done an amazing job. And it’s rounding the corner and we have the vaccines coming, and we have the therapies coming.”

October 18

[On Biden] "He'll listen to the scientists... If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression instead — we’re like a rocket ship. Take a look at the numbers."

October 19

U.S. death toll passes 220,000

October 19

"People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots...Fauci is a nice guy. He’s been here for 500 years."

October 19

"They are getting tired of the pandemic, aren't they? You turn on CNN, that's all they cover. 'Covid, Covid, Pandemic, Covid, Covid.' You know why? They're trying to talk everybody out of voting. People aren't buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards."

October 20

Politico reports that The White House is considering slashing millions of dollars for coronavirus relief, HIV treatment, screenings for newborns and other programs in Democratic-led cities that President Donald Trump has deemed “anarchist jurisdictions.”

October 22

"We are rounding the turn (on coronavirus). We are rounding the corner.”

October 24

“Turn on television: ‘covid, covid, covid, covid, covid.’ A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don’t talk about it — ‘covid, covid, covid, covid,’ “By the way, on November 4th, you won’t hear about it anymore.”

October 26

"Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST. A Fake News Media Conspiracy. Many young people who heal very fast. 99.9%. Corrupt Media conspiracy at all time high. On November 4th., topic will totally change. VOTE!" 

October 26

"We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the Election. COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them, in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers. Should be an election law violation!"

October 27

"So they brought it down now, immunity, from life to four months. And you know now with them, you can’t watch anything else. You turn on… COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID. Well, we have a spike in cases. You ever notice, they don’t use the word death. They use the word cases, cases. Like, “Barron Trump is a case.” He has sniffles. He was sniffling. One Kleenex, that’s all he needed. One, and he was better. But he’s a case"

October 27

"November 4th. On November 4th, you’ll hear, “It’s getting better. It’s getting better.” You watch. No, no, they’re doing heavy COVID because they want to scare people, and people get it."

October 28

"Covid, Covid, Covid is the unified chant of the Fake News Lamestream Media. They will talk about nothing else until November 4th., when the Election will be (hopefully!) over. Then the talk will be how low the death rate is, plenty of hospital rooms, & many tests of young people."

October 30

"More Testing equals more Cases. We have best testing. Deaths WAY DOWN. Hospitals have great additional capacity! Doing much better than Europe. Therapeutics working!"

October 30

Nine million Americans have now been infected by the coronavirus.

October 30

“Our doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid,” and so “when in doubt choose Covid.”

November 1

U.S. death toll passes 230,000

November 1

“Biden wants to LOCKDOWN our Country, maybe for years. Crazy! There will be NO LOCKDOWNS. The great American Comeback is underway!!!”

November 2

“Joe Biden is promising to delay the vaccine and turn America into a prison state—locking you in your home while letting far-left rioters roam free. The Biden Lockdown will mean no school, no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgiving, no Christmas, no Fourth of July”

November 2

“We have more Cases because we have more Testing!”

November 9

“If Joe Biden were President, you wouldn’t have the Vaccine for another four years, nor would the @US_FDA have ever approved it so quickly. The bureaucracy would have destroyed millions of lives”

November 10

U.S. death toll passes 240,000

November 11

U.S. hits record 140,000 COVID-19 cases per day

November 11

Texas hits 1 million COVID-19 cases

Source: https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/blog-posts/timeline-trump-s-coronavirus-responses