Now Who's in Charge Here?!?" and for a moment I thought I was watching a movie trailer for The Office. He continued: "We had a meeting and we said 'We need to take this seriously. We need to work to prevent it from spreading."' Yes, I did indeed realize I was witnessing a meeting in which somebody would explain what measures would be taken to halt the spread of this virus. Yes, he continued. But that's about it. No other information. No other suggestions for prevention. Nothing, not even an acknowledgment that it had just spread into our great, great country. Not a single piece of information. "We'll be taking steps soon, but we need to get to the bottom of the outbreak," said Trump, without naming which country or countries this might involve. The meeting is about "weapons" Yes, we're going to have a meeting on "weapons." At least, that's what I read about the meeting based on the following tweet from Reuters' Jim Bourg: Trump said he had been briefed by VP Mike Pence on the virus and that the outbreak was “very much under control.” — Jim Bourg (@jimbourg) February 26, 2020 If this is a joke, it's not very funny, and not funny at all, and it's definitely not funny that this is apparently how Trump is preparing the nation for a national emergency situation. The fact is that we still don't know much about what this virus actually is. We know it killed one person in Washington and that it can spread from person to person. What we don't know is how lethal it actually is, and if those who have been diagnosed with the virus are even being treated. So no, we're not ready for this. Not at all. We also have no idea how the virus is transmitted. We're not in the middle of a flu season. How likely is it that this virus would mutate so it could spread from person to person? How many people might it be spreading from to begin with? So yes, this is a real possibility. "We will be successful if we work together. There is no such thing as a global pandemic," Trump assured us, and we were left to just hope that he was right. We'll be getting our coronavirus update from a Republican. The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan reports: "The White House said President Trump is in discussions with leading Senate Republicans about a bipartisan stimulus package in the wake of a rapid coronavirus spread, as the first known American death from the virus was confirmed in the United States on Sunday." If this is a joke, Trump didn't think it was. So as of Monday night, the Trump administration is in discussions about taking concrete steps to respond to a potential virus outbreak, thanks to the death of a single person in the United States. This would have been a good time for the White House to actually be discussing an appropriate response to a potential outbreak, given that we have no idea what the virus is, or how deadly it is, or what steps we should take to curb it. But instead, the entire country is being given false hope that Trump's administration is actually capable of doing anything about a virus, especially in the wake of the global economy being crushed by COVID-19. Trump is so worried about a recession that he's considering injecting "stimulus" into the financial markets There's a massive, ongoing trade war with China. China is a huge, important ally of the United States. People are worried. And as a result, the Trump administration is seriously worried that all that can go wrong, will go wrong. The Financial Times reports: "U.S. Treasury officials met on Sunday with key bankers and investors to discuss steps to shore up the market after last week’s tumble, as President Donald Trump considers injecting cash into the economy, according to people familiar with the matter." Let's be clear, we've had an economic meltdown because of the coronavirus. Every single day we hear of another mass-market retailer (or two or three) announcing layoffs, because customers are not visiting their stores. We hear of other retailers like Sam's Club going out of business. Then we have stories of companies with hundreds of stores going out of business. We've had entire industries such as tourism that were on the brink go down the tubes. Even with the help of the Federal Reserve, the Fed's emergency rate cut is not going to be enough to get through the month. Yes, a quarter of a percentage point cut is going to provide a massive jolt to the economy, temporarily making debt more affordable. But even so, the entire world is in trouble right now. Which means the U.S. economy, and our economy, are going to be in trouble, too. We're seeing record rates of unemployment, especially for people of color, in a country that has a high unemployment rate already. We're seeing a loss of jobs that have not been lost due to the COVID-19 virus (although some have). It's now or never, we're told, in a matter of speaking. This isn't your garden variety recession, either, this is a global recession. A huge part of the problem is the way in which Trump made trade war with China, and the way in which he mishandled it. We've talked about it many times, and we've talked about it at The Hill. The president thought that his trade policies would pay off. Well, here we are. But Trump's trade war with China will likely cause the U.S. economy to contract, no matter what the results of this coronavirus outbreak. I'm glad that Trump's administration is talking about an economic stimulus package. But I just hope that the man at the helm isn't too focused on a stimulus package that includes paying off debts that were issued with "easy money" from the Federal Reserve. We could have a stimulus package on its way, but that doesn't mean we're in a good spot. Yes, this is scary. I'm not exactly sure how Trump is going to inject stimulus into an economy that needs it, given the way he's mishandled trade with China. No matter how this plays out, we're in for some hard times. And I can't imagine how Trump would have the nerve to sit down at the negotiating table with his Chinese counterparts, when we're living in the midst of the largest crisis since 9/11. Trump is an absolute disaster. This is a perfect example. And when I have kids who say they want to be like Trump one day... I cannot help but laugh. He's the worst of them all. What a jerk. The media also isn't helping us This is absolutely, definitely, positively going to be the end of Trump's presidency. There's no question about it. It's not just Democrats or liberals who see how unhinged he's become. You would not find an example of a more vile jerk than this president. He's just that terrible. I'm willing to bet he even laughs when his people tell him that the president of Italy is calling him a liar. If anything, this is just another data point in the fact that Trump is a sick, disgusting, evil man. This is just one more example. "Donald Trump told Fox News' John Roberts in an exclusive interview that 'when somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that's the way it's got to be.' Then he went on to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus and play into conspiracy theories." He just kept on on Monday. There's more, from The Daily Beast's Will Sommer: "It will have a ripple effect through the entire economy," Trump said on Tuesday, as he and [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin were supposed to travel to New York for a major economic conference at the same time as he was talking to reporters about a disease with no known cure."Trump seemed to imply that the current crisis should serve as a reason to reopen businesses nationwide, after they have been shuttered by states throughout the