Communication of the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic
The Donald Trump administration communicated in various ways during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, including via social media, interviews, and press conferences with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Opinion polling conducted in mid-April 2020 indicated that less than half of Americans trusted health information provided by Trump and that they were more inclined to trust local government officials, state government officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.
President Trump was publicly optimistic through much of the pandemic; at times his optimistic messaging diverged from that of his administration's public health officials. From January to mid-March 2020, Trump downplayed the threat posed by COVID-19 to the United States, as well as the severity of the outbreak. Trump did, however, place restrictions on travel from China on January 31. From February to May, Trump continually asserted that COVID-19 would "go away". The CDC waited until February 25 to first warn the American public to prepare for a local outbreak of the virus. In March 2020, the administration began conducting daily press briefings at the White House, where Trump was the dominant speaker.
Trump repeatedly made false statements regarding the pandemic. He took messaging advice from Fox News hosts like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs, both of whom he dialed into Oval Office meetings. Trump exaggerated the impact of measures taken by his government and the private sector, understated the projected time to produce a vaccine, recommended uncontrolled transmission in pursuit of herd immunity until a vaccine was developed, and promoted unapproved treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. In such instances, scientists including Anthony Fauci, Michael Osterholm, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (director-general of the World Health Organization) publicly countered his message with correct information. Trump also frequently reversed his stances in his communication, leading to mixed or contradictory messaging. He sometimes denied his own public statements.
Trump repeatedly blamed others for the severity of the outbreak. The most frequent targets of his criticism were Democrats, followed by the media, state governors, and China (where the virus originated). Trump went from praising China in January regarding their transparency in response to the Chinese outbreak, to criticizing China in March for a lack of transparency, to criticizing the World Health Organization in April for praising China's transparency.
In October 2020, Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19. The outbreak affected many people affiliated with the White House, including his wife Melania Trump, former Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway, and Presidential Counselor Hope Hicks.