This week the coronavirus consumed the country  and the world, as it spread from continent to continent. Trump’s  strategy in recent weeks of ignoring and minimizing the virus’ import  became untenable as his precious stock market plummeted, and country by  country news spread of deaths and disruptions. The global stock markets  have lost $6 trillion in value from the outbreak, while the Dow Jones  Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 12% and 11% this  week alone, the worst fall since the recession of 2008.

Trump held an impromptu news conference  Wednesday, where he openly contradicted the experts by his side. He  spent the week blaming the market’s plunge on the media, the Democrats,  and even the Federal Reserve. Trump’s firing of the U.S. pandemic  response team, and cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and  Prevention’s budget and focus, left the country flat-footed and  ill-prepared.

As the week came to a close, the first American  died from the coronavirus, and shortly after the news was publicly  reported, Trump held his second news conference on Saturday afternoon,  appearing somber and disoriented. Negative global economic news  continued to come up, suggesting the stock market’s turmoil was far from  over — and Trump, who has centered his re-election around the stock  market price, started to see polling suggesting trouble.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-172/