Daniel DePetris

Trump’s coronavirus tonic is borrowed from Obama’s economic rescue plan

Coronavirus is having a disastrous effect on the economy and whether Donald Trump likes it or not, the United States is no exception. While the Dow Jones recovered from its 3,000-point drop on Monday with a 1,000-pound rebound yesterday, it’s not alarmist to say that Americans could be entering into a recession. 

After initially burying his head in the sand about the impact Covid-19 could have, the president is finally waking up to this new reality. Trump certainly admitted as much earlier this week, when he conceded that what he called the ‘invisible enemy’ could do untold damage to America’s economy. For Trump, this is particularly bad news. Such a financial decline – whether it is his fault or not – would hurt Trump politically as much as it hurts the working man and woman in their wallets. No politician in Washington wants economic contraction while they’re in office, especially a president prone to outbursts, obsessed with his self-image, and weeks away from formally kicking off his re-election campaign.

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Daniel DePetris

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities, a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune and a foreign affairs writer for Newsweek.

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