Trump Demands Removal Of Ad That Criticizes His Coronavirus Response

Topline: A lawyer for President Trump’s campaign issued a cease-and-desist letter on Wednesday to a Democratic Super PAC, Priorities USA, demanding that it stop running an ad criticizing his response to the coronavirus.

• The advertisement stitches together various quotes from the president, including one where he states, “This is their new hoax,” seemingly in reference to the COVID-19 virus itself.
• The Trump campaign’s attorney, Alex Cannon, says the remarks were taken out of context, and that Trump “was referring to the Democrat’s politicization of the coronavirus outbreak when he used the word ‘hoax.’” 
• According to Snopes, Trump has not disputed the existence of the coronavirus—affirming his campaign’s statement—though he has downplayed its severity, often to the extreme dismay of public health officials. 
• On January 22, 2020, for instance, he stated that the U.S. had the virus “totally under control,” even as officials were failing to test citizens for the virus at an adequate pace. Since then infection rates have skyrocketed.
• Priorities USA chairman Guy Cecil said in a tweet that, “We will not let the Trump campaign intimidate us from telling the truth.” The PAC plans to run the advertisement in Arizona beginning this Saturday.

Key background: A political fight is breaking out in Washington over how the Trump administration should weigh the economy against the public’s health. Pandemic experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, say Americans should prepare for six weeks of self-isolation or longer. Trump, on the other hand, has stated that he hopes to resume economic activity by Easter, in a bid to keep the economy from further collapsing. To that end, Congress appears poised to pass a $2 trillion economic stimulus; the bill cleared the Senate on Wednesday night. 

In the months to come, there will inevitably be an information war on social media and television over whether the Trump administration should be credited or excoriated for its response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Additional background: Priorities USA previously supported Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and will likely offer support to Joe Biden in 2020. Its donors include film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg ($100,000 contributed in February 2020), Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw ($1,000,000 between them in December) and billionaire Jonathan Tisch ($100,000 in November).

Additional reporting by Michela Tindera.