Donald Trump’s COVID-19 response has failed Michigan. He ignored the science and wished away the deadly pandemic while attacking Michigan leaders who dared to act to save lives. The result has been catastrophic for our state, with over 6,000 dead, an economy in crisis, and Michiganders scared of losing their jobs, their homes, and their life saving health care. It didn’t have to be this bad, but Trump has failed to contain the virus and now Michigan working families are forced to live with the consequences.
“At the convention this week, you’re going to hear Trump spin a fictitious picture of this country that is unrecognizable to most Americans,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes. “But nothing that Trump says can change the fact that his failed leadership has cost Michiganders their jobs and their lives. Donald Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic has left 170,000 people dead and over 10 million without jobs. It didn’t have to be this bad. Joe Biden has led this country through national crises –– including the Great Recession, the auto rescue, and the H1N1 pandemic. Trump’s incompetence got us in this mess, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s leadership is the only way out.”
Trump began the crisis failing to respond, ignoring scientists and downplaying the severity despite repeated warnings from top experts. As the pandemic escalated, he began denying the crisis he caused.
- Instead of acting early and decisively, Trump spent the first weeks of the crisis golfing, fundraising, and partying at Mar-a-Lago.
- Trump claimed coronavirus was “totally under control” in the U.S. and would “go away” in a few months, despite admitting he knew about the severity of the crisis in January.
- Trump ignored clear and early warnings from public health officials, intelligence agencies, the Army, his health secretary, and his top trade adviser.
- Michigan health care workers were forced to treat sick patients without proper PPE. In one hospital alone, over 700 tested positive.
As Michigan officials worked to step into the leadership vacuum he created, Trump berated and belittled them, threatened to withhold funding, and encouraged extremist protests in conflict with his own administration’s guidelines.
- Trump lied about Michigan absentee ballot policies and threatened to withhold funding from the state in the middle of a global pandemic.
- Trump attacked Governor Whitmer for responding to the crisis and tweeted in support of armed protestors at Michigan’s capitol.
Now, because of Trump’s failure to contain COVID, Michigan’s economy is facing long lasting economic damage. Despite the crisis, Trump is refusing to pass a critical stimulus more than three months after House Democrats passed the HEROES Act.
- Months after the crisis began, Michigan’s unemployment rate is still double the 4.3% it was in March.
- As the COVID crisis extends into the sixth month, the economic damage is becoming long lasting as thousands of temporary layoffs become permanent.
- Whole communities, like Evert, are seeing their economic futures collapse.
- In Michigan, 1 in 7 businesses are not confident they will make it through the pandemic.
- Manufacturing jobs have been among the hardest hit industries in Detroit.
Despite the crisis he created, Trump is refusing to pass critical stimulus to extend unemployment benefits and help state and local governments.
- As the damage becomes permanent, Trump allowed unemployment benefits to expire.
- Because of the devastation, Michigan faced a $2.2 billion budget shortfall that forced furloughs and agency cuts as Trump refused to pass aid for state and local governments.
As the school year begins, K-12 schools and universities across the state have been thrown into chaos with little guidance or resources from Trump or Betsy DeVos.
- Michigan State University was forced to go digital and encouraged students to stay away from campus at the last minute due to COVID concerns.
- The closure left students in limbo, with some stuck paying leases for apartments they no longer need.
- K-12 schools are struggling to reopen, and different plans have caused confusion and concern with parents, students, and teachers.
- DeVos and Trump have insisted on schools reopening, despite little guidance or extra resources from the federal government.
Even during the pandemic, Trump continues to attack the ACA, and the crisis he caused will cause even more Michiganders to lose their health care if successful.
- Trump’s administration argued the ACA must “fall” in court this June, months into the pandemic.
- Because of the job losses forced by his failures, even more Michiganders could be stripped of their health care. Now, 827,000 would lose their insurance, 107,000 more than before the pandemic.
Bottom line: it didn’t have to be this bad.Data shows other countries have contained the virus, saved lives, and have not seen the economic fallout our country is experiencing. The difference is Donald Trump and his failed leadership. Because of his failure to contain COVID, Michigan’s economy is in crisis, schools have been forced into chaos, and hundreds of thousands of Michiganders have their health care threatened.
