In the age of the Trump White House experts and elites are out, Facebook via your sister-in-law’s dad is in. President Donald Trump told his own son-in-law, Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner, to figure out solutions to fix the coronavirus pandemic that is is expected to infect possibly 70 million to 150 million people across the nation while rapidly ruining his chances for re-election.
Rather than convene a group of experts in the White House or via video conference Kushner turned to his sister-in-law, model Karlie Kloss, whose father is an emergency room doctor.
“Kurt Kloss asked a doctors’ Facebook group with over 20,000 members for tips,” the UK-based conservative website Spectator USA reports. (Curiously, Spectator filed the article under “Liberalism.”)
On Wednesday Politico had reported Trump is mulling declaring a national emergency over coronavirus, which would unleash tens of billions of dollars in funds to help state and local governments deal with the pandemic. Trump does not want to declare a national emergency fearing it “could hamper his narrative that the coronavirus is similar to the seasonal flu and could further agitate Wall Street.”
So Trump turned to Jared.
“Trump’s aides will not give the president a final verdict until Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, talks to relevant parties and presents his findings to the president.”
It turns out those “relevant parties” is Kurt Kloss’ Facebook group.
“If you were in charge of Federal response to the Pandemic what would your recommendation be,” Kloss wrote in the private group Wednesday, according to screenshots passed to The Spectator. “Please only serious responses. I have direct channel to person now in charge at White House and have been asked for recommendations. I have already expressed concern for need for ventilators and more PPE (personal protective equipment) for frontline and test kits.”
The Spectator published screenshots of some of the responses.
Related: Trump Will Declare National Emergency Over Coronavirus at News Conference Friday Afternoon
Responses on social media have been mixed, with one reporter saying it sounds helpful but it’s “just bizarre that someone at the highest level of government is crowd sourcing at this moment.”