Trump skips G20 pandemic preparedness meeting as US Covid-19 cases surpass 12 million
By for Common
Dreams
Donald Trump golfs at Trump National Golf Club on November 21, 2020
in Sterling, Virginia. Trumpdeclined to attend a meeting during the
virtual G20 summit regarding the coronavirus pandemic, which is surging across
the U.S., and went golfing instead. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
After briefly attending the virtual G20
summit from the White House's Situation Room on Saturday, Donald Trump skipped a meeting with other leaders of the world's 20 largest economies
where the attendees discussed the coronavirus pandemic.
The "Pandemic Preparedness and
Response" meeting included addresses by French President Emanuel Macron
and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but no American government officials were
listed as speakers. Both Macron and Merkel have been leaders in the global call
for a coordinated international response to the coronavirus pandemic, with the
French leader calling on Saturday for
"solidarity" between countries.
As the U.S. allies prepared to discuss
the financing of vaccine collaborations at the two-day G20 summit, Trump retreated to his golf club
in Sterling, Virginia.
In the U.S., Covid-19 cases passed 12 million cases on
Saturday, less than a week after reaching 11 million cases. On Friday, the
country set a new record for new cases recorded in a single day, with more than
198,500 cases confirmed. Deaths are now higher than average in all 50
states and are peaking in 14 states including Maine, Wisconsin, and North
Dakota.
Governors, including Trump's Republican
allies such as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, are attempting to undo the damage done
by the president'sand his political party's widespread dismissal of public
health guidance like mask-wearing and social distancing. Earlier this week,
Reynolds pleaded with Iowans to obey a new mask mandate, which she issued after
months of calling such measures "feel-good" restrictions.
"If Iowans don't buy into this, we
lose," Reynolds said this week.
"The cost in human life will be high."
Despite reports of overwhelmed hospitals in
states including Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, and Nevada, the president has taken
no questions from reporters about the pandemic since most news outlets declared
President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election on November 7.
Instead, the president has been largely
focused on his efforts to prove the election, which Biden won by more than six million votes, was
rigged and that so-called "voter fraud" is behind Biden's victory. On
Saturday, after leaving the G20 summit and before arriving at his golf club,
Trump tweeted about unspecified
"big voter fraud information coming out concerning Georgia," which certified the election results on
Friday after a hand recount confirmed that Biden won the state.
"The president is not only missing
from his post, but he's encouraging a mutiny," Larry Jacobs, director of
the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of
Minnesota, told The
Guardian on Saturday. "There's no precedent in American
history for this kind of deranged behavior."