COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

St. Widge said

I don't even think Trump actually wants to rush to open up. The phased guidelines that he issued and touted aren't that and it's clear that most states haven't even reached those phases. But, he's a politician. He wants to have his cake and eat it to so he issues reasonable guidelines and then makes Tweets in support of radical protesters (who form a good chunk of his base voters) while never actually doing anything to support those protesters.

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Yup. This is what a lot of people are missing. He's playing both sides, which he is pretty good at. He isn't rushing to open anything anytime soon.

Abbott is doing the same thing here. He's got low-information people like this new guy on this thread thinking that he's a Republican patriot and is opening up the state omglol! All he's doing in phase 1 is allowing non-essential retail to open for curbside service, and opening state parks and a few other things. No restaurants, no bars, no schools, no public gatherings, etc. Phase 2 is TBD somewhere down the line - left intentionally vague. Nothing is really changing here.

Back to Trump, his administration continues to mostly put out guidance to keep things shut down, whilst he writes nebulous "LIBERATE MICHIGAN" tweets that do nothing except get morons to think he's on their side, all while his government is basically saying "keep most stuff shut down".

The way he is playing this is one of the very, very few times I've been impressed by Trump. He's playing it really well.