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Post by Admin on Apr 21, 2020 22:46:57 GMT
Donald Trump has been accused of “xenophobic scapegoating” after announcing he will order a temporary ban on immigration into the US to combat the coronavirus pandemic. There were no other details on the timing, scope or legal basis of the president’s proposed executive order and no official policy statement from the White House. Instead there was a lone tweet issued by Trump at 10.06pm on Monday. Without warning, he wrote: “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy” – a phrase he commonly applies to Covid-19 – “as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” The post generated instant uncertainty. Similar moves by Trump in the past have triggered mayhem at airports in America and beyond as well as legal challenges. Such an order would be a far-reaching use of executive power from a president who last week claimed he had “total” authority over states’ efforts to reopen their economies.
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Post by Admin on Apr 22, 2020 23:05:19 GMT
President Donald Trump has said he will halt applications of foreign nationals seeking permanent residence in the US because of the coronavirus crisis.
A day after he announced the move in an ambiguous tweet, Mr Trump said the measure would protect American jobs.
It is not clear how effective it will be as most visa services have already been suspended because of the outbreak.
Critics say he is trying to distract attention away from his response to the virus. The US has nearly 45,000 deaths.
Democrats also accuse the administration of using the pandemic to crack down on immigration. The issue has traditionally been a strong campaigning theme for Mr Trump, a Republican, but has taken a back seat during the crisis and in the lead-up to the November election.
At a White House coronavirus briefing, Mr Trump said the ban could be extended "much longer" depending on how the economy was doing, he said.
After vowing to suspend "all immigration" to the US on Monday night, Mr Trump apparently changed his original plan after a backlash from some business leaders. It would reportedly impact immigrants given temporary working visas, like farm labourers and hi-tech employees.
On Wednesday, the president wrote on Twitter that he would be signing an executive order "prohibiting immigration" later in the day.
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2020 0:59:46 GMT
President Trump responded to a presentation by Bill Bryan from the Department of Homeland security on how to fight COVID-19 by suggesting that injecting the body with disinfectant could serve as treatment. In Bryan’s presentation, he explained isopropyl alcohol can kill the virus in 30 seconds. Aired on 04/23/2020.
President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of an "injection" of disinfectant into a person infected with the coronavirus as a deterrent to the virus during his daily briefing Thursday.
Trump made the remark after Bill Bryan, who leads the Department of Homeland Security's science and technology division, gave a presentation on research his team has conducted that shows that the virus doesn't live as long in warmer and more humid temperatures. Bryan said, "The virus dies quickest in sunlight," leaving Trump to wonder whether you could bring the light "inside the body."
"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just a very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked because of the testing," Trump said, speaking to Bryan during the briefing. "And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that, too."
He added: "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."
The president has repeatedly touted unproven treatments during the daily briefings on COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus. For instance, he has touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential "game changer," but health officials have strongly cautioned against it.
An Arizona man died in late March after having ingested chloroquine phosphate — believing it would protect him from becoming infected with the coronavirus. The man's wife told NBC News that she had watched televised briefings during which Trump talked about the potential benefits of chloroquine.
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Post by Admin on Apr 24, 2020 18:35:57 GMT
Just when we thought President Donald Trump might be inclined to tamp down his impulses to suggest unproven and dangerous cures for Covid-19, Thursday's nightly performance brought an even wilder parade of ideas from the President. Perhaps we should consider injecting disinfectants, Trump posited, prompting the maker of Lysol to issue an urgent warning, "under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)."
At the same time, the President is perpetuating this dangerous idea, the doctor responsible for helping to find a solution, a vaccine, says he was removed for challenging the nonsensical ideas of President Donald Trump about hydroxychloroquine. Dr. Rick Bright, head of the vaccine program, says he lost his job for demanding Trump's ideas be subjected to rigorous testing. Bright was dismissed as the director of the US Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and demoted to a role in the National Institutes of Health.
In response to Bright's claim, Trump said that he "never heard of him." "The guy says he was pushed out of a job, maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. You'd have to hear the other side."
Who will be held accountable for this and the mounting number of outrages that have prolonged the crisis and led to more deaths?
"What do you have to lose?" Trump asked Americans during an April 4 news briefing, as he urged anxious viewers to take the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine -- which we now know could lead to more deaths -- for Covid-19.
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Post by Admin on Apr 26, 2020 18:35:14 GMT
After more than a month of near-daily White House coronavirus press briefings, Donald Trump stayed behind closed doors on Saturday after advisers reportedly warned the president that his appearances were hurting his campaign.
Trump himself referenced his absence when he wrote on Twitter that the briefings are “not worth the time & effort”. The president wrote the tweet on Saturday evening, when he would usually be taking the podium to address journalists.
“What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” he wrote. “They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”
In recent weeks Trump has used the briefings to dole out unproven and debunked medical advice, suggesting that things like sunlight and an anti-malaria drug are cures to Covid-19, often causing his own medical experts to try to correct the record.
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