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Brexit, Coronavirus, and a Teleprompter I

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I'm still collecting my thoughts about President Trump's speech from the Oval Office on March 11 with regard to coronavirus.

The whole point of speaking from the Oval Office is that a President gets a solemn backdrop -- like a captain on the bridge, or a King in his 'throne room.'

The throne room is only rarely used for this purpose, and the rarity of course helps underline the importance of the pronouncements made in this way.

On March 11th, though, Trump went off the rails.

VOX has the full text:

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/11/21176001/trump-coronavirus-speech-travel-ban-transcript

The key conceit of the speech is that the US under Trump's wise leadership had shut the virus out on the western flank, by limiting immigration from China, and that it would now simply have to perform the same magic on our eastern flank, limiting immigration from Europe. Here's the key bit.

"To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight.
"These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing. These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom."
This was all lunacy and quickly came unraveled. Within minutes, the White House press office was clarifying that the Orange Dynast hadn't meant  "cargo" when he clearly said "cargo." Cargo would continue to move, only people doing anything other than accompanying cargo would be affected.  My first impression from this, though, was that the Prez had cut a deal with Boris Johnson. If he HAD meant what he said, then the natural response of a French business trying to sell champagne in the US would be for it to ship the champagne to a middleman in the UK, which would not be affected and would ship it on to the US. The middleman would take a cut of the proceeds, the UK Treasury would take a cut of that.  So Johnson gets a favor from Trump, and Trump gets a draft choice to be named later. 
I was giving Trump way too much credit when that thought crossed by head. He had nothing so coherent in mind. More tomorrow. 
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