COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 08/05/2020
Jon Allsop
ON TUESDAY, during a visit to a face-mask factory in Phoenix, President Trump told reporters that he was planning to wind down his coronavirus task force. “We’ve flattened the curve and countless American lives have been saved,” he said. “Our country is now in the next stage of the battle—a very safe, phased, and gradual reopening.” In many quarters, including the mainstream media, his comment was met with concern, since COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, remains widespread. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that the task force will continue “indefinitely.” Headlines described that as a “reversal,” but Trump still plans to refocus the task force’s work around reopening the economy. Trump may not be disbanding the task force, but he appears to be sidelining it; as the Washington Post’s Toluse Olorunnipa wrote yesterday, the group is meeting less often, and its public-facing role has been “curtailed.”