NPR proves Trump's 'inconsistency' on COVID-19 with a timeline

"The constant is the inconsistency" — that's how U.S. media outlet National Public Radio (NPR) described President Donald Trump's remarks and actions in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in an article, titled "Timeline: What Trump Has Said And Done About The Coronavirus," on Tuesday.

NPR, an independent, non-profit media organization in the U.S., said that sometimes Trump has been in sync with the public health experts and his administration, but often he has "undercut or even contradicted" them.

"Trump has gone from downplaying the risk early on, to overselling the availability of test kits, to encouraging strict social distancing measures, to questioning whether those measures were causing too much economic and emotional pain," the article pointed out.

To further prove the point, the article drew a timeline starting from December 31 last year to April 16 this year with three columns — "happening elsewhere," "administration remarks," and "administration actions."

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a list of coronavirus testing locations that he says U.S. states can use as he addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 20, 2020. /Reuters

The timeline demonstrates the "consistency" clearly.

For instance, on January 22, Trump said he wasn't worried about a pandemic in an interview with CNBC when asked about the first diagnosed U.S. case. "We have it totally under control. It's going to be just fine."

However, 10 days later the president was seen in a different attitude. "We have to be very, very careful with, right? We have to be very careful," Trump said at a campaign rally in Des Moines.

On April 4, Trump completely changed his stance, saying "There'll be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn't done. But there will be death."

U.S. President Donald Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci during the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, April 5, 2020. /Reuters

Trump has also accused China and the World Health Organization of mishandling the pandemic, but the accusation was rejected with two other timelines.

The World Health Organization on April 8 made public a timeline of its fight against COVID-19 following an accusation by Trump that it was too slow to sound the alarm about the novel coronavirus.

China also released a timeline of response to the novel coronavirus disease on April 6, which is based on media reports and information from the National Health Commission (NHC), scientific research institutions and other departments.

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COVID-19 Timeline: Dates don't deceive